possibly living in a world where america is not setting the rules but our adversaries, the chinese and russians and iranians are setting the rules. that is not the world anyone wants to live and so it's very important to make sure that we maintain america's global engagement and that we consider the cost of inaction. we consider the cost of having to go back in two situations where we - smacked this briefing is available on c-span .org and we will cover it online the readings from the senate report begin and democrat leaders getting underway shortly. we take you back right now to the senate floor where they return for debate and vote later on nominations. alcoholic fathe. she married a physically abusive alcoholic husband who she divorced when i was born. at that time divorce was frowned upon. my birth father never gave my mom, my older brother or me a dime.

i never met him. my mom eventually married the man who became my adoptive father. a bus driver who made all four combat jumps with the 82nd airborne in world war ii. this summer i had the opportunity to go to the d-day an versey in normandy and looked at the area where he parachuted into where 17% of his company died. he was a loving father but with only a sixth grade education and five children, he struggled to support our family. we had no money and lived in public housing. but even with all those issues, i cannot think of a better childhood. even with no money, my mom was optimistic and hopeful. she told us we were blessed because god and our founders created the greatest country ever. where anything was possible. i'm not sure my mom ever really had a plan for us. but she certainly knew what she

was doing. we sat through many sermons and church was not optional. we were told we had to make straight a's. we memorized the first part of the declaration of independence and the 23rd psalm. we became eagle scouts, cleaned the house, had to have a job. i started working at 7 years old and haven't stopped since. we weren't allowed to complain. debt, big government, socialism, and communism were bad. college was for a better-paying job. we were constantly lectured about the dangers of drug abuse. unfortunately drugs have destroyed the life of one of my family members. i enlisted in the u.s. navy at 18 where i swabbed the decks, cleaned the latrines, served and took college courses during the last year's vietnam but never close to vietnam. i married my high school

sweetheart at 19 and today anne and i have two daughters, six very perfect grandsons, and a seventh very perfect grandchild on the way next year. my wonderful wife anne is here today and has been by my side every step of our journey. while i didn't always appreciate my tough love, my way or the highway mom growing up, i now thank god every day for my mom and for this country. she gave me the opportunity to experience every lesson this country had to offer before i was 20. unfortunately, the left has worked hard over the last 50 years to destroy the values of the america i was raised with, the values of the america i want my grandsons to grow up with. we all acknowledge that americans, our country, and our institutions have flaws. but the left has worked to discredit our founders, our institutions, our churches, our

law enforcement, our morals, and almost everything my mom taught me. it's been happening for a long time. the left railed against our soldiers during the vietnam war. they called those still believing in a supreme being or the commitment of marriage uninformed and old fashioned. they're now openly saying the churches that hold traditional values should lose their tax exempt status. the left doesn't care about our enormous debt, pushes for socialism, and criticizes the boy scouts. the left thinks it's okay that our schools don't teach about the founding fathers or free markets. they want you to think that america was never great and to a degree, the pressure from the left is working. americans under 30 are less interested in joining the military. church attendance is at an

all-time low. participation in the boy scouts even after allowing girls in has shrunk. and many are choosing not to have families. and socialism, the single most discredited idea of the last century, an idea that led -- has led millions into poverty and tyranny around the globe has gained a foothold in one of our two political parties. i spent most of my life in business. the values that my tough love mom instilled into me helped me achieve the success she is expected, not just hoped for but expected for me. i was able to live the american dream because i worked hard. i lived out the values of my mom -- that my mom taught me in my business career, hard work and fiscal responsibility. but with a caring spirit to those who support and around me. i built a health care company that had lower costs and better

quality of care than my competitors. we had the highest patient satisfaction surveys in the industry. i built and bought businesses for most of my life that helped hundreds of thousands of people get good high-paying jobs. many of them were failing. businesses that we had to turn around to save jobs. my experience growing newspaper a family that struggled to get good jobs influenced everything i've done in my life. it's not easy and it shouldn't be. but everyone, every single american should have the opportunity to struggle, work hard, and overcome the obstacles. i took those exact same values to the governor's office when i was elected in 2010. florida had been struggling. 832,000 jobs had been lost in four years before i took office. hope prices cut in half. debt was soaring.

the state raised taxes on its poorest citizens by more than $2 billion to fill a budget hole. i always think about my mom. i think about how it impacted her when food prices went up, taxes went up, when my brother got sick without health insurance, when my dad was laid off. i became the jobs governor. it wasn't a political talking point. it was about real people. i've traveled around the state highlighting new businesses that opened in florida, even small businesses. i remember a local legislator asked me once why i wasted my time going to a small town in florida to highlight a new business opening with just 30 new jobs. my response was that my dad struggled to find any job, and that's 30 families that have the opportunity to live the american dream. and what could be more

important. in eight years florida added 1.7 million new jobs. we paid down almost one-third of state debt. and invested record funding in education, the environment, and transportation. i also tried to fight for the values that are being lost in this country. i fight to protect life, to support the institution of the family, to lift up our military members, veterans, and law enforcement, to promote capitalism and defend the rule of law and the constitution. these values are under attack from the left and have been for quite some time. there is no easy solution to that problem, but one thing is clear. government is not the solution. washington is not the solution. in my short time in the u.s. senate, i promoted policies that i believe support the idea of a america where anything is

possible. we need lower taxes. we need less regulation. we need a secure border. and a sane immigration policy. we need to get health care costs under control. we need to defend freedom and liberty all over the world. but none of this will matter unless we see hearts and minds change. we need a renewal in america of the values that made this country great. that won't happen on the floor of the u.s. senate. it will happen in living rooms, classrooms, in churches, synagogues, and board rooms. we need to remember that hard work is a feature, not a bug of this american experiment, that the family unit is at the center of our society, and the breakdown of the family has been hugely detrimental. we need to remember that capitalism is the greatest force for economic good in the history of the world, and socialism

belongs in the ash heap of history. we need to remember these things because our freedoms and the country can be lost forever. the values that made america great can go away, and there are those among us who want them to go away. this is -- this challenge is much bigger than politics and the solution is not political. it requires us, every one of us, to stand up and fight, to say without reservation or fear that we will not give up on america or the plans of our founders. we will not stop fighting for our future. if we want america to be great in the future, we must reject the politically correct attempts to rewrite our history and we must reject the left-wing attempt to slander the greatness of our ideals. america is in fact the greatest country in the history of the word, and we should not be embarrassed to say so. we should proclaim it proudly.

america is the greatest country in the history of the world. i fear that the values that i agree up with, my ones my tough love mom taught me are becoming a way of the past. but i believe these values, these virtues can and should be part of our country's future. i love it when my grandkids pray before eating, recite the pledge of allegiance, ask to visit military museum, join the boy scouts, thank police officers and soldiers for their service, and place their hand over their heart when they hear the national anthem. i hope they memorize the declaration of independence and the 23rd psalm, become eagle scouts, have crummy paying teenage jobs with unreasonable bosses, and get benched in sports for not trying hard enough. i also pray they consider a life in military service. one already wants to be a

paratrooper and lucky enough to marry a wonderful person and have enough kids without worrying about paying for college. maybe they'll complain about demanding teachers and bosses not caring what they think. maybe they will complain about screaming drill sergeant, difficult degrees, restricted banks, and life not being their. if so i will smile and say that's great. america is back. then i will know my grandsons have the opportunity to do something worthwhile with their lives like build a loving family, successful career, thriving community, better country, and better world. in the meantime i'll keep fighting. i ran for public office to fight for the country i was raised in because that is the country our children and our grandchildren deserve. they deserve what my mom gave me, a free country with unlimited potential for every

citizen. i hope everyone will join me in this fight. mr. president, i yield the floor. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. manchin: are we in a quorum call? i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. manchin: mr. president, fellow west virginians, i rise today in strong support in nomination of frank w. volk to be u.s. district court judge for the southern district of west virginia. i want to thank my colleagues in the senate for putting partisanship aside and recognizing the importance of confirming qualified judges to our federal court. frank volk's cloture vote earlier today cleared this body by a 90-0 vote without a single dissenting vote. let me repeat that. 90-0. how many times have we seen that happen in this body? that's a testament to judge volk's judicial experience and stellar record and his qualifications to become a u.s. district court judge. i would also like to acknowledge frank's work in west virginia as a tireless public servant to

both our state and the nation. he has conveyed time and time again his love and desire to serve our nation and particularly our great state of west virginia. he has served with honor throughout his career and is willing to step up again to the plate one more time. he shows the country how west virginians act and serve. i would also like to thank his family, including his wife angie and his two children, garrett and lauren, for their tremendous support of frank and his continuing to work as a public servant. and he is a proud italian american like myself. he is currently the chief judge of the united states bankruptcy court for the southern district of west virginia where he has worked since he was appointed in october of 2015. as a graduate of -- editor in chief of the law review, frank's resume is extremely impressive. he continues to give back to his education. he has taught for almost 15

years. he has taught courses in the federal civil rights, advance torts, bankruptcy, and advanced bankruptcy. it's great to see a fellow mountaineer succeed in their profession, and i look forward to seeing his career continue. he is also authored a number of bankruptcy articles and spoken at national and regional conferences on bankruptcy matters, along with being faculty member for the federal judicial center. judge volk is admitted to practice in the united states court of appeals for the fourth circuit, the united states district court of the southern district of west virginia, and the west virginia bar and the pennsylvania bar. during his career, frank has worked with a number of esteemed judges. fourth circuit -- fourth circuit court of appeals judge m. blaine michael and district judge charles h. hayden, ii, and previously john t. c. open are hager jr. he is a fourth member of the circuit judicial of conference.

he has volunteered service to the bankruptcy institute for many years. he served most recently as the coordinating editor for the a.b.i. journal, focusing on the problems of the code calling. even with all those accolades, frank knows the value of hard work because he is a west virginian through and through, and that's what we do. the federal bench that serves west virginia needs judges who are thoughtful, hard working, and have good judgment. frank fits that role. frank brings such a great level of experience to the bench, and i can safely say that i am pleased that president trump has nominated him to be a u.s. district court judge and the united states district court for the southern district of west virginia. i think we all will be served well by frank's service. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut.

mr. murphy: thank you very much, mr. president. mr. president, the most sacred, the most important, the most profound responsibility that a president of the united states has is to keep americans safe. everything else that we care about, the citizens of this great nation, the best nation on the planet, it matters very little if our physical safety and the physical safety of our families, of our loved ones aren't assured. that's job number one for the president of the united states. now, mr. president, i believe that the president has likely committed offenses that are worthy of impeachment. i think it's likely that information is going to emerge from the house's inquiry that will present republicans with clear evidence that the president's abuse of office has been serious. now, obviously, we need to wait for the articles of impeachment to arrive in the senate, if they do arrive, before any of us decide our vote on revolve, but the publicly stipulated facts already surrounding the president's shadow foreign policy designed not to advance the national interests but his

personal political interests, they are damning. so far, my republican friends have rallied to the president's side, despite public opinion moving pretty quickly against the president and in favor of an inquiry in the house. and so today i want to use my time on the floor to ask just a simple question of my republican colleagues. i want to ask what the costs are to the physical safety of the nation, of continuing to protect the president from the consequences of his misdeeds. because as we gather here in the senate for our fall session, we are watching american national security policy go completely and fully off the rails. our global reputation, our credibility have been shattered to pieces, and no one knows whether they can be reassembled. our nation's defenses have never been weaker. our enemies are gathering strength by the day.

fear of american power is waning. our global system of alliances is falling apart. our friends are turning away from america because we are a demonstrably unreliable partner. and those friends may never come back. right now before our eyes, american power is in freefall, and our nation's safety is at risk. american citizens are looking to this place for leadership for when they lift up the hood, looking for steely-eyed patriots, all they are finding is blind partisans. what's the cost, i ask my colleagues, of letting america slide into global irrelevancy continuance? how many american lives are going to be lost ultimately because we sat on the sidelines and we let american influence fade as our president becomes a toxic commodity, the butt of jokes, an international pariah?

what must it take for this body to put aside partisanship and come together to salvage our shrinking american security. mr. president, i want to take a few moments, a few more than i normally take when i come down to the floor to take my colleagues on a tour of the world right now, just so that everybody understands how dangerous the situation has gotten. to understand just how broad the scope of our foreign policy dysfunction is right now because just maybe, maybe if you see the crisis all in one map, all in one summary, my colleagues might wake up to the magnitude of this emergency. so it's hard to start anywhere, but in the ukraine. the power of the american executive branch has no equal, no individual in the world has more power than donald trump has today. and that power comes with responsibility, comes with

guardrails. the one firm promise that a president must make to those that he governs is to use the powers of the oval office for the national interests, not for his personal or financial interest. but it is now clear beyond a reasonable doubt, after all this testimony, much of it from republicans before the house, that president trump has turned our support for ukraine into a personal poker chip, to be cashed in in order to get ukraine to help him destroy his political rival. this just isn't allowed in a democracy. but the damage done by trump's corruption is far beyond the covenant with the american people. trump has weakened ukraine dramatically by pulling them into this mess and russia is the beneficiary. make no mistake, putin has won for the time-being and those fighting for democracy have lost for the time-being, sold out by

their fair-weather american friends who are more interested in destroying the president's political opponents than supporting ukraine. now, other nations on russia and china's per river reare wondering whether to simply acquiesce to the bullying dominance of their neighbors or put up a fight for independence. they're now less likely to do the latter knowing that the united states is there to help only if their nation fulfills our president's personal requests. the world's eyes this week are down here in syria where the president has engaged in one of the worst, most abominable acts in the history of the american presidency. we convinced the kurdish military to fight isis for us. we convinced them to take down their defenses because we promised to protect them and then out of nowhere, trump stabbed the kurds in the back. he invited by press release the

turkish army to march in and destroy our alive, the kurds, who -- our ally, the kurds, who today has denigrating by saying they are not as good a fighter as they are. the damage is too much to list in one speak. isis detainees are escaped their jail cells are now possibly readying new attacks against the united states. they can plot without fear of interruption because the kurds have end ended their fight against isis. russia, syria and the iranians all grew stronger in syria overnight as we stood down and they will quickly reap the benefits of trump's abandonment of the kurds. it is a nightmare in syria today and it is going to get much worse before it gets better. let's move down to china, where

president-for-life xi has been building a model of totalitarian control. the united states has watched from the sidelines as china not only conducts cultural genocide against its muslim population in its own country but also grows its global clout and exports its model in technology of oppression around the world. china's military continues to gain in strength and push their unlawful territorial claims further in the western pacific. we do virtually nothing. china's beltan rogue initiative. the united states stands on the sidelines under the trump administration. the sum total of our bilateral interactions thus far with china has been a bungled, disastrous, job-killing trade war. it is a trade war that only mi

made sense in trump's campaign speeches but never had the chance to succeed without the help of our partners. every single day trump is losing the trade war badly. our trade deficit with china isn't going down. it is going up. the tariffs on chinese imports could cost middle-income american consumers $1,000 a year and our economy son the way to potentially losing 300,000 jobs because of the trade war. it is an unmitt i think georgiaed economic disaster for our nation and this nightmare, like all the others, seems to be getting worse. all the while china forges ahead to corner the market on next-generation technologies like 5g, drones, leaving america and american companies potentially shut out of these markets. nowhere has china's heavyhanded oppression been more apparent than right here in hong kong, and yet again we have been

totally absent. in hong kong, brave pro-democracy protesters should be seen as america's best friends. chinese people who are risking it everything to fight for basic freedoms in an increasingly totalitarian state. there's no better way to undermine china's unfair trade model than to promote the rights of its consumers and citizens. but trump promised the chinese regime that he would offer no support to the hong kong protesters, an unconscionable promise that he's kept while china runs circles around him on trade talks. staying in asia, let's run right up the road to the most immediate and terrifying existential threat, a nuclear-armed, homicidal dictator with the capacity and willingness to nuke us and our allies in the region in north korea. a lot of ink has been spilled on the pomp and circumstance of

trump's summits and the ongoing love affair that he claims with kim jong-un but what has been the the result besides stroking it trump's ego? nothing. kim continues to fire missiles into the sea of japan. he continues to build up his nuclear stockpile. even the freeze on nuclear long-range missile tests is temporary and the north cairns are warning that they might -- and the north koreans are warning that they might resume that at the end of the year. we abandoned our joint south korean exercises. kim got international recognize nicks and a free pass to keep building his arsenal and make it more deadly while we weakened all of our regional alliances. america and the world are dramatically less safe right now. all over the world, in fact, dictators and would-be dictators are racking up stunning records of human rights abuses right now

because they know that under president trump america will really raise no issue, no protests. so go down here to the philippines, for instance, where there have been 20,000 people who have been vanished in the extra judicial massacres by president duterte. no protest from the united states, as 20,000 have vanished. thousands of political dissidents are being locked up in places like turkey and saudi arabia. they have no one to speak for them because america know doesn't do anything about civil rights or human rights. we've vanished from the human rights playing field. in saudi arabia, in fact, their leadership felt so emboldened by trump's embrace of brutal strongmen that they kidnapped an american resident critical of the saudi regime.

they chopped him to pieces and then they got rid of the body parts. the dots are piling p in the middle east. -- piling up in the middle east. the response from the united states to jamal khashoggi's murder was a visit to riyadh by the american secretary of state for a smile something photo op to make sure that foreign leader in every corner of the world that human rights abuses would be forgiven almost immediate lid by this new american regime. elsewhere in the middle east -- i can just keep on piling up more and more dots -- but elsewhere in the middle east, things are falling apart fast due mostly to the trump administration's incompetence. it started with this nonsensical fracture of relations between saudi arabia and another key u.s. gulf ally, qatar. it was the kind of disruption that frankly would normally be papered over and fixed by a competent u.s. administration, probably in days. but three years later, the two

countries -- saudi arabia and qatar -- still aren't talking, largely because we did nothing to fix it. making matters worse, saudi arabia and their one remaining stable friend from the region, u.a.e., aren't getting along now either. under trump, the war in yemen began to rage out of control. tens of thousands of innocent yemenies died needlessly as trump filed more weapons and bombs into the war and really did nothing try to find a peace agreement between the parties, who for a year have been begging the united states to step in and play our traditional role as mediator. the conflict has raged on for so long due to trump's unwillingness to use america's diplomatic muscle that events on the ground became so chaotic that the saudis and emiratis have now parted ways. now, with the qataris, the yemenis and saudis all on different wavelengths, the

potential between these nations could get much worse all over the middle east. now, in iran -- right next door -- the campaign of blind escalation and provocation has been disastrous. every one of the president's national security advisors told him to stay in the iran nuclear agreement and focus on iran's other malevolent behavior in the region, like their support for terrorist organizations. trump advised all his advisors, like he has received all the rest of the counsel he has received on major foreign policy matters and he canceled the agreement and implemented a series of unilateral sanctions against iran, coordinated with absolutely no one. now, iran, feeling cornered, but also not feeling particularly

vulnerable, given the fact that america couldn't recruit any of our friends to our new anti-iran campaign, they hit back against oil tapings, american drones, saudi pipelines. we now seem on the precipice of a war with iran. we haven't convinced a single nation to help us build new sanctions and there's absolutely no chance that trump is going to secure a better deal than the jcpoa before he leaves office in just over a year. iran is a bigger menace than before he took office. they just scored another victory with the abandonment of the kurds. now, in this very red region of the world right now, the only leader who's been happy with trump's dangerous, non-vietnam

on iran -- non-strategy on iran has been benjamin netanyahu. under trump's watch, the two-state solution in israel, a longtime bipartisan linchpin of american policy in the middle east has effectively fallen apart. trump allowed israel to take steps that make a future palestinian state almost impossible and for three years he's put his son-in-law whose only experience was using his fathers money to buy real estate, in charge of brokering peace between israel and the palestinians. it was a joke, everybody knew it. but since trump was president, everybody had to a long. now there's no peace plan. there was never going to be a peace plan and the chances for one are almost nonexistent after three years of the trump administration. now, down in libya, trump admittedly inherited a pretty

miserable situation, but somehow like everything else he managed to make it worse. the country has been fractured for years, as rival militias with a host of foreign patrons have been fighting a civil war that's created a vacuum that's been filled in by extremists and a migrant crisis that continues to expand. instead of using diplomacy toest go the war parties back to the table, instead trump threw his personal support behind general haftar, endorsing his plan to try to take tpipoli by force. the humanitarian crisis grows by the day. now, one of the consequences of this trump death spiral in libya and the middle east is the that the economic and political refugees continue to flow into europe, which simply isn't politically ready to accept this

rate of inflow. weekend way slashing the number of refugees allowed to the united states to 18,000, we've indicated that we have no interest in helping. just like everything else, trump has made the assimilation of muslim immigrants into europe even harder by serve as a model for racist, xenophobic demagogues who want to bring trump's form of political nativism into europe. nationalist political parties are on the rise all across the west, and trump is absolutely central to their development. he gravitates not towards angela merkel, whose courageous leadership has held the e.u. together through all these crises, but he hughs to victor orban. trump and his nationalist allies justify really bad policies to

labeling journalists and enemies of the state to utah ping kids in cages. right when they try to deploy his playbook, he doesn't stand up and object as the leader of the free world should. he offers wink and a nod, sometimes a warm embrace. trump doesn't stop there in his attempts to undermine european democracy. he's carried out a systematic purposeful campaign to weaken the european union in nato. we've kind of grown used to trump's attacks on globalism but it is still pretty extraordinary that we have a present who doesn't just attack the institutions he loathes like the u.n. or nato, he levels regular broadsides against the entire concept of global cooperation. he sees multilateralism as weakness and is cheer leading of britain out the door of the e.u. and constant attacks on nato, even to the point of wondering out loud whether the united states would actually defend

nato allies, it risks taking down the post world war ii order. that would be a disaster for us if nato fell apart and a gift to countries like china, russia and indian and actors pliek isis. when it comes to our relationship with europe, the paris agreement wasn't even a binding commitment on the united states but trump felt so strongly that climate change was a hoax -- unwind that riddle for me -- that he pulled us out of the agreement in a big, grand festive ceremony at the white house. global climate catastrophe succombing if we don't do anything. -- is coming if we don't do anything. the story of syria of their descent into madness can partially be told through the tale of successive global warming connectivity droughts that forced farmers into cities that weren't ready for population surges. trump's hostility to climate

action is one of his more unforgivable legacies and the next president won't have enough time to make up the ground we lost especially with our european partners. speaking of failure to capitalize opportunity, let's spin the globe back to our hemisphere where according to the script, things couldn't be going much worse. here in the americas, everything that trump has touched thus far has fallen apart and the u.s. is weaker regionally than ever before. trump's nativism, it's his political calling card but his own policies seem to encourage more migration to the united states, not less of it. president trump's decision to cut off foreign assistance to central american countries because they weren't doing enough to stop migration is lunacy. president obama's program of investing in central american security so that less of their citizens feel the need to flee to america, it was beginning to

work, and frum gave it -- trump gave it away to provide fuel to his domestic political agenda. farther south, u.s. venezuela policy is one of the few times that trump's presidency stood up to a dictator. unfortunately because trump doesn't know how to do foreign policy, he botched that intervention too. it's been really embarrassing to watch this administration repeatedly and wrongly claim that the maduro regime is on the verge of collapse. they did it in january when juan guaido swore himself in as president. they did it in february and they did it again in april in the lead up to a military uprising that went nowhere. the white house is regularly engaged in tough talk only to seema diewr row's hold on power

endure. trump played all his cards on this crisis in the first few days and now we're left recognizing the leader of a country who isn't really the leader of that country and probably isn't ever going to be the leader of that country. it's yet another failure that makes us just look weak and foolish. we make a play and then can't back it up. it's hard to be scared of the united states these days when everything we try to do goes wrong. let's move back over to the african continent for a moment. as a candidate, trump repeatedly stoked fears of the ebola epidemic in western africa tweeting the united states must immediately stop all flights from ebola infected countries or the playing will spread inside our borders. this didn't make any sense and it doesn't make sense now. we've known for ages that travel bans aren't actually the best way to deal with an outbreak of disease. but since he's become president, the trump administration has asked congress to rescind $252 million

put aside to deal with the virus. he ousted the n.s.c.'s top biodefense expert and sought to slash funding for global health programs. trump's response to epidemics characterized by barriers, exclusion, defunding of preventive measures, it hurts our ability to control outbreaks that are present today and in the future. finally, denmark. trump managed to even screw up our relationship with denmark which many of us would have thought was impossible. out of an episode of "the simpsons" trump canceled a meeting with denmark's leader because they wouldn't agree to sell us greenland. it sounds funny but it's an example of the small things that happen almost every day in this president's foreign policy. they only get a few days of

media attention. denmark is one of our strongest nato allies. they had one of the highest number of troops fighting alongside of us. they hold the key to the russian gas pipeline that could avoid ukraine dabbling -- damaging their economy and come into europe but now we've managed to make denmark an adversary. i have know it sounds implausible, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. it's a policy massacre everywhere. the world is on fire, and in most places trump is one of the arsonists. and meanwhile, who's benefiting? across the board, america's enemies and our competitors, they are rubbing their hands with delight as we score own goal after own goal. putin, xi, kim, the hard-liners in iran, they could not have scripted a better policy for themselves to gain

power and influence at our expense. i say trump's foreign policy is a global joke, but calling what he does policy is probably unfair. he doesn't really care to take the time to learn about the world. he doesn't read his briefings. he makes it up day by day with his personal political priorities, his jealousies, his headlines addiction guiding his decisions rather than anything connected to our actual national security interests. our foreign policy is in complete utter total meltdown and it's time for all of us to face facts. you can't impeach a president because you disagree with their policy, but this is beyond a policy disagreement. this is a president who has compromised our nation's integrity and our credibility, who has put in jeopardy the safety of our citizens, especially this week as isis breaks out of detainment and looks to regroup to threaten america again in syria.

these kind of things, the perversion of the powers of the presidency, they're not allowed in a democracy, and our refusal to accept this kind of behavior is what separates us from all the tin pot dictatorships around the world. i hope eventually that my republican colleagues see this, but i also want my republican colleagues who spend their time thinking of themselves as bulwarks of national security to see the damage, much of it irreparable, that trump is doing to our position in the world. why continue to offer him this unconditional protection from an impeachment inquiry if the cost of him staying in office is the shattering of our reputation around the world? why continue to defend him if his actions everywhere are calling -- are causing the world to fall apart? and it is falling apart in every part of the globe.

everything that this administration has touched has gotten worse. and here's the scariest part, this president and this administration still has 14 more months to do even more damage. i yield the floor.

mr. lankford: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: mr. president, let me take you back to december 2016. we're all getting ready for christmas. it's a month before president

trump is elected. he won't take his office for another month after that. but in turkey, they're reeling from a coup attempt that happened in october. hundreds of people were killed, chaos. the turkish president, erdogan, overreacted, locking up hundreds of thousands of people, including one of our pastors, pastor andrew brunson, implemented martial law which he kept in place for years after that. rapidly changing the constitution. he's transitioned himself from a president duly elected and operating free democracy to radically changing the direction of the country and its future. a long-term nato ally is going through real turmoil. in october that coup happens and all the transitions occurring. but by december, as i mentioned before, they're rocked again.

december 17, 2016, a bus p was stopped at a red light near a campus in turkey when a car bomb explodes killing members of turkey's military. 13 people were killed, 55 were wounded in that blast. 48 of those killed and wounded were off-duty military personnel, most of them privates and corporals. this same day in another location in a different part of that community, still in turkey, there was a soccer stadium attack that happened. in that attack, 44 people died and more than 150 people were wounded. three days later -- actually two days after that, december 19, 2016, the russian ambassador to turkey was assassinated in ankara while he was giving a public speech.

most americans don't know this because we were getting ready for christmas and we were watching the transition of president obama to president trump, but there was a lot of chaos that was happening in that part of the region at that period of time. i happened to be in turkey when all that was going on, meeting with turkish officials, trying to negotiate for the release of andrew brunson, working towards our ongoing relationship and trying to figure out what direction turkey was going to go, because they have been a long-standing ally to the united states and a nato partner, but they certainly were not acting like it in 2016. and now in 2019 they are certainly not acting like it. the car bombs that i mentioned and the terrorist actions that happened might surprise some americans to know they weren't led by isis fighters fighting in turkey. the innocents that were killed that day were killed by kurdish

terrorists. kurdish folks that had enlisted in the united states listing of official terrorist organizations, a group called the card stan workers party, known as the p.k.k., the abbreviation in that language. the p.k.k. has been listed as a terror organization by the united states for decades. let me give some context because in the course of the dialogue i've heard over the last couple of weeks about the kurds and about the turks, everyone seems to want to oversimplify this issue. everyone wants to say good guys, bad guys, and they're missing the point in the history of what's happened in that region. the kurds have 25 million people in their people group, the fourth-largest people group in the middle east. they live mostly in turkey, iraq, syria, iran, and armenia. they have all different political parties. they have all different

backgrounds. for over a century they've worked to have their own nation. interestingly enough, after world war i and all the changes in the map in world war i, the kurds had been promised their own country, a country of kurdistan because they had been a minority population for a long time in that region. so theyú so they worked for and pressed for their own country during that time period. when the boundaries were drawn at the end of world war i and after being promised their own homeland, instead a larger turkey was drawn and the kurds were listed as a minority group inside offing turkey. they faced -- they are not able to call themselves kurds. instead they are called mountain turks in that area. they are not allowed to to be able to practice their customs. they are pressed in every area and they worked for a long time to say how can we have a free

people's area? for the kurds that live in northern iraq, it's one of the freest areas in all of the middle east. they have freedom of religion, they have a free capitalist economy that's there that's a thriving economy in northern iraq, they have democratically led elections, they have worked with us to be able to have the overthrow of saddam hussein after saddam hussein gassed thousands of turks -- of kurds to death in that kurdish region of iraq. they've been gassed by saddam hussein, forced out of their homes, they've been isolated, and for decades they have worked to have a free country. interestingly enough in 2017, the kurds that are in northern iraq had their own referendum to establish their own place. they took a bold move to say the world will not acknowledge us, we will acknowledge ourselves. and in a bold referendum in

september of 2017, the kurds voted 90% to form their own country out of northern iraq. quickly the iraqi government moved into that zone and squashed them. in the middle of the conflict that we talked about before with isis, isis mowed into -- moved into area in syria and into iraq and pressed in against the kurds to be able to attack them, whan the kurds were not able to do to establish their homeland, isis was determined to be able to establish their own cal fate and their -- caliphate and their homeland by murdering thousands of people. as they moved into the kurdish area, the turks on the other side of the border simply watched the refugees flee across

the border because isis was not killing turks, they were killing kurds and they didn't care. they would handle the refugees as long as isis was doing their bidding in syria. you see, this is a complicated issue for us because there's sections of the kurds that have fought for democracy for decades. many of them doing it exactly the right way, having referendums, organizing, working with u.n. officials, working with the countries around them to democratically establish an area where they would be free to live, worship and function in a capitalistic economy. that's been their desire. but there's been an offshoot of the kurds called the p.k.k. that have for decades carried out car bombs and attacks, many of them in turkey, where hundreds of civilians have been killed. president erdogan, of turkey

determined that all kurds are the same and ruthlessly lashes out on them. i think of how we operated in afghanistan and how different the united states really thinks about military warfare, as the tax bill and al qaeda -- as the taliban and al qaeda rose up in afghanistan, we engaged in a way to -- in a way to deal with violent al qaeda, while establishing a friendship and a longstanding partnership with the afghan people. we don't look at all the afghans the same in some blanket declaration. we understand there is a violent faction that has to be addressed for world peace and that there are others that just want their children to grow up and go to school. we've engaged them in a way that's very different than how turkey is engaging with the kurdish population. everyone knew -- everyone knew as the battle raged in syria, that when the battle finished

out with the civil war in syria and the fight with isis, often the kurdish areas, everyone knew when this calmed down at some future date, the turks would come after the kurds. it's been known for years. in fact, in 2016 when i was in turkey in ankara watching all of this chaos occur, that was the ongoing dialogue among turkish leaders at that time is that we are going to come after the kurds. that also been the -- that has been the representative statement over and over again to the -- this administration and to the previous administration. in several phone calls where president erdogan talks to president trump saying that we are crossing the border and coming in, it left president trump in a dangerous situation. does he leave our american men and women in a small number in a

forward operating base to sit there while the tanks roll by and the battle rages between the kurds and turks, do we use them as some kind of tool to be able to stop this or get out of harm's way? the secretary made a statement that was clear, the turks didn't ask permission to cross the border, they said we're coming and notified us in advance, so if we wanted to move out of the way, we could, but either way they were coming. we moved our forces into other areas an combined them into bases and within the last couple of days when the turks started getting closer to our combined forces in northern syria, we responded by putting up apache helicopters an f-16's to fly by the turks to say, don't you dare come near american forces. but at the same time we're trying to do everything we can and should to be able to stop the bloodshed between two

allies. now i've been amazed at the number of people that stepped up and said that president trump is all to blame for what's happening with the kurdish people and the turks. they ignore the basic history of what's happened in that region for a very long time. in the ongoing battle between the kurds and the turks now for over a century, but we should do everything we can to be able to push back on this because for ar large group of the kurdish population, especially those in northern iraq, they have been very close allies and friends and tenacious fighters against saddam hussein and they left their own place of safety in northern iraq to come help us fight the fight in syria, to be able to protect other kurdish people, yes, but to also to protect the entire world from the ruthless nature of isis. we should engage to be able to do what we can to help stop the bloodshed. as i mentioned before when we moved into afghanistan, we did it as surgical as we can. when turkey moved into kurdish

regions, they unleashed artillery fire against civilians, pummeling homes and businesses in kurdish towns that meant them no harm. as they crossed the border into syria. so what do we do? how do we respond in the days ahead? well, a few things that i would bring up. one is the what i wish. i wish the administration had been more clear with turkey and her leaders to say if you do this, here's not that we will do sanctions, here's exactly what the sanctions will be, and you didn't know it and it's going to happen as rapidly as possible. i wish that we would have moved all the isis fighters out of the region because there are isis fighters currently in prisons in northern syria waiting to return back to their home countries because many of them are foreign fighters from other places that the home country is not willing

to take them back so they are currently imprisoned in syria. i wish we would have done more before the turks crossed border to be able to protect those prisoners around make sure they didn't get freed, but many of them did get free and the entire region will suffer the consequences of some very bad actors getting back on the battlefield again because of that. i wish that there had actually been coordination. the administration clearly did not coordinate with the state department, with the department of defense, with what was happening in the region, with other kurdish leaders to be able to make sure we were securing those fighters and preparing for that moment. instead it was a rapid transition in a hurried process to be able to move americans out of harm's way in between two allies that were now fighting each other and to try to shift them to other places and to be able to stabilize in those locations. there's a lot of hurried response that could have been

done different but was not. the now whats are pretty clear. president trump has launched out and stated very clearly that there will be strong sanctions beginning on military leaders within the turkish army. the key leaders in the government and try to put sanctions down as rapidly as possible on those individuals. he also announced a 50% steel tariff on turkey. you may say that is no big deal except for the fact that steel is a major export for turkey and it's a punishing tariff on them as a country. he started to lay down additional sanctions on turkey and said all the trade agreements and conversations are currently at a standstill. turkey's economy is on the razor's edge because of how erdogan mismanaged the economy for so many years many we don't have a beef with the turkish people but turkey is led by a leader who is leading their

country into economic ruin and leading their military across foreign borders to haphazardly kill civilians. we should not tolerate that and we should engage. we should make it very clear there will be consequences. we should work with the u.n., as we already have starred. be -- started. to be able to stand between warring partners that there are peacekeepers, not u.s. americans sitting at a forward operating base. we should be able to sanction turkish banks, those banks that did business with iran when iran was sanctioned turkey continued to do business with some of those banks. we should increase our sanctions there and we should be extremely clear that turkey will not get access to the f-35. i cannot imagine the response of the american people how much stronger it could be -- would be right now if it were american

f-35's flying across the turkish-syria border to bomb our own allies, the kurds. we should make it very clear there is no foreign military sales to turkey and continue to be able to cut them off. we've got to be clear in the consequences. we've got to be rapid in the response because right now people are dying in northern syria, that those same families and those same individuals put their own life on the line to be able to stand up against isis. they stood with us in multiple areas and they have a great propensity toward freedom and toward democracy which desperately needs to grow in the middle east. the chaos that's ensuing is the chaos of war, and it's the pain of over a century of mismanagement of this entire region. we need to stop the bloodshed first and to continue to be table to negotiate with every possible lever that we can be

to -- can to be able to make sure we bring a sense of calm to the chaos that is, starting with our greatest pressure on the turks and on president erdogan who clearly hasn't got the message yet, what the will of the american people and what the will of this congress reallile involves. this is a changing situation and it's not simple, but it's one i'll try to come back and help to inform in every way i can and to encourage this body to smartly and quickly engage in what we can do to be able to help press the turks to be able to back off the bloodshed and to be able to bring war crimes against any turk that is killing prisoners, that is attacking civilians, and any individual that we can identify to bring to justice in the process. with that, i yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mrs. fischer: thank you, mr. president. i rise to voice my strong support for the passage of united states-mexico-canada agreement, or the usmca. when i traveled the state of nebraska, i always hear directly from our farmers and our ag producers, nebraska's farmers have endured some of the most challenging setbacks in recent memory. the severe flooding from last spring devastated thousands of acres of our farm and our ranchland, brought hundreds of livestock deaths and destroyed barns, countless grain bins, hey hay -- hay and critical equipment. last july the irrigation tunnel collapsed, cut off a crucial source of surface irrigation

water to the western region of our state for several weeks. only a few days earlier a devastating fire broke out in a tyson beef processing plant in holcolm, kansas. the plant processed about 6,000 head of cattle every single day. that's roughly 6% of the total fed cattle processing capacity in the united states. the effects of the plant's closure rippled throughout the entire cattle industry and the beef processing chain. this is all in addition to five years of low commodity prices, the unfair refinery exemptions for oil refiners and the cloud of uncertainty over trade. and while all of these factors have caused anxiety and unpredictability, there is one solution for nebraska's farmers,

ranchers, ag producers, manufacturers, and hardworking men and women. they make it clear that this is what they need. and that is the passage of the usmca. nebraska's farmers and ranchers have a different lifestyle than most people. their patience is steadfast. they plan for the long term. they can envision how they want their land to look, not only next year but 100 years into the future. it's in their d.n.a. and families are fed around the world because of it. they're optimists but they are realists. as secretary perdue recently said, they know you can't plant in august and harvest in september. and that's exactly right. our producers have remained

patient during these tough and turbulent times because they know that there's an opportunity for a better long-term trade solution on the horizon. the usmca would replace the 25-year-old north american free trade agreement or nafta and bring the deal into the 21st century while fortifying our strong trading relationships with canada and mexico and growing critical market access for nebraska. the heart of nebraska beats in the same rhythm as agriculture. it's who we are. and as the world knows, it's what we do better than anyone. so it's not hard to understand why our state needs this deal. america's neighbors to the north and south are the destination of

44% of nebraska's total exports. in 2017, nebraska shipped $447 million of agricultural products to canada and a staggering $898 million to mexico. these exports include hundreds of millions of dollars worth of nebraska's high quality corn, soybeans, ethanol, and beef. specifically, the usmca maintains and strengthens those markets for corn and soybeans. it also allows u.s. beef producers to continue to grow their exports to mexico which have risen 800% since nafta was first ratified. in 2018 alone nebraska exported over $250 million of beef to both countries.

and it's important to note that the benefits of the usmca extend far beyond our farm land. agriculture trade between canada and mexico supports nearly 54,000 jobs in the state of nebraska. according to the nebraska department of agriculture, nebraska's $6.4 billion in agricultural exports in 2017 translated into $8.19 billion in additional economic activity. for the good of our state and our nation, these markets need to be protected. the usmca goes even further than nafta. it adopts labor and environmental standards that democrats have long advocated for. it requires 40% to 45% of auto

content be made by workers who earn at least $16 an hour by 2023. this will undoubtedly help close the gap in labor standards between our nation and mexico. according to the united states trade representative, the deal includes new provisions to prohibit the importation of goods produced by forced labor. the usmca addresses violence against workers exercising their labor rights, and it ensures that migrant workers are protected under labor laws. the deal brings labor obligations into the core of the agreement and most importantly, makes them fully enforceable. on top of that, usmca deploys the most advanced and

comprehensive set of environmental protections of any trade agreement in our nation's history. the list of environmental protections includes first ever articles to improve air quality, support forced management, and ensure procedures for studies on its environmental impact. new provisions protect a variety of marine species, such as whales and sea turtles and there are prohibitions on shark finning. unlike nafta, the usmca provides enforcement mechanisms that will ensure that all countries not only meet but strengthen their environmental responsibilities. lastly, i want to point out to my democrat colleagues the support of the usmca that it's receiving on both sides of the aisle. i recently heard tom vilsack say

this. quote, under any evaluation from a u.s. agriculture perspective, this is clearly a better deal. our hope is that it gets done and it gets done soon. end quote. these are not the words of some trump administration official. these are the words of president obama's former secretary of agriculture. here's another quote from dan glickman. quote, we have a good agreement. we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good. this is a good deal for america. and particularly a good deal for farmers at this vulnerable time. end quote. again, this isn't support from some republican member of congress. this is support that is voiced by president clinton's former

secretary of agriculture. what's more, all former agriculture secretaries since the reagan administration have voiced their full support for usmca. we've seen the headlines of endorsement. and one especially caught my attention. the title of a recent op-ed read democrats should give trump a win on his trade deal with mexico and canada. well, this piece wasn't composed by a conservative publication. it was penned by the editorial board of "the washington post." and finally, a group of 14 house democrats sent a letter to speaker pelosi last july urging her to take up the usmca for a vote. the letter reads, canada and mexico are by far our most important trading partners, and

we need to restore certainty in these critical relationships that support millions of american jobs. mr. president, both sides of the aisle agree that the u.s usmca a significant win for farmers, ranchers, ag producers, and america's economy as a whole. nebraska's farmers and ranchers have maintained patience in these tough times. they deserve to know without a doubt that they will continue to have access to their two largest markets and closest trading partners. as i said earlier, farmers aren't just thinking about themselves. they are planning for the future generations that will proudly carry on their life's work and continue feeding our world. right now we have an opportunity

to come together around a commonsense bipartisan agreement that will benefit the american both now and for years to come. now it's up to congress to deliver. i urge speaker pelosi to stop needlessly delaying this vote, and i encourage all of my democrat colleagues not to allow politics to stand in the way of sound policy. it's time to push the usmca over the finish line. thank you, mr. president. i would yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the snore senator from nebraska -- the senator from neks. mr. sasse: thank you. i would like to associate my comments with the senior senator about the necessity of the passage of the usmca, the house of representatives and the speaker should schedule that vote immediately. there's clearly overwhelming support in both bodies for its passage. i would also like to underscore my senior senator's comments about the collapse in nebraska and the character of nebraska's farmers and ranchers as they've dealt with yet another catastrophe after 81 of our 93 counties went through a state of emergency earlier this year in a

flood. i would like to commend my senior senator for a fine speech on a really important topic. mr. president, i come to the floor today to ask each and every member of congress to answer this simple question. is it right for the united states federal government to get into the business of policing muslims, jews, and christians' religious beliefs whether they're acceptable. is it the business of the federal government of the united states to determine true and false religion? last week a former member of congress didn't blink an eye -- a former member of congress now running for president didn't blink an eye when he announced he would strip religious institutions, colleges, churches, and other not-for-profit service organizations, he would strip them of their tax exempt stat fuss if they don't agree with his -- status if they don't agree with his political positions. that's a departure from what

america is and what we talk about in this body. we should pause and call that what it is. that is extreme intolerance. it sex dream bigotry, and it's profoundly un-american. the whole point of america is the first amendment and the whole point of the first amendment is that no matter who you love and no matter how you worship, we believe in america that everyone, everyone is created with dignity. this is a fundamental american tenet. it's why this country was founded. and because we're all created with dignity, none of us have the right to dictate the conscious commitment of people. it's a fundamental american belief and thankfully politicians have no business policing that. at the end of the day, there are really just two kinds of societies. there are societies that are about force and power, and there are societies that are about

persuasion, about assembly, and about love. and for more than 230 years, we've decided in this country that we're the latter. we are a community of persuasion, not primarily a community of power and force. in america we don't think the center of life is defined by government. we think the frame of life is defined by government. abraham lincoln often sort of summarizing george washington used to talk about the silver frame and the golden apple. in america the government is just the silver frame. it's the structure that defines the framework for order of liberty so that the golden apple, the good, the true, and the beautiful, the things that you love and that you want to build, you go do by persuading people to join with you in a cause. government doesn't define the center. washington, d.c. is not the center of american life. washington, d.c. is supposed to be a servant community that exists to maintain a framework of liberty, guards us against enemies foreign and domestic so

that your household and your neighborhood and place of worship can be the center of life. we're not chinese communists who take wee people and throw them o camp or russian oligarchs who tell what you can and cannot write, we're not strong men who beat the hell out of protesters. we're americans. in america we disagree about many things. we disagree profoundly and vigorously but then we come together and we create a system where we work out our differences not with fists but with words. we work out our differences with civility and tolerance and respect and persuasion. all this starts with the first amendment. the five freedoms of the first amendment -- religion, speech, press, assembly, and protest -- tee fine who we are as a people and what we believe in common. and guess what? you can't separate these five. these five freedoms are all in the same amendment for a reason, because if one of them falls, they all fall. they stand or fall together.

and you're a hypocrite if you pat yourself on the back for defending one of these five freedoms and then throw another overboard. they're all in the same amendment, the first amendment, for a reason. these are the rights of conscience that belong together and that cannot be taken or policed by government. so that means if a texas politician pandering for a sound bite decides to make a bold-faced threat against muslims and jews and christians, all americans from every faith and every walk of life, we have an obligation to come together and to defend our freedoms. and so we should do that. that's what i'm here on the floor today to do. i'm introducing a simple resolution today that will give every member of the congress -- the house and the senate -- the opportunity to tell our constituents whether or not we still believe in the first amendment. it is an opportunity to show the american people that bigotry

against religion in the name of partisan politics is not permitted in our system of government. this isn't a republican or a democratic premise. this is an american idea that we condemn politicians who say they're going to police other people's religious beliefs. congress doesn't target or punish organizations that are exercising constitutionally protected rights. government doesn't go through your pastor or rabbi's sermon notes. government doesn't tell your religious leaders how they will purchase -- perform their services. government doesn't teach our kits how to pray and government doesn't lecture you on heaven or hell. government's job is not to define true and false religion. the silver frame is the humble job we have to do in public life, which is to maintain a

framework for ordered liberty so that americans in their neighborhoods and over dinner tables can try to persuade each other how to worship and what to believe by arguments, not by fists and not by the police. government doesn't get to do any of that in this country because we recognize that government is not god. americans reject the divine right of kings, and we reject the infallibility of politics. government doesn't try to make an example of your church or your synagogue or your mosque because some politician decided your views were out of favor. your religious organization doesn't get taxed differently because a politician running for office decides to disagree with one of your beliefs. we believe, whatever faith you're from in america, whatever party you're in, we believe in america that all 225 million of us are created equal and we believe that whether your faith is traditional or progressive, it is yours and it is twine and your religious community and

your god. it is not the domain of politicians. government can't force you out of the public square because of the faith you hold. at least that's what we've always believed in the past. it's what we believed for more than 200 years. we're not perfect, of course, we've fallen short of that idealism time and time again. that doesn't mean the ideas of the first amendment are wrong. it means that our ideals need to be strived for impend and reaffirmed. i want to give every member of congress the opportunity in the coming weeks to do just that. so the resolution i'm introducing today ought to get a vote so house and senate members can be on record for our constituents about whether or not we affirm the first amendment and in particular the free exercise of religion and the free assembly clauses. so i'm going to read it for everyone's benefit. it is pretty short. this is the resolution, just being introduced. whereas the settlement of the 13 colonies was driven in part by those seeking refuge from government-sponsored religious persecution, whereas the framers of the constitution of the

united states recognized the centrality of freedom of conscience to the establishment of the united states enshrining in the first amendment to the constitution of these united states that, quote, congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or ainch abouting the freedom of speech or of the press or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of trievances, whereas churches, synagogue, mosques and other religious organizations have made a central and valuable role in the life of the united states and whereas congress has recognized the importance of religious institutions by enacting a variety of legal protections for those institutions including exemption from income taxes, now therefore be it resolved by the senate and the house of representatives of the united states of america in congress assembled that the protections of freedom of congress, conscience enshrined in the first amendment to the constitution of the united states remain central to the experiment of these united

states and republican self-government under the constitution, two, government shall not be in the business of dictating what correct religious beliefs are, and, three, any effort by the government to condition the receipt of the protections of the constitutions of the united states and the laws of the united states, including an exemption from taxation, on the public policy positions of an organization is an affront to the spirit and the letter of the first amendment of the constitution of the united states, close quote. i don't care what some nitwit said on cnn last week to satisfy his fringy base and try to get a sound bite in the presidential debate. the american people ought to know that this body stands for the historic first amendment. that's what we all took an oath to uphold and defend. and that's what we ought to vote to affirm again. thank you, i yield back. the presiding officer: it will be received and appropriately referred. the senator maryland. mr. cardin: mr. president, i come to the floor to talk about

senate joint resolution peas. we're going to have a chance to vote on that to. i'm joined by my colleague from maryland, senator van hollen, and my colleague on the environment and public works committee from rhode island, senator whitehouse. i also want to thank senator carper for his leadership as the senior democrat on the environment and public works committee in regards to this resolution. this resolution, as i said, will be voted on tomorrow. it deals with the c.r.a. congressional review act vote in regards to the trump administration's affordable clean energy rule. that's probably a misnomer. it's really what i call the dirty power plant rule. the c.r.a. would repeal that so that we can go back to the clean power plan that was promulgated under the obama administration in 2015. so let me explain what the trump-era rule would do.

first, it would repeal the clean power plan that was issued in 2015. now, that plan had real results in it. it set limits on power plants' production of dangerous carbon. it made meaningful progress. and the rule promulgated by president trump's administration would repeal that and substitute it with a plan that would be a power plant judgment in each power plant, coal-burning only, and would not take into consideration the power plant mix of individual states. the previous rule allowed the states to figure out how to reach those goals. so a state could do a mix. they could start using natural gas. they could start using renewable energy. they could meet their goals that are set with a reduction of that

one-third of those dangerous carbon emissions but with local discretion on how to reach those goals. the rule that was promulgated that i am seeking to reverse allows only efficiency per coal power plants. the does not allow the mixing of the different technologies, prohibits the states from pursuing market-based plans, and i might tell you in my region of the country, we have what's known as regi, which is a compact to reduce carbon emissions. we do it by energizing market forces so that we can get to friendlier sources of energy, which by the way has helped our region not only reduce carbon emissions but create green energy jobs. which is in our interest. let me just point out from the beginning that the power plants are the largest stationery

source -- stationary source of carbon emissions. we know it's impact on climate change. we've seen the harmful impacts of climate change in america for -- from the wildfires out west to the the conditions here in the east. in my own state of maryland we've had two 100-year flooding within 20 months in ellicott city, maryland. the list goes on and on and on about the impact of climate change. we see the coastal line changing in our lifetime. we're seeing regular flooding. we're seeing habitable land become inhabitable. all that is affected by our carbon emissions, and the obama-era clean power plan did something about it. the role that we'll -- the rule that we'll have chance to vote on tomorrow would do nothing about it. we see this is a public health risk. i can't tell you how frequently i've heard from my constituents

who have someone in their family that has a respiratory illness, what can we do for cleaner air? children are staying home from schools because of bad air days. parents are missing time from work. all that is impacted by clean air, premature deaths, and, mr. president, i talk frequently about the chesapeake bay. i'm honored to represent the chesapeake bay region in the united states senate alopping with senator van hollen p. we treasure the work that's been done. it's been an international model of all the stakeholders coming together to clean up the chesapeake bay. we're dealing about runoff and farming activities. but quite frankly, we have not been successful in dealing with airborne pollutants going into the chesapeake bay. we are in maryland a downwind state. we need a national effort here -- maryland can be doing everything right, but if the

surd rounding states are not -- but if the surrounding vats are not -- states are not, resuffer the consequences. that's why the clean power plan is so attractive in dealing with this issue because it dealt with it with national goals. establish how to attain them by the local governments. that's the way it should. so let me give you the numbers. the clean power plan that is repealed by the rule under the trump administration would have reduced dangerous carbon emissions by with one-third -- by about one-third. we believe that the rule promulgated by the trump administration could actually increase dangerous emissions. but met me use e.p.a.'s own analysis. lookingat co2, carbon dioxide, the agency says that the trump rule will reduce it by .7%. the clean power plan issued by president obama, 19%.

sox, under trump, 5.7%. under the obama rule, 24%. nox -- nox emissions, under the plan promulgated under trump, less than one percent. under the clean power plan, 22%. so we real lay are talking about whether we are serious about dealing with dangerous carbon emulsions or whether we are at best maintaining the status quo, at worst making things even worse. the clean air amendments were adopted in 1990, mr. president. this was never a partisan issue. george herbert walker bush was president. it passed the house of representatives by a 401-21 vote. it passed it body by an $-11

vote. it's been highly successful. the cost-benefit analysis that's required under the act so shows that tits 40 times more benefits than a dollar of cost. and the supreme court held in massachusetts v. e.p.a. that the e.p.a. has a responsibility to regulate these carbon emissions. so that's exactly what was done in 2015, which is now being jeopardized because of the regulation that was issued under the trump administration. mr. president, i had a chance to serve in the state legislature. this is a front -- an affront to federalism. it is prohibited. that's why 22 states and seven local governments have filed suit against this regulation. the weaken act. the congress allege review act allows us to take action in this body and that's why i've filed that so that we can take action. if we allow this rule to go

forward, it will delay the implementation of carbon emission reductions, delay it. if we vote for the c.r.a., we'll be back on track. we've already seen the united states leadership challenged in this area with president trump's decision to withdraw from the pair irrelevance accords shall the only nation in the world. who has filled that void? quite frankly, mr. president, it's been china. do we want to cede our leadership globally to a country with a controlled government economy like china or do we want to reassert u.s. leadership? we're going to have a chance to do that tomorrow to vote in the united states senate. i would urge my completion to support the congressional review act resolution that i have filed, senate joint resolution 53. with that, i would yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. president. i'd like to start by thanking my friend and colleague from the

state of maryland, senator cardin, for bringing this resolution to the floor of the senate. as he said, we'll be voting on it tomorrow but also for his long-standing support and efforts to try to protect our environment, protect the chesapeake bay, and to address the urgent issue of climate change which anybody with eyes can see is already having a devastating impact on communities throughout our country and indeed throughout the world. also very pleased to be here with our colleague, the senator from rhode island, mr. whitehouse, who's made this such an important cause and has kept the senate focused on this pressing issue. as senator cardin indicated, under the previous administration, under the leadership of president obama, we adopted as a country something known as the clean

power plan rule. this was a historic step forward. it was a blueprint to create more good-paying jobs in the clean energy sector. and in fact we've seen a tremendous growth in those jobs in the area of solar and wind power and other jobs. and that clean power plan rule under the obama administration also really addressed the issue of carbon pollution in the atmosphere beginning to reduce it significantly to offset the damage and real costs that we're already experiencing in communities from that climate change. as senator cardin said, this is an area where there are huge opportunities if our country moves forward in the area of clean energy jobs. and right now with this new trump administration action, we are creeding the playing field to china -- ceding the playing field to china which is happily

seizing the initiative and creating more and more jobs in the energy sector. and if we don't wake up, we're going to lose that important global competition in a vital sector to china which has established a goal by 2025 dominating the area of clean energy technologies. but instead of building on the progress of the obama administration, on june 19, the trump administration decided to repeal and roll back these important rules that have been put in place and substitute them with something that in worse case makes the situation much worse than even before these trump rules. and at the very least is a huge retreat from the progress that we are headed on under the rules of the previous administration. let me just point out some of

the analysis that was done by a very good organization called resources for the future. they looked at their analysis of this trump proposal which i agree with senator cardin is better termed the trump dirty power plan. they looked at this, and they concluded that it would do very little if anything to address climate change and would have an adverse air quality impact in many of our states. some people may recall that when the trump version of this power plan, the dirty power plan, was released last year, people looked at their own analysis. they looked at the e.p.a.'s own analysis of that rule, and it showed that 1,630 of our fellow americans would die prematurely under the trump provisions

compared to the obama era provisions. so when the trump administration released this most recent version of their amended plan back in june, they made it really difficult to put together all the data so that people would not be able to cross -- connect the dots on many of these areas. senator cardin has presented some of the results of this. i want to emphasize those and put them in somewhat different terms, which is what does the trump rule accomplish compared to the obama rule on some of these issues. so with respect to carbon dioxide emissions, the trump rule would reduce carbon dioxide emissions, carbon pollution emissions by only 2.7% of what the obama administration would have done, 2.7% of what the rule

that they're replacing would have done. with respect to sulfur dioxide, the trump plan reduces sulfur dioxide emissions by only 1.9% of what the obama administration rule would have done. and when it comes to ny nitrus oxide, the trump proposal, the trump plan reduces nitrus oxide by only 2.5% compared to what the obama provisions would have done. and if you take all of these together, you can see it's a really anemic -- it's really an anemic proposal that takes us way, way backwards compared to where we were. that's why i support senator cardin's efforts here on the floor with a vote tomorrow to say no, to say no to the trump administration's efforts to roll back the progress on clean air,

to roll back the progress on clean water because a lot of that air pollution settles in places like the chesapeake bay, and to roll back progress on climate change which we know is hitting our communities as we speak. i just want to give some additional maryland examples here. "the baltimore sun" ran a story a little while back about the staggering costs that maryland and marylanders will have to pay to build seawalls to protect communities from sea level rise. a study from the institutes of governance and sustainable development found that in the coming decades, seawalls to protect thousands of homes and businesses and farmlands from ocean city to baltimore city will cost more than $27 billion, $27 billion. we have also seen dramatic flooding in the city of annapolis that's already hurting the naval academy.

and we just had this past week a famous national boat show. and in the middle of this boat show, you had huge flooding in the city of annapolis. the costs to the city and that community are rising rapidly and have been well documented. so, madam president, i would just ask my colleagues to support senator cardin's motion here. let's not go backwards. let's not go backwards in terms of protecting our air. let's not go backwards in terms of the battle against climate change because going backwards means less good jobs in america. it means more dirty air and more asthma. and it means ceding this important area to china and others in the global economy. i urge my colleagues to support the motion of senator cardin.

mr. whitehouse: madam chair? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that the vote be extended until 4:30. the presiding officer: without objection. is there objection? seeing none, without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you, madam president. i am delighted to join my colleagues from maryland and delaware to support this resolution expressing disapproval of the trump administration rescinding the clean power plan and replacing it with its so-called affordable clean energy rule, which is a name fanciful enough to make george orwell blush. the first thing to understand about the so-called affordable clean energy rule is that it is a do-nothing rule exactly as the polluters wish. e.p.a. admits its own rule would do virtually zero to reduce carbon pollution. it requires zero emissions reductions at natural gas-fired power plants.

and it would allow coal-fired power plants to make minor efficiency improvements and then run for longer hours. that could actually lead to an increase in carbon pollution. this rule is designed to fool people into thinking the trump administration is obeying the clean air act, but no one should be fooled. from the get-go the trump administration made clear it didn't care about cutting carbon pollution, fighting climate change, or protecting the environment or public health. it cared about obeying the fossil fuel industry, not the law. within weeks of taking office, trump's swampy cabinet rolled out the red carpet for coal baron bob murray who had an action plan for the administration. here is murray with energy secretary perry. and look who is accompanying murray at the meeting, our e.p.a. administrator andrew wheeler, then murray's lobbyist. looks like a friendly meeting.

and why wouldn't it be? look at that. such a nice big hug. isn't that sweet? murray was a major financial backer of the trump administration, and this was his payback time. individuals associated with murray energy were the largest source of donations to donald trump's presidential campaign, and murray himself chipped in a cool300 grand for president trump's ilg august recall festivities and was one of the largest donors associated with disgraced administrator scott pruitt under whose tenure this botched rule began. so what was the first item on bob murray's action plan? to get rid of the clean power plan. and bob murray wasn't the only one who wanted to scrap the clean power plan. the u.s. chamber of commerce and the national association of manufacturers, two of the largest and most powerful trade associations in washington, also

asked the e.p.a. to scrap the clean power plan. that's no surprise. the independent watchdog group influenced map found the chamber and n.a.m. the two worst obstructors of climate action. they won't reveal their donors but i believe they took lots of money from the fossil fuel industry and became its mouth piece. they got paid and this was the play. the chamber and n.a.m. were also aligned with shadowy front groups like the so-called utility air regulatory group and the american council for clean coal electricity, more orwellian names. these groups also asked the e.p.a. to scrap the clean power plan and replace it with this toothless rule. is that unsavory enough? it gets worse. guess who represented uarg, that utility air regulatory group? none other than fossil fuel industry stooge bill wareham who

helped orchestrate a web of front groups like uarg which obscured and multiplied the influence of wareham's polluter client, clients responsible for massive carbon pollution. naturally trump put this guy in head of e.p.a.'s air office and before wareham headed for the expwit this summer, murray's man wheeler praised wareham for tremendous progress in repealing climate regulations. pruitt to wheeler to wareham, this is rank fossil fuel crookedness in plain view. several of us submitted comments laying out the political, financial, and professional connections between the trump officials would developed this bogus rule and the fossil fuel industry that asked for it. those comments are posted online and in the federal register and i urge you to have a look. also available online is a report i did with senator carper detailing wareham's industry ties and conflicts of interest.

need yum.com/white house will link you to all of this. the croanly capture of e.p.a. is not the only problem with the rule. the industry is so greedy and itzhaks are so clumsy that they don't bother to align the rule with the scientific and economic evidence. in court agency actions will be found to be arbitrary and capricious and therefore invalid if they're not the product of reasoned decision making. in this case it is clear the e.p.a. ignored the science, ignored the economics, and produced exactly what the fossil fuel industry told it to do, a do nothing rule that took good care of the coal and natural gas industries. but what does the science tell us? according to the world's best scientific report, if we reduced carbon pollution by roughly half, by around 2030, and reached net zero emissions sometime around the middle of the century, we stand a chance

to hold the globe average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees celsius. our ow -- our own best scientists warn that if we don't limit carbon pollution, we'll be hit with economic losses in the hundreds of billions of dollars per year by the end of the century. legions of economists, investment banks, asset managers, central banks, credit rating agencies, and other experts warn of serious economic risks from climate upheaval. here is a summary of just some of these warnings, which i have delivered to every colleague in the senate. that, too, can be found on that media page. pruitt, wehrum, and wheeler ignored all of this. the only voice that mattered was the polluter industry that they came from and will go back to in an oil-greased revolving door.

this is the exact opposite of reasoned decision-making. but that was never the point. the fix was in. even a bogus rule that courts throw out buys this crooked and corrupting industry time. time to keep pollute, time to burn through reserves, time to use its political muscle to fend off action here in the senate. if you're in the filling business fiddling business, fiddling is a fine acquisition for you. the supreme court has ruled that greenhouse gases are pollutants. e.p.a. has found that they endanger human health and welfare. those determinations mean that the e.p.a. must limit carbon pollution consistent with the law. this masquerade of a rule fails to do this, so it must be replaced with something effective as a matter of law.

i ask colleagues to think carefully about their vote on this resolution. do you want to endorse this record of obvious industry capture? do you want to side with this corrupting industry over your own constituents' health and safety? do you want to go on record ignoring all the warnings from the bank of england, from freddie mac, from nobel prize-winning economists and from hundreds of our own government's most knowledgeable experts? the fossil fuel industry, it's voice full of money, has drowned out the voices too long here of everyone else. but you can't shout down the laws of physics. you can't shout down the laws of biology and chemistry and economics. those laws will have their way, and we have been well warned.

so please, turn the corner -- let's turn the corner to a brighter day when decency rules, not political thuggery. a brighter day when facts and science matter more than dark money and paid-for denial, a brighter day when we don't give our grandchildren daily cause for shame. it is time to wake up, a understand this vote is a chance -- and this vote is a chance to do so. i yield the floor. mr. cotton: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. cotton: as we speak, the brave people of hong kong are demonstrating to protect their freedoms from the chinese communist party in beijing. chinese state tv has portrayed these demonstrators as violent separatists, but these hong kongers are merely insisting that china live up to the promises it made to hong kong and the united kingdom, promises

china made as binding conditions for the transfer of sovereignty from london to beijing. the chinese government promised that hong kong would enjoy a high degree of autonomy, including many of the freedoms that beijing denies to its more than one billion subjects on the mainland. but as the world has learned through bitter experience, the chinese communist party's promises $aren't -- aren't worth the paper they're written on. they have chipped away at the promises they promised hong kong, guilty of wrong-think. undermining hong kong's long-standing political and judicial systems and issuing menacing threats of military intervention to crush the demonstrations. most americans are rightly outraged by china's brutal

crock-down in hong -- crackdown in hong kong. darryl moreie someone of them. he is the general manager of the houston rockets. just a few days ago he tweet add simple and justified phrase, fight for freedom, stand with hong kong. morey probably knew his words would offend the chinese communist party, but he was also violating a different party line, that of his own league, the nba. for daring to speak up about hong kong, morey was disavowed by his team, his fellow executives and some of the most famous athletes in the nba. that's because he was threatening not only the powers that be in china but the cash cow that china represents for american business, including professional basketball. china's government may be red, but its money is green, and plenty of people are willing to

cash checks no matter the cost. the league's biggest star, la bonne james, said that morey's support for hong kong was, quote, misinformed and not educated. he reportedly called for morey to be punished. perhaps it's no coincidence that la bron james stands to make millions of dollars from the chinese market, not only from a higher nba salary cap, shoe sales and nike hads but also from his own movie company. often known as king james, perhaps chairman labron would be a better honor riffic today. joe cy called the protests in hong kong a separatist movement that was trying to carve up chinese territories, like colonial powers or imperial japan. perhaps it is no coincidence that he is an executive at alibaba, a chinese company that

developed a communist propaganda app that hijacked the cell phones of anyone that downloaded it. there was a protest sign that said "google uighurs" referring to the people of western china whose culture and religion are being exterminated by the chinese communist party. that sign was not confiscated in china by the secret police but right here in america's national capital. steve kurr drove a moral equivalence between communist china and the united states. none of us are perfect, he said, and we all have different issues we need to get to. nobody is perfect. that's what he says an authoritarian regime that starved, shot, or beat to death 50 million of its own people on a forced march to modernity. a regime that runs a net, with

of concentration camps in its western provinces and harvests the organs of political prisoners for its own pampered elite. nobody is perfect, indeed. this is craven and greedy behavior, and it stands in stark contrast to how america has historically used sports to promote our interests and aspirations, from the triumph of black olympians to the miracle on ice in the soviet union even our diplomatic opening to china happened in part through sports with ping pong did i diploma civility today the tables have turned. china suing sports to export its authoritarian mod toll our soil. so far it's found tomorrow enforcers in the nba. it doesn't have to be this way. commissioner adam sill very, salve a slow start, defended darryl morey's right to speak

his mind about hong kong. he said, free expression is what you guys stand for. too many american companies kowtow to china, not because they love its government but because of the tremendous pressure that government can exert on their operations. but the nba is in a unique position. beijing can ban an airline or it can ban a hotel that lists taiwan as a country in its online dropdown menu, and the chinese people can use a different airline or they can use a different hotel. but there's only one nba. beijing cannot create another one. and here's the rub. there are more than 500 million basketball fans in china. more people in china follow the nba than there are people in the united states.

so, no doubt, beijing has some leverage over the nba, it is a does over all businesses. but the nba has a lot of bench over beijing. is beijing really going to ban the entire league as they've done for the houston rockets at the risk of alienating more than 500 million people who follow the league? and the resultant public backlash that could create? instead of acting as a bullhorn for communist propaganda, the nba could be a beacon of freedom in china t could dare china to shut them out. so let me urge all of these nba executives and players who say they only -- who say they care about social justice, don't just speak out when the stakes are low four personally or when the cause is popular among your friends. speak out now when the stakes

are deadly high for millions of hong kongers and more than a billion chinese, including so many of your fans. labron james, you tweeted not long ago, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere. live out that principle consistently. therethere are a million uighurn concentration camps yearning to hear a champion who speaks out on their behalf, particularly since the nba runs an elite training academy in proximity to those camps. steve kerr you've never held back on expressing your opinion about our president. that's fine. that's your right as an american. but how about some outrage for the authoritarian regime in beijing? joe cy, you were born in taiwan. your fellow taiwanese live in

constant fear of meddling, attack, and subjugation by the chinese communist party. are they separatists for wanting to maintain their way of life? speak out proudly on behalf of your homeland about the true nature of the government in beijing. i realize this is the heart thing to ask any person -- hard thing to ask any person. no doubt this is a harder passage than the passage many -- no doubt this is a harder path than the path many in the nba are traveling at present. it would certainly invite the wrath of the chinese communist party. but if the league used its uleak leverage for freedom, millions of ordinary chinese would surely notice, despite an army of chinese communist censors arrayed against them. the nba didn't pick this fight. it probably prefers to avoid this fight. the chinese communist party wants this fight. so the choice isn't to fight or

not. it's to win or lose. and perhaps alone among american businesses, the nba has a shot to win against beijing. and in any fight against communists, there can only be one strategy, one policy -- victory. madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: i ask unanimous consent to speak for five minutes. five minutes, please. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. carper: thank you, madam president, and colleagues. madam president, today i rise in support of the congressional review act resolution of disapproval of the trump administration's so-called affordable clean energy rule which really should be called president trump's dirty power plan or unclean rule. i believe the environmental

protection agency has an urgent moral responsibility and an economic imperative to reduce the global warming pollution from power plants which are by far the largest source of carbon pollution on our planet. i believe those of us in congress must act now to protect the american people from the dangers posed by poor environmental quality and the worsening impact of climate change. that's why we're holding this vote tomorrow, to send a clear message to this administration and to take a strong stand for the american people. truth be told, i am not typically a staunch supporter of the congressional review act. it is a blunt procedural tool, and i prefer to embrace a better way to express our disapproval of the administration's failure to address one of our nation's major sources of carbon pollution. this vote is about holding supporters of the shortsight $, irresponsible policy accountable, for surrendering

america's global leadership and for jeopardizing the health of our planet and the promise of tax our children. nearly four years ago the clean power plant shut the first targets to reduce emissions from our power plants. they set achievable carbon limits for power plants and gave flexibility in time for states to develop plans to meet those standards. it was not a one size fits all deal and provided quite a deal of time and flexibility for states to figure out how they wanted to find their way to meeting those standards. this administration's alternative to the clean power plan, president trump's unclean power plan allows states to decide whether or not to regulate harmful emissions. at the same time this rule will at best have no impact on power plant carbon emissions. no impact. let me say again, at best this rule will have essentially no impact on power plant carbon

emissions. at worst, it will increase carbon pollution by standing these plants' life spans and allow them to burn more coal each year. today our nation's utilities are already on track to meet and surpass the emission reductions goals set by the clean power plan way ahead of schedule. all the while the vast majority of americans are now enjoying lower utility bills -- not higher utility bills -- and more than three million americans went to work today in the clean energy sector which includes jobs and renewable intergeneration and energy efficiency. yes, you heard that right, more than three million jobs in the clean energy sector today. the president's dirty power plan does not build on its progress. it does not promote affordable or clean energy. what it actually does is attempt to scam or fool the american people into believing that e.p.a. is doing something to stem the tide of climate change while taking us backward.

backward, not forward. by repealing and replacing the clean power plan, the trump administration is ensuring that our country foregoes a vast number of economic opportunities of the clean energy future. instead of building on the obama-biden administration's forward-looking environmental standards, the trump administration with its dirty power plan is refusing to see or accept that the global economy's transition to clean energy sources is already underway. and instead of mustering the political courage to lead on the issue of climate change yet again, the trump administration is walking away from the bold action we need to address this climate crisis. this failure of leadership will make it all the more likely that the worst of storms and flooding, record-setting rainfall and volatile temperatures we're seeing all over the world will continue to be our reality. where do our republican colleagues stand? tomorrow we'll find out. sadly, for too many of them,

president trump's dirty power plan is a sufficient plan to address carbon pollution. in truth, it is not. it is a failure of vision and a retreat from global leadership and it's time for congress democrats and republicans and maybe an independent or two to hold this administration accountable. that's why senate democrats are calling for a vote on this issue. our government needs to provide the right market signals today if we're going to create a clean energy economy tomorrow and we need to take a stand for a stronger economy. we need to lead the world to act on climate change and we need to take a stand for clean air and environmental quality. we can do that tomorrow by standing together against president trump's dirty power plan. and i hope that a number of our republican colleagues will join us by doing just that. it's a false statement to say that we can't have cleaner air, less threat to our planet, and

create jobs. the we can do both and we need to. thank you very much. i yield the floor. mr. sullivan: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: madam president, i ask unanimous consent to be able to complete my remarks prior to the vote for ambassador barrett. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sullivan: thank you madam president. a few weeks ago i had the opportunity to come down to the floor and talk about the outstanding public service of some senior united states marines, secretary of defense jim mattis, secretary of homeland security general kelly, and the outgoing chairman of the joint chiefs general joe dunford and the service these three marine generals have given to their nation not just in the marine corps, almost 140 years of combined active military service, but at the highest level of government at a critical time of our nation's

history. men and women dedicated to the service of our nation are continuing to follow in the footsteps of these three generals who brought the ethos of honor to our nation's military and their work in government. i had the privilege at the end of september of attending the swearing-in of the new, the new team that president trump is putting together in terms of national security -- general are mark milley is the next chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is now in that position succeeding general dunford. at the department of defense we have secretary esper. secretary mccarthy is the secretary of the army. general milley, they have all served their country with honor and will continue to do so. right now we are considering the nomination of ambassador barbara barrett to be the next secretary of the air force. in fact, we're going to be voting on her nomination in a few moments. i wanted to talk about her

experience and her qualifications which are diverse and very impressive, and i think she is extremely well qualified to be the next secretary of the united states air force. let me provide just a bit about her background and exceptional experience. she's a private pilot, astronaut, deputy federal aviation administrator, past c.e.o. of the aerospace corporation, past member of the defense advisory committee on women in the services, and the defense business board. and importantly, madam president, she's a former u.s. ambassador to finland. wow, that is a very impressive resume, very impressive background. i first met ambassador barrett in 2015 when i had the opportunity to share dinner with her and the late senator john

mccain. prior to that dinner i was talking to senator mccain and he told me how highly he thought of ambassador barrett, and i can tell and i think many of my colleagues would agree, you can't have a better endorsement than that, in my book and in the book of many senators, the high praise from senator mccain. ambassador barrett will be taking over from dr. heather wilson who did an outstanding job as the secretary of the air force. secretary wilson's leadership was critical in working closely with the congress in rebuilding the u.s. air force which had shrunk to its smallest level just a few years ago ever since the air force was created in the late 1940's. we had to start bringing it back. she did a great job on that. and i know ambassador barrett is committed to continuing that rebuilding of this critically important branch of our military.

now another important element of ambassador barrett's experience is that as a former u.s. ambassador to finland, she understands the strategic importance of the arctic and what is happening in terms of great power competition in the arctic. so i wanted to spend a few minutes talking about that critically important part of the world right now. in my state, the great state of alaska's role in it. dating back to general billy mitchell, who is the father of the u.s. air force, alaska has been recognized as what general mitchell said in an armed services hearing, that is the most strategic place in the world. former secretary wilson and our current chief of staff of the air force, general goldfein have been leaders at the department of defense in raising the awareness of the critical importance of the arctic in defending america's national security interests.

additionally, congress has been playing a role in highlighting this in terms of our national security priorities in the national defense authorization act the last three years. and so too has the trump administration. secretary pompeo, our secretary of state, was recently in finland for the arctic council, all the nations of the arctic, and he had this to say. quote, we are entering a new age of strategic engagement in the arctic complete with new threats to the arctic and its real estate. this is america's moment to stand up as an arctic nation and for the arctic's future. that was our secretary of state a few months ago in finland. now, madam president, america is an arctic nation because of alaska, and i like to say that my state constitutes three pillars of america's military might. we are the cornerstone of missile defense for the entire

nation, the missile fields, the radar sites that protect washington,d.c., new york, miami, rhode island, l.a. they're all based in the great state of alaska. we are the hub air combat power for the arctic and the asia-pacific. in the next two years we're going to have over 105th generation fighters, f-35's and f-22's stationed in alaska. no place on the planet earth will have that kind of combat power, with those critical fifth gen, the super sonic stealth fighters. and we are platform for expeditionary forces, some of our best trained military units to be able to deploy on a moment's notice because we're so strategically located to other countries. so because of alaska's strategic role in defending america's interests in the arctic, in the indo-pacific, the congress and this administration together in

a bipartisan way have been building up each of these three critical pillars of our nation's military might and defenses. let me give you one example. the senate has been pushing lately to ensure that the air combat capability that we have in alaska is matched by air refueling capacity. the last three national defense authorization acts passed by this body and signed by the president have established criteria that the air force needs to use when deciding where to base the next modern air tanker refueling platform, the kc-46. ambassador barrett and i have discussed this issue and what the air force is going to do with regard to outside the continental u.s. stationing of the kc-46, and i look forward to working with her on the advice already provided to the administration from the congress on where those military assets

need to be based. as the secretary of defense, our current secretary mark esper said in his confirmation hearing, having kc-46's colocated with 105th generation fighters would, quote, give america extreme strategic reach anywhere in the world. i believe ambassador barrett also understands this and she clearly understands the importance of the arctic as a former ambassador to finland. so, madam president, as i mentioned at the outset, we need good people, informed people, highly qualified people to serve at the highest levels of our military, civilian and uniform. and i believe ambassador barrett is certainly one of those individuals. i was heartened to see that my colleagues in the senate gave her a very strong cloture vote, very bipartisan, 84-7.

very strong support for her nomination, and i know we're going to vote here in a couple of minutes. i encourage all my colleagues to vote yes for her nomination to be the next u.s. secretary of the air force. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: under the previous order, all postcloture time is expired. the question occurs on the barrett nomination. are the yeas and nays --. mr. sullivan: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? seeing none, the yeas are 85, the nays are 7. the nomination is confirmed. the senator from kentucky. a senator: i ask unanimous consent that the successive votes be ten minutes. the presiding officer: without objection.

the clerk will report the next nomination. the clerk: the judiciary, frank william volk, of west virginia, to be united states district judge for the southern district of west virginia. the presiding officer: the question is on the nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote: vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any members in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? seeing none, the yeas are 92, the nays are zero. the nomination is confirmed. the clerk will report the next nomination. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, charles r. eskridge iii of texas to be united states district judge for the southern district of texas. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. are there any members in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? the clerk will call the roll. vote: a a

vote:

vote: vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? seeing none, the yeas are 61, the nays are 31, the nomination is confirmed. the clerk will report the next nomination.

the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, david john novak of virginia to be united states district judge for the eastern district of virginia. the presiding officer: the question is on the nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, on this vote the yeas are 89. the nays are 3. the nomination is confirmed. the clerk will report the next nomination. the clerk: the judiciary. rachel p. kovner of new york to be united states district judge for the eastern district of new york. the presiding officer: the question is on the nomination. is there a sufficient second? there is.

the clerk will call the roll. ?ool vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, the yeas are 88, the nays are 3 and the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motions to reconsider are considered made and laid upon the table and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. mrs. capito: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mrs. capito: thank you, mr. president. with the election of president trump in 2016, it was reasonable to believe that the war on coal was settled, or at least we had a lasting cease-fire. this administration's policies, supported by the congressional review action resolutions, undid many of the excesses of the

wawmtion. -- obama administration. congress and the senate overturned the extreme protection rule which would have made it almost impossible to mine coal in appalachia, the trump administration returned sanity to the clean water permitting process and is in the process of restoring the waters of the u.s. rule to align with congressional intent of protecting federal waters and not every stream, ditch, and gully across this country. but the jewel of the war on coal's crown was always the clean power plan. a sweeping rule to limit the use of coal in our power generation mix, the clean power plan ran roughshod over utility investments and states' rights to protect their taxpayers and ratepayers. in a moment of clarity, then-candidate obama acknowledged that under his vision for our power system, quote, electricity rates would

necessarily skyrocket. the clean power plan, if implemented, would have made that vision a reality. energy is a top-line item in many of our families' budgets, and very expensive, and this policy would have grown these costs significantly. this plan is so disastrous and so clearly beyond the scope of e.p.a.'s authority that 24 states with west virginia in the lead sued to stop it. the supreme court, our supreme court, heard the call and placed a stay on the rule while a lower court weighed the merits. this june, the trump e.p.a. finalized its replacement for this unlawful c.p.p. with the affordable clean energy rule. this commonsense alternative acknowledges the need to reduce carbon emissions from our power sector, but ensures that e.p.a. targets are actually achievable and won't kill jobs in the utility and energy sectors, nor crush american families with

higher electric bills. fully implemented, the ace rule will reduce co2 emissions by as much as 35% at 2005 levels. this administration understands that protecting our environment need not come at the expense of a growing economy. the result has been a growth in our national g.d.p. that the obama administration's economic projections predicted would be unachievable. my own state of west virginia's unemployment rate is now 4.6% after it had peaked in 2010 at 8.8%. this week, many democrats in this body want to put all this progress in jeopardy and reopen the war on coal with a congressional review act resolution to block the ace rule. senate democrats and their presidential candidates have doubled down on policies that would destroy our jobs, hammer consumers, and burden future generations with staggering amounts of debt. refusing to learn the lessons of

hillary clinton's 2016 failed campaign promise, which was to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business, the former vice president has taken a step further, pledging on a detroit debate stage in july to, quote, make sure that coal and natural gas that comes from fracking are eliminated. there is much support on the other side for the green new deal's energy and environmental components which would cost between $8 trillion and $12 trillion. and that is before adding other extreme visions for the government takeover of health care, education, and agriculture. the democrats' energy agenda will lead to fewer jobs, more expensive utility bills, and less reliable electricity. we already see the lack of reliability of our electricity grid over in california right now. i hope that the senate will refuse to go down this path towards impoverishing the very few people who power the company and make this quality of life

possible. passage of this resolution would serve as a starting point for the resumption of the war on coal and a march to the extreme excesses of a green new deal. i urge my colleagues to heed the voice of the american people and vote no on the resolution disapproving the ace rule. on another matter, mr. president, it is critical that congress act soon to protect the pensions of our nation's coal miners. the pension benefits of nearly 100,000 hardworking people are at risk. if congress fails to take action to stabilize the united mine workers' pension fund. over 25,000 current umwa pension beneficiaries reside in west virginia, making this a critical issue for communities and families across our state. i've worked in a bipartisan way with senators manchin, portman, brown, and others over the past several years to support legislation that stabilizes the mine worker pension fund and protects these men and women and their families.

we're not talking about lavish pensions here. the average beneficiary receives about $590 per month. retired miners from across west virginia routinely visit me in my office here in d.c., write letters, and talk with me as i travel the state. i really appreciate their efforts. we're working hard to make sure that when they tell me how critical their pension check is in allowing them to pay for food, medication, housing, and other essentials we don't let this critical issue lapse. these hardworking men and women deserve the pensions that they were promised, and we should make sure that they receive the benefits they earned by passing legislation to protect their pensions this year. finally, mr. president, one last issue. the senate just voted earlier today to confirm frank volk as our united states district judge for the southern district of west virginia. it was unanimous, 92-0. judge volk has been serving as

the chief bankruptcy judge in the southern district since 2015. prior to that appointment, he worked as a career law clerk for some of our state's most distinguished jurists, including the judges charles hayden, john copenhager, blaine michael. judge volk is a graduate of west virginia college of law where he served as editor of chief for the law review. for more than a decade, he has taught courses ranging from bankruptcy to federal civil rights. i was very pleased at my suggestion that president trump nominated judge volk to continue his service on the district court, and i'm very pleased about that. i know that he will be a judge who will root his decisions firmly in the text and original meaning of our constitution and our statutes. i know he will be fair to all parties who appear before him, and i know that he will bring honor to our federal judiciary. besides all of his legal acumen,

which is tremendous, he is just a really decent man. he's a great family man who loves his family and who has remained very humble through all of his successes. with our actions today, and i thank my colleagues, the senate has now confirmed 156 judges nominated by president trump. that number now includes judge volk, as well as judge thomas cleeh who is now serving as the district judge in the northern district of west virginia. it includes 43 judges who now serve on our courts of appeals, and of course it includes two supreme court justices. it's important that the senate continue confirming well-qualified men and women who will faithfully apply the law to serve on our federal courts. i thank my colleagues again for confirming judge volk today and hope that we will continue to make judicial confirmations a priority as we move forward. thank you, mr. president.

mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent 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 each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that following leader remarks on thursday, october 17, the committee on environment and public works be discharged from further consideration of s.j. res. 53. i further ask that if the motion to proceed is made and agreed to, the time until noon be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees on the joint resolution, and that upon the use or yielding back of that time, the bill be read a

third time and the senate vote on passage of s.j. res. 53. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: is the vote message with respect to s.j. res. 54 at the desk? the presiding officer: it is. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the veto message on s.j. res. 54 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. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that at 1:45 tomorrow, the senate vote on passage of s.j. res. 54, notwithstanding the objections of the president to the contrary. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i have eight 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. mr. mcconnell: i understand there are two bills at the desk. i ask for their first reading en bloc. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the titles of the bills for the first time. en bloc.

the clerk: s.j. res. 58, expressing support for freedom of conscience. h.j. res. 77, opposing the decision to end certain united states efforts to prevent turkish military operations against syrian and kurdish forces in northeast syria. mr. mcconnell: i now ask for a second reading, and i object to my own request, all en bloc. the presiding officer: objection having been heard, the bills will receive their second reading on the next legislative day. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 358 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 358, designating the week beginning october 20, 2019, as national character counts week. 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: i ask unanimous consent the judiciary committee be discharged from further consideration and the senate now proceed to s. res. 356. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 356 designating september 4, 2019, as national polycystic kidney disease awareness day 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. 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. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the judiciary committee be discharged from further consideration and the senate now proceed to s. res. 324. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution

324, designating september 29, 2019, as national urban wildlife refuge day. 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. 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. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. res. 359 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 359, a resolution authorizing the use of the atrium in the philip a. hart senate office building for the national prescription takeback day and so forth. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will precede. mr. mcconnell: i further ask

the resolution be agreed to, and the motion 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 that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10:00 a.m. thursday, october 17. 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, and morning business be closed. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: so if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask it stand adjourned under the previous order, following the remarks of senator merkley. senator markey. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. markey: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. mr. markey: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise today to speak about the impeachment inquiry currently under way in the house of

representativesment. the house impeachment inquiry is a solemn and serious matter. it concerns the efficiently conduct of the president of the united states and it implicates matters of grave importance. our national security, the rule of law, and the very foundations of our constitution. we all, democrats and republicans alike, have a duty to defend our democracy, so when we are confronted with evidence that president donald trump abused his power and violated his oath of office by seeking foreign interference in our elections and then sought to cover it up, we have a constitutional obligation to investigate. the evidence we have already seen validates speaker pelosi's decision to open an impeachment inquiry and reinforces the need for this inquiry to continue unimpeded. indeed, donald trump himself has already confirmed key evidence. just look at what we know so

far. we know that donald trump asked a foreign power -- ukraine -- to investigate his political opponent. the president both