it's pertinent to our manufacturing workers important to our ag print indiana ranks number eight in terms of exports, soybeans corn and other commodities into x ago and canada so we've got to get this done for our farmers. 95% of our farms in indiana, family farms, small operations, this is about saving rural communities and present on the stock struck a good deal with nancy policy needing to move forward with it to sustain our economic health. >> we leave these marks from senate republic leaders to return of the u.s. senate. this afternoon i rise to urge my colleagues here in the u.s. senate to support the pending cloture motion on h.r. 3055 so we can get the appropriations

process moving. it's already day 22 of the current fiscal year. the entire federal government, madam president, as you know, is now operating under a continuing resolution, and in less than a month, that continuing resolution will expire. by this time last year congress had already funded 75% of the government, including america's military. it was the first time in ten years that congress had funded the military on time. that success paid huge dividends for our country and for our men and women in uniform. now they face an uncertain future. the prospect, madam president, of serial continuing resolutions -- or, worse, another government shutdown -- casts a dark shadow

over our previous success. such uncertainty also wreaks havoc on every federal agency's ability to plan, and it is acute when it comes to the military. madam president, as our military leaders seek to ensure that planning and operations keep pace with activities and challenges around the globe, they're faced with the hard reality that congress is not keeping pace with our own duties here. congress' failure to do its own job makes that of the military all the more difficult in this troubled world. i believe, madam president, that's unacceptable. nonetheless, we've hit a stalemate in the appropriations process lately. the clock is ticking on the continuing resolution, as i said, and we have to break through the logjam. i hope we can do it today. the only way to do that is

through bipartisan cooperation, as the presiding officer knows as a member of the appropriations committee and chair of a very important subcommittee. the vice chairman of the appropriations subcommittee, my good friend, senator leahy, the democrat from vermont, suggested that the senate proceed, first to a package of domestic spending bills to try to break the stalemate. this is what we're trying to do today. and in an effort to demonstrate good faith and get off the dime, that's what we're hopefully going to do later today. i want to thank -- take a minute to thank senator leahy for proposing a path forward out of our stall. i would also just like to emphasize to all my colleagues that the path -- this path leads to success if it ends with congress funding the entire government, not just part of it.

we have a lot of work to do, but we can do it. we have also before us the opportunity to get it done. so this is where we pick up today. last month the appropriations committee, as the chair knows, reported ten bills to the full senate. if we're able to proceed to h.r. -- house resolution 305, it is my -- 30 had 55, it is my intention to offer a substitute amendment that includes four of these bills which we passed out of the committee, each of which passed in a bipartisan way. what are those bills and what do they fund? the commerce department, the justice department, science bill -- we call it commerce, justice, and science. the agricultural bill. the interior bill. and the transportation, housing, and urban development bill. i want to take a minute, madam

chair, to thank the chairs of these subcommittees for their diligence in producing balanced bills. senator moran, senator hoeven, senator murkowski, and senator collins. i also want to thank their respective ranking members, the democrats, for their bipartisan cooperation here -- senators shaheen, senator merkley, senator udall, and senator reed. together, these four measures before us today account for nearly one-third -- one-third, madam president -- of all nondefense discretionary spending, consistent with the bipartisan budget agreement, they contain no new poison pills. and i would caution my colleagues on both sides of the aisle against pursuing poison pills -- poison pill amendments if we're able to proceed today. if we're to make any progress on

the 2020 appropriations bills, i think we must be true to our commitment enshrined in the terms of of the budget agreemeno refrain from such provisions, to move the process. i would also like to move this package through regular order so that we can return quickly to a second package that the majority leader spoke to us at lunch today about, that funds the military and many more other agencies. there's simply no excuse for further delay. with all that we ask from our military, with all the challenges that it already faces. but with all the additional uncertainties that stopgap funding creates, and with all that has been said recently about the need to support our allies and counter our adversaries around the world, i hope that our colleagues will not say to our men and women in uniform, we'll get to you later. we should instead capitalize on the good will that we're trying

to generate in this first package on appropriations by immediately moving to the next one that funds the military and so many other agencies. madam president, this process only works if we work together in a bipartisan way, as you -- the president knows. let's work together this afternoon and let's do our job so we can move forward for the american people. i think we should not leave our military and others to think that the government is in limbo any longer. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: madam president, i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: madam president, as the distinguished senior senator from alabama has said, we're going to be voting soon on our our -- many of us will vote on a cloture motion to proceed to h.r. 3055. now, i understand that once

we're on the bill, chairman shelby is going to offer a substitute amendment that will include four bills that were reported from the appropriations committee with every republican and every democrat voting for it. it's the agriculture bill, interior bill, the commerce, justice, science bill, and the transportation, housing and urban development bill. i know some feel that members of congress get so polarized because they are not having a unanimous vote that the sup rises in the east, but this is a case where they did. and our committee which has representatives of all wings of the republican party, all wings of the democratic party, we all voted aye, and i would urge my members to vote aye. now, i am pleased that the substitute package will not include military construction in

the veterans' affairs bill. let me explain why. the underlying house vehicle we're moving to contains the house version of the military construction and veterans' affairs bill, but the senate appropriations committee has not yet considered this bill. we have not had a debate in committee, we have not had a vote in committee. it would be premature to bring it to the senate floor. it is an important bill. it's an important bill that i have always supported because it funds critical programs, particularly for our veterans. but president trump wants to insist on using the bill to take funding from our troops and their families to fund his ineffective wall, a wall that he gave his word mexico would pay for it, and that's unacceptable.

you know, the veterans and military construction, look at the people who are affected by that. let's not get them tied up in a presidential campaign promise. let's look at the military families that are now living in substandard housing. look at the veterans not getting the care they need. the bill with the president's wall saying we would pay for it, not mexico, as he had promised, i would have been unable to support the cloture motion. i will have more to say about each of the four bipartisan bills included in chairman shelby's substitute when we return to the -- hopefully we can by tomorrow, but each one

funds programs important to the american people and our economy. they make critical investments in affordable housing, in infrastructure, in rural development, in our farming community, in our small businesses, in our environment. they are good bills. i was glad to work with senator shelby so we could have these bills before the senate. they speak to real needs of the american people. now, we have only four short weeks before the continuing resolution we're operating under expires. four weeks can go by very quickly around here. we need to do our work. we need to do it quickly. we should be able to enact all 12 appropriations bills into law i was going to say the senate deserves no less, the american people deserve no less. so i will continue to work with senator shelby and others both

republicans and democrats alike to get these bills done. madam president, i know we have a vote coming up soon. i would yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

the presiding officer: without objection. the question is on the bremberg 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? seeing none, the ayes are 50. the nays are 44. the nomination is confirmed.

under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. the senate will be in order. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: madam president? the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: thank you, madam president. i am rising once again to ask the senate's consent to move to the house resolution condemning the president's abrupt decision to withdraw u.s. troops from northern syria. despite the pandora's box of problems the president's decision has opened, the slaughter of our partners, the kurds, and i think many of us on both sides of the aisle ache for the kurds who risk their lives,

many of them lost their lives so our soldiers would not be in harm's way. the strategic gain -- could we have order, mr. president -- madam president, excuse me. the strategic gains of our adversaries in tehran, moscow and damascus and most troubling, the potential resurgence of is isis. the president has failed to articulate any strategy at all. we have asked to have secretary pompeo, secretary esper, director haspel come before us. they've canceled again today because they don't have a plan. now, this is america at risk. we in new york know better than anybody else how a small group of people, thousands of miles away, evil people can cause terrorism and hurt us.

and there is no strategy about what to do with the tens of thousands of isis prisoners and their fellow travelers who had been locked up and guarded by the kurds. no one believes -- and i've talked to the top military and intelligence people that either syria or turkey has the interest in preventing isis from escaping that we do. erdogan in fact hates the cirdz far more than -- kurds far more than he hates isis. so every day that this lack of policy, this lack of just common sense from the president and this white house puts american lives in danger. what's the best way to get the president to act? well, my friends, you know it. it's you. when republican senators protest what the president has done, he sometimes acts.

i guarantee you my speeches have had very little effect on him. but yours did. well, this is far more important than dural. this is america and lives at stake, our battle against terrorism which we fought jointly most of the time is now being jeopardized. and frankly, when leader mccarthy and representative scalise and representative cheney can vote for this kind of resolution, why should we not be doing the same? it will send a better message to the president than anything else we can do. my friend, the republican leader, says we need a stronger resolution. quibbling over words at a time when america is in danger doesn't make sense to me, particularly a resolution that he knows will not pass the house and not go to the president's

desk. so i would plead with my colleagues let's move forward. i plead with my friend from kentucky -- both my friends from kentucky. but i plead with the junior senator from kentucky to not stand in the way. he has a different world view than almost all of us. but we talked in -- we talked early this morning. i asked him was he against going after the taliban and bin laden when they hit us in america, in new york, and he said no. well, this is the same kind of thing. we're happy to vote on his resolution. let's vote on both. this is momentous. these terrorist acts from

escaped isis prisoners might not occur tomorrow. they might not occur six months from now. they might not occur a year from now but they may and they certainly, almost certainly will at some point in the future. and we will risk lives, american lives of our intelligence officials, of our special forces. we will risk security of america. we will spend millions of dollars. the sooner we can put this back and the only person who can is president trump and the only people who can really pressure him are sitting right here the better. i would plead with my colleague from kentucky and with all of us because even if he objects, we could pass in joint resolution within a few days to do it. our security, the security of this wonderful country and its beautiful 320 some odd million people deserve no less. i yield the floor. mr. paul: madam president? the presiding officer: the

senator from kentucky. mr. paul: reserving the right to object. mr. schumer: madam president? as if -- madam president, as if in legislative session, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar 246, h. j. res. 77, that the joint resolution be read a third time, the senate vote on passage with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. paul: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from kentucky. mr. paul: reserving the right to object. if democrats want to send our young men and women to fight in the syrian civil war, let's have that debate. by all means let's have the constitutional debate today on the senate floor right here right now. if democrats are so hungry for war, let's have that debate. our founding fathers gave us a constitutional method to go to war. if there be a national security interest in syria, let's hear it. the other side does not want that debate.

they want a lob invective at the president but they are prepared to debate about whom we are to go to war against. do they wish to declare war on our nato ally turkey. do they wish to declare war on our former ally the free syrian army or assad. they don't know. democrats just want to heap abecause on the president. they don't want to debate war because they have no clue on whom to declare war on. the president made the wise decision -- to move 50 soldiers out of the way of tens of thousands of turkish troops. ironically, the president's decision may finally allow the kurds to negotiate with assad for a semiautonomous region in northern syria. perhaps if the kurds pledge their battle-proven fighterrerso aside, they might receive a share in the oil receipts, much as the kurds did in iraq.

already we are seeing promising cooperation between the kurds and assad. this week turkish's erdogan met with putin. putin is already allied with assad. there is a possibility diplomacy may actually break through here. there is a real chance that the syrian civil war could come to an end if assad, with the kurds' help, would agree to secure the border and not allow kurdish raids into turkey. the permanent war caucus on both sides of the aisle claims that repositioning 50 troops is the end of the world? perhaps, just maybe, less of our presence in syria will actually lead to diplomacy and ultimately peace. only time will tell. i object. mr. schumer: madam president? the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. schumer: madam president, i don't want to prolong this. i make two quick points. number one, my friend from kentucky thinks he knows what's better for the kurds than the kurds know. the kurds hate going into the arms of syria, hate it. second, if our friend from kentucky believes that anytime

we've a small number of special forces in different places and we have them all over, that we need a declaration of war, then his view is different than 99.9% of america and from every other single person in this chamber. we do not need a declaration of war for a small number of special forces to be there to protect us against terrorism, and my friend from kentucky knows that. i yield. the presiding officer: the senator from kentucky. mr. paul: if our goal is to create a kurdish homeland and to defend it for them, hell yes we need a debate and a vote and authorization of force. you can't just say we're going to stay there forever. it would take tens of thousands of troops if you want to pacify certificatia. it's not been pacified for ten years. it's an utter and complete mess. it is time we get the hell out. the presiding officer: the the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion:

we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to calendar number 141, h.r. 3055, an act making appropriations for the departments of commerce and justice, science, and related agencies and so forth and for other purposes signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the motion to proceed to h.r. 3055, an act making appropriations for the departments of commerce and justice, science, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2020, and for other purposes, shall be brought too -- to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in the the affirmative, the motion is agreed to. cloture having been invoked, the senate will resume legislative session to consider the motion to proceed to h.r. 3055, which

the clerk will report. the clerk: motion to proceed to calendar number 141, h.r. 3055, an ability making appropriations for the departments of commerce and justice, science, and related agencies and so forth and for other purposes. mr. cotton: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. cotton: army corporal jerry garrison was reported missing in action on december 2, 1950. after all these years, corporal garrison is on his way home to be laid to rest with the full honor due to a member of the united states armed forces. corporal garrison was one of the chosen few who fought on that frozen ground to protect his fellow soldiers and the independence of the korean people against the communist hordes. god chose to call corporal garrison home during that epic

battle. but only recently were his remains discovered and identified. corporal garrison's funeral is a long-anticipated moment mourning and remembrance for his loved ones. let's also remember in our prayers the many families whose loved ones haven't yet come home. corporal garrison's recovery is a moment of hope for these families, a reminder that our nation won't rest until every one of our missing heroes is brought home. and it's a reminder to our troops in harm's way today that we will always bring them home, should they fall in the line of duty or go missing in action. we've now fulfilled that solemn pledge to corporal garrison. nearly 70 years after he went missing, we've once again affirmed that the united states leaves no man behind. rest in peace, corporal garrison. madam president, i ask consent

that the following remarks be entered in a separate part of the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cotton: 36 years ago this week, an iranian suicide bomber detonated thousands of pounds of explosives inside a marine compound in beirut, lebanon. so terrible was the blast that 15 miles out at sea, marines aboard the u.s.s. iwo jima could see black smoke. the devastating attack claimed the lives of 241 americans who were bravely keeping the peace in a country wracked by violence. a separate blast claimed the lives of 58 of our french allies. this anniversary is a sobering reminder that freedom comes at a price, a price too often paid by brave americans in uniform. in beirut, it was 220 marines,

18 soldiers -- 18 sailors and three soldiers. as a memorial to their valor, madam president, i ask consent to include their names in the record along with my remarks. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cotton: madam president, i yield the floor. mr. barrasso: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, madam president. mr. president madam president, i come to the floor today to discuss last week's 20 democratic debate and to discuss the topic of health care. despite all the political posturing, here's the key takeaways -- number once the democrats still want to take work-earned health insurance away from 180 million americans. and, number two, the democrats want to raise taxes on the

middle class and on all americans to pay for it. under the democrats' plan, people will lose forever the health coverage that they earned at work. that means union workers, their hard-fought health benefits, they'll disappear. it means that nevada food service workers, michigan autoworkers -- all will lose their earned health care. elizabeth warren and bernie sanders want to replace work-based insurance with a one-size-fits-all government-run scheme. at the same time, the 2020 democrats want to give free, taxpayer-funded health insurance to illegal immigrants. hard to believe, but that's the matter of fact. that's the democrats' so-called medicare for all plan. well, really it's one-size-fits-all government-controlled health care, and it is extremely expensive, even more expensive, madam president, than i

mentioned before on the floor because of a new study that's come out by something called the urban institute, a liberal group. they just reported the cost of medicare for all would be $34 trillion. that's $34 with a "t." $34 trillion. so let's naught into perspective. how much money is is that? well, over the next ten years, that's more money that we'll be spending on medicare, medicaid, and social security combined. it's an astronomically large number. so "the washington post" recently did a story -- and this was the headline: will medicare for all hurt the middle class? will medicare for all hurt the middle class? there is their sub-headline is, elizabeth warren and bernie sanders struggle with questions about its impact. and we've seen them struggle

about the impact of this very expensive one-size-fits-all plan. now, the story notes that senators warren and sanders are scrambling to easy concerns -- ease concerns over middle-class costs, because that's what people are concerned about in this country, madam president. it's the cost of health care. working families back home in wyoming and i talked with many this past weekend at our university of wyoming homecoming football game. people from all over the state, they are not fooled by what is being offered by the democrats in their debate. they know that they will have to pay dearly if the democrats' scheme is adopted and ever signed into law. well, "the washington post" story, they quote and cite ken thorp, who is an emory university health policy chair. this is what he says. he says, the plan is by design incredibly disruptive. he goes on to say, you create enormous winners and losers.

and he adds, there is no question that it hits the middle class. well, for the middle class, it is a double punch in the gut. and here's why. not only will the middle class lose their insurance, but their taxes will go up as well. so still -- now, senator warren, shell not answer the -- she will not answer the middle-class tax increase question. won't talk about it. she dodged the question again and again and again. and as the "post" reports, the senator says that she'll release a plan to pay for their proposal in the next few weeks but at the same time she continues to duck the tax question. last tuesday she repeatedly tapdanced around the issue on the debate stage. in fact, senator warren's debate performance reminded me of the artful dodger in dickens novel "oliver twist." she said, out-of-pocket health care costs will go down. that's what she said. yet she failed to mention that

much, much more will be taken out of middle-class pockets in huge tax hikes. it's interesting when you see how this is covered around the world, the british publication "the economist," they've been living with the british health care system for many, many years. they point out that elizabeth warren repeatedly refuse to say that she will pay for the plan. they say she ducked the question six times. during the debate it was senator sanders who jumped in to set the record straight. burn knee sanders said, quote, i don't think it's appropriate to acknowledge that taxes -- i do think it is appropriate to acknowledge that taxes will go up. he's even promised to raise taxes on lower-income americans because what he has said -- he said, if you're making more than $29,000 a year -- and i'm not talking about an individual, a family here. if you are a a. family making more than $29,000, you will be

paying more in taxes under the plan that is promoted by bernie sanders and elizabeth warren. then there's the warning from the university of chicago economist katherine baker. she said, these are going to be huge tax increases. she said, the tax brackets may have to shift. and last week's "wall street journal" editorial was headlined, warren's middle-class tax dodge." it explained the whole thing. it said, the only way to pay for this plan is to raise taxes on the middle class, which is where the real money is. so to sum up, while senator warren continues to dodge the tax issue, senator sanders admits medicare for all will raise taxes on just about everyone. under the warren-sanders plan, middle-class tax raise will see taxes even rise for lower-income families. we're talking about family income $29,000. here's the bottom line.

americans will not tolerate insurance going away and will not tolerate taxes going up. they want to keep their health care plan, and they want it at a lower cost. so we have a choice to make. we can work together to lower cost without lowering standards or follow the 2020 democrats pushing for their $34 trillion one-size-fits-all plan. don't let this artful dodger act fool you. senator warren and senator sanders support the same plan. they won't lower health care costs, but they will raise everybody's taxes. they won't improve care, but they will take coverage away from 180 million americans who now get it through work. now, as a doctor, i want to improve patient care. i want to make health care more affordable. republicans are 100% committed to protecting patients with preexisting conditions.

we continue to work on bipartisan solutions, real reforms to lower the cost of everyone's care. meanwhile, the solution we heard last week on the debate stage, the 2020 democrats' solution is to force all of us to pay more, to wait longer for worse care. that's what they've seen in canada, that's what they've seen in england, and that's what we will see in the united states if this one-size-fits-all plan were to ever be placed into effect. let's give patients what they want, which is the care they need from a doctor they choose at lower cost. thank you, madam president. and i yield the floor.

mr. enzi: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. enzi: madam president, i come to the floor to discuss legislation approved by the house of representatives that would leave taxpayers holding the fiscal bag for a specific category of underfunded private pension plans. throughout most of my professional life from my days as an accountant to my service as the mayor of gillette wyoming and in the wyoming legislature and to my membership in the senate health, education, labor, and pensions and then on the finance committee, i've worked on pension policy. the experience has taught me many things about retirement security and the need for sound planning.

my concern with the house-passed bill is not just its immediate cost to taxpayers but also what it would mean down the road. the bill would send the signal to private pension plans that regardless of how underfunded they are or how risky their investments, the taxpayer will be there to bail them out. pensions are an important source of retirement income for millions of americans, but many private-sector multiemployer pension plans are seriously underfunded. these are plans sponsored by a group of private employers as part of a collective bargaining agreement with their employees and are separate from the single-employer plans, which are generally better funded. according to the pension benefit guaranty corporation, multiemployer pension plans are underfunded by who are than $637 billion.

that's $637 billion underfunded. now, out of the 1,247 multiemployer pension plans -- that's how many there are, 1,247 multiemployer pension plans that we have information on, 1,235 are underfunded. that's 1,235 out of 1,247. that would be 12 that aren't underfunded. in july of this year, the house of representatives passed the rehabilitation for multiemployer plans act of 2019, which would bail out some of the worst-funded multiemployer plans at the taxpayers' expense. the bill would provide a combination of low-interest loans and direct cash payments to the private sector. those multiemployer plans are

currently insolvent or designated as critical and declining. now, the official congressional budget office cost estimate of the bill says it would increase deficits by $49 billion. -- over the next ten years, as a separate analysis, i requested from the budget office points out, the true cost and risk to taxpayers is actually much higher. first, the bill includes a handful of revenue provisions to help offset its cost. but the house included these same provisions in a separate bill it passed earlier this year. without this $16 billion in double-counted revenues, the bailout's bill price tag jumps to $65 billion over the next decade. second, the analysis projects that most pension -- most pension plans would not fully replay their loans without the grant assistance provided in the bill. what that means is that these

plan providers are going to use taxpayer dollars to help repay loans made to them by taxpayers. that's quite a deal. further, the budget office's analysis shows that even with these taxpayer-provided grants, one-quarter of the plans receiving loans under the house bill would become insolvent within the 30-year loan period. c.b.o. projects that most of the other plans would become insolvent in the decade after they repaid their loans. all this begs the question, then what? third, as i alluded to a moment ago, much of the bill's cost doesn't show up in the first ten years. those are all projections for the first ten years. those cited costs were for the first ten years only. when you consider the total amount of new spending the bill authorizes over the next several decades along with the added interest costs we will have to

pay, the total cost would be more than $100 billion. and to add insult to injury, the house would not resolve the larger multiemployer pension crisis. the bill would only apply to those that are currently insolvent or critical and declining. it would not address the many other plans that are treading water now but will face insolvency in the future. and you can bet that if this bill goes through, those plans will be expecting their bailout when the time comes. what a precedent. all of this is setting up for additional bailouts in the future, potentially putting taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars. only about 12% of the private-sector workers participate in a pension plan, and even smaller number

participate in these multiemployer plans. this bill would put the vast majority of workers who don't have their own pension plans on the hook for bailing out the small percentage who do. that hardly seems fair. hardworking americans overwhelmingly agree that we can't afford a pension bailout. a recent poll shows a majority of voters oppose a taxpayer-funded bailout of unfunded union pension plans. this is because voters know a bad deal when they see it. before i close, i want to remind my colleagues that the federal government already has its own unfunded promises that need addressing, and these are programs that will affect the vast majority of americans. the social security trustees estimate that program's long-term benefit promises exceed its dedicated tax revenues by almost $17 trillion.

and medicare's long-term spending is projected to exceed its dedicated taxes and premiums by more than $40 trillion. we need to work to find solutions to address the federal government's own funding shortfalls for the vast majority of americans and not bail out underfunded private-sector pension plans. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that proceedings under the call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. collins: thank you, madam president. madam president, i'm pleased that the senate is beginning to be on the fiscal year 2020 appropriations bill for the departments of transportation, housing and urban development, related agencies. this bill has been included in the appropriations package that has just now been brought before this chamber. let me begin my remarks by thanking chairman shelby and

vice chairman leahy for their bipartisan leadership in advancing these appropriations bills to the senate floor. given that we reached a two-year bicameral, bipartisan budget agreement in august and the new fiscal year began on october 1, it is imperative for the senate to move these bills quickly and to go to conference with the house in order to avoid further continuing resolutions or even worse, a government shutdown. madam president, i also want to acknowledge the hard work and strong commitment of my friend and colleague, senator jack reed of rhode island, the ranking member of the t-h.u.d.

subcommittee. we have worked so closely together in drafting this bill which includes more than 950 requests from 75 senators. let me repeat that, madam president. we received 950 requests from three-quarters of our colleagues for ideas for this bill, for funding levels, and in support of certain programs. we evaluated all of them very carefully and accommodated as many as we could. the thud bill passed the full appropriations committee bill by a unanimous vote of 31-0. it reflects a truly bipartisan product. the allocation for the fiscal year 2020 transportation and housing appropriations bill is

$74.3 billion. that is $3.2 billion above the current funding levels. this additional funding is necessary because of rising rental costs across the country and a reduction in the receipts from the federal housing administration that are used to offset some of the spending in this bill. in spite of these considerable funding challenges, our bill not only fully funds the renewal of housing assistance for low-income seniors and other vulnerable populations, but also continues to provide robust investments in our infrastructure. for example, the bill provides $1 billion for the highly effective and popular build grant program.

the build program helps fund critical infrastructure projects that promote economic development and the creation of jobs. i'm proud to say that maine has won a build grant every year of this program, including a critical $25 million grant to replace the sarah mildred lawn bridge that is critical to the operations of the portsmouth naval shipyard in kittery, maine. particularly important to states like maine, the bill also provides much-needed highway resources. while only 19% of the u.s. population lives in rural areas, 46% of traffic fatalities occur in rural america.

that is because the roads and the bridges in the rural parts of our country are frequently in much poorer condition than in urban areas. building on the success of the rural bridge rehabilitation program, over the past two years, our bill provides $1.25 billion in dedicated funding for bridges that are deteriorating and nearing the end or have reached the end of their useful life. the bill funds the infragrant program which provides for rate projects. in fiscal year 2019, i was pleased to advocate for the maine department of transportation successful application to replace the

matawa state international bridge in northern maine. this project will help to replace a critical corridor and connector between matawaska and new bruns whisk on the -- brunswick on the dmaidian side of -- canadian side of the border and supports 8,800 direct and indirect jobs. right now, mr. president, that bridge has been posted and that means that heavy trucks are unable to cross in the most effective and shortest route between edmonston, new brunswick and matawaka, maine. this not only supports important infrastructure projects but also jobs and economic growth in each

and every one of our home states. mr. president, the american society of civil engineers conduction a comprehensive assessment of our nation's infrastructure every four years. its most recent report card from 2017 shows that america's infrastructure remains in poor condition with a grade of d plus. that should be a call to action to all of us. it is simply unacceptable. it creates not only safety problems but impedes economic development. one in 11 of our nation's bridges is rated as structurally deficient, and the average age of our country's more than 600,000 bridges is 43 years old.

our national highway system contains infrastructure that is now well past its useful life. some bridges are more than 100 years old, and many have had to be posted and are unable to accommodate today's traffic volumes. without the critical funding in the thud bill dedicated to bridges as well as the build grant program, we simply will not be able to make progress to improve our nation's infrastructure. mr. president, let me now turn to aviation. for aviation the bill provides $17.7 billion in resources for the federal aviation administration, the f.a.a., which allows us to fully fund air traffic control personnel,

including more than 14,000 air traffic controllers and more than 25,000 engineers, maintenance technicians, safety suspectstors -- inspectors and support staff. given the challenges of aviation safety particularly as has become evident with the boeing 747 max aircraft, the bill increases funding for aviation safety and aircraft safety and requires the f.a.a. to respond to each and every one of the recommendations made by the inspector general and the national transportation safety board once they are audits and reviews are completed. in addition, it requires the f.a.a. to move forward with the

rulemaking on safety management systems for aircraft manufacturers and to assess its own internal workforce. the bill also provides $1.2 billion for f.a.a.'s next generation air transportation systems programs, also known as nextgen to improve the efficiency and safety of the national airspace. this funding, mr. president, is critical for reducing delays and addressing congestion at some of our nation's busiest airports. of particular importance to rural communities, the bill fully funds the contract towers program and the essential air service program. in addition, the bill provides $450 million in airport improvement program above last

year's -- in keeping with the authorized level. this supplemental a.i.p. funding has been extremely helpful for small airports in maine that otherwise would not be able to complete runway extension projects that are vital for air ambulances. turning to maritime programs, our legislation provides full funding for our nation's state maritime academies as well as the merchant marine academy, all of which play critical roles in training the next generation of u.s. mariners. the bill provides 3$00 million for the third special purpose vessel to be used as a training school ship for the state maritime academies. in accordance with the guidance

provided three years ago by merit, new training ships will replace existing aging training ships in the order in which those ships are expected to reach the end of their useful life. over the past two years we have funded replacement ships for the new york state maritime academy and the massachusetts maritime academy. funding this bill will replace the aging vessel at the maine maritime academy, which was next on the list. these new ships provide training capacity for all six state maritime academies and ensure that cadets receive the training hours they need to graduate and join the workforce in the merchant marine, the navy, and the coast guard. in the area of housing,

mr. president, our priority is to ensure that our nation's most vulnerable do not lose their housing assistance and become homeless. therefore the bill provides necessary funding increases to cover the higher costs of rental assistance for the most vulnerable among us, including disabled citizens and our low-income seniors. senator reed and i share a strong commitment to reducing and ending homelessness and have included $2.8 billion for homeless assistance grants to help our homeless youth and underserved pop -- an underserved population, we provide $80 million for grants. many members share my concern that young people are aging out of the foster care system and have nowhere safe to go.

far too frequently they end up couch surfing or living on the streets vulnerable to those who would abuse them. to better support our youth who are exiting the foster care system who are at risk of becoming exploited or homeless, the bill also includes $20 million for family unification vouchers. for our nation's homeless veterans, the bill provides $40 million for the successful h.u.d. bash program. mr. president, in the land of the provide -- in the land of the brave there should always be a home for our veterans. despite the administration once again proposing to eliminate this highly successful program, the committee continues to

provide funding. this program has been so successful that it has helped to reduce veterans homelessness by nearly 50% since it was first started in 2010. another important issue, particularly to senator reed and to me, is dealing with lead paint in homes. that is of particular concern to families with children under age 6. the bill provides $290 million to combat lead hazards, an historic level of funding. lead paint hazards are a significant concern for maine families as 57% of our housing stock was constructed prior to

1978, the year that lead-based paint was banned. these grants will help communities protect children from the harmful effects, what can be lifelong effects of lead poisoning. the bill also supports local development efforts by providing $3.3 billion for the community development block grant program, another program that the administration proposed to eliminate but for which we had overwhelming support expressed in letters from our colleagues. the reason why the community development block grant program is so popular is its flexibility. it can be tailored to meet local needs. we've also included $1.4 billion

for the home program. these two programs support the development of affordable housing and other infrastructure projects and revitalize downtowns. that, in turn, promotes economic development and leads to the creation of more jobs. mr. president, i appreciate the opportunity to present this important legislation to the chamber as we begin debate on the transportation h.u.d. funding bill, i urge my colleagues to support the investments in this bill that benefit our communities all across this nation and the families, veterans, children, and our seniors that rely on these vital programs. mr. president, let me just end my remarks by again thanking my colleague, friend, and ranking

member, senator reed, for his close collaboration, his hard work. i'm very proud of the fact that once again this year we have produced a bipartisan bill that was unanimously approved by our committee. thank you, mr. president.

the presiding officer: the senate majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the cloture motion with respect to the motion to proceed to h.r. 2740 ripen at a time to be determined by the majority leader in concurrence with the democratic leader. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i know of no further debate on the motion to proceed. the presiding officer: if there's no further debate, the question is on the motion to proceed. all in favor say aye. opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the bill. the clerk: calendar number 1241 -- 1241, an act making appropriations for the departments of come hers, science and -- commerce, science

for fiscal year 2020 and for other purposes. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. shelby: i call up substitute amendment 948. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from alabama, mr. shelby proposes an amendment numbered 948. mr. shelby: mr. president, i ask consent the reading of the amendment be waived at this time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i call up amendment 950. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from kentucky mr. mcconnell for mr. shelby proposes an amendment number 590 to amendment numbered 948. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent the reading of the amendment be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar 457. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, the

judiciary, justin reed walker of kentucky to be united states district judge for the western district of kentucky. mr. mcconnell: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: cloture motion, we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of justin reed walker of kentucky to be united states district judge for the western district of kentucky signed by 17 senators as follows. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to.

mr. leahy: mr. president, i understand we're waiting for another senator and when he arrives, of course i'll yield. i'd ask unanimous consent that bob ross, a detailee on the agriculture subcommittee -- a detailee on the interior subcommittee, olivia matthews, an intern on my appropriations committee, be granted floor privileges for the length of the current debate and h.r. 3055, justice, science, agriculture, rural development, food and drug administration, interior and environment, veterans affairs, transportation, and housing and urban development appropriations act of 2020.

the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: mr. president, i was just talking with the distinguished senior senator from alabama a couple of minutes ago. i know he has spoken and we have begun consideration of the bill containing the fiscal year 2020 commerce, justice, science, agriculture, interior, transportation, housing, urban development. i mentioned this because all four of these bills are the product of hard work and bipartisan cooperation by each of the subcommittees. and they're reported from the appropriations committee unanimously. every single republican, every single democrat voted for it. and made critical investments in affordable housing and infrastructure, rural development, our farming communities, small businesses, science, and our environment. they're good bills.

i'm glad to have them before the senate. i want to thank the chairs and ranking members of the subcommittees and their staff for the good work. senators hoeven and merkley, senators murkowski and udall, senator collins and reed, and senators moran and shaheen. they all worked so closely together. they showed that despite the difficult atmosphere we often operate in, the appropriations committee can still put partisan disputes aside and make strong investments in the priorities of our american people. the agriculture bill continues the significant progress made by this committee and in the 2018 farm bill, real wins for farmers and families in rural communities throughout vermont and across the country. the bill rejects the disastrous cuts the trump administration proposed for farm conservation,

rural development and rural energy programs but instead makes important investments in farming communities. i do speak -- i'm pleased that this bill further invests in the viability, really corner vermont industries including dairy, maple, and organics. the interior bill makes significant and necessary investments in clean water, clean air, storage -- stewardship of our public lands and critical funding through the environmental protection agency. it will support water quality, habitat and fishery restoration and invasive species in lake champlain. they'll also increase funding for the land and conservation fund. that will support efforts in vermont and across the country. the transportation, housing,

urban development bill, critical support for infrastructure programs. vermont and states across the country rely heavily on these federal programs. it also invests in our nation's rail systems. i hope it will help extend and maintain rail service within my state of vermont and rejects the administration's request to eliminate programs that support our communities, including home, community development block program. the commerce, justice, science bill makes critical investments in economic development programs. but it also invests $7.76 billion for the 2020 census, results which determine how we distribute $900 billion in federal spending every year. once a decade investment is critical. so four good bipartisan

measures. i urge all senators to support it. we have only four short weeks before the continuing resolution we're operating under expires. we need to do our work. we need to do it quickly so we can enact all 12 appropriations bills into law. these four bills are a good start. i'd ask unanimous consent my full statement be made part of the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: and, mr. president, i see our distinguished leader, the man we all must rely on, on the floor. so i will yield to senator durbin. mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: let me thank the senator from vermont for his kind words. i prove to proceed to calendar 258, senate joint resolution 50. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: motion to proceed to

s.j. res. 50 providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, united states code of the rules submitted by the internal revenue service, department of the treasury, relating to contributions in exchange for state and local tax credits. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 258, s.j. res. 50 providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, united states code of the rules submitted by the internal revenue code, department of the treasury relating to contributions in exchange for state or local tax credits. the presiding officer: under the -- pursuant to the provisions of the congressional review act, 5u.s.c.802, there will be up to ten hours of debate equally divided between those favoring and those opposing the joint resolution.

mr. reed: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mrreed.mr. reed: i rise -- and d agencies or the t. you h.u.d. appropriations bill. i worked closely with chairman collins. i want to salute her for her excellent work, her leadership. this is a bipartisan bill which includes key investments in the transportation and housing infrastructure. it has not been an easy job but senator collins' leadership and her thoughtful approach and our collaboration i think has helped us present a bill to the united states senate which is more than worthy of support. while the budget agreement provided a 4% increase to our allocation, we actually had $1 billion less in spending power compared to 2019 due to declines and offsetting collections and increased costs for renewal in h.u.d.'s rental assistance

program. but working together and with the input, rather, of most senators, we were able to put together a solid bill that earned unanimous support in the committee. while we were challenged in developing this bipartisan bill, other subcommittees had faced an impossible task as the majority caters to the president's demands for a border wall and places no guardrail to prevent diversion of defense fund toses pay -- f -- for it. i hope the president will heed the majority leader's axiom that there is no generation in the second kick of a mule. but the minibus package before us is a good start to a process that will hopefully deliver final bills to the president's desk before thanksgiving. the thud bill provided in this package provides critical funding to repair our bridges, roads, transit systems in order

to maintain the reliability of these investments. this will support economic growth and help address the deferred maintenance backlog. it rejects the president's proposal to cut amtrak funding in half and phases out long-distance passenger service. we provide $2 billion which will replace the north fleet replacement and invest in bridge and tunnel replacement projects. the thud bill prioritizes funding for aviation safety in order to enable the department of transportation and the f.a.a. to address, identify weaknesses in the aircraft certification process. chairman collins and i have consistently worked to support f.a.a.'s safety mission, often exceeding the budget request each year to accomplish that. we have been disturbed by many

of the official findings and unofficial reports on the max certification and the culture of the f.a.a. as the f.a.a. reassesses the safety performance and the findings of the inspector general, the national transportation safety board and other inquiries, we will work to adjust funding to fully execute all official recommendations in a timely manner. i cannot emphasize enough the importance of enacting a full-year thud bill to address the f.a.a. safety an operational demands. if we end up with a year-long continuing resolution, we will have missed the opportunity to respond based on what we have learned in the aftermath of the devastating 737 max crashes. it's also important to pass this bill because it upholds our longstanding commitment to making housing affordable for five million low-income families an provides funding for innovative solutions to address homelessness among the more than half a million americans who are

without stable housing. we rejected the president's ill-advised proposal to cut $12 billion in community and economic development programs like home, cdbg and publicousing. these bipartisan programs are critical components to bridging the gap between stable housing and homelessness for so many working families. the bill continues to invest in programs that prevent veterans homelessness by eliminating the should dash -- h.u.d. dash program. we provide $30 million for new housing vouchers to help veterans gain access to safe and stable housing. this year we will able to provide funding to remediate lead-based paint and other hazards in low-income housing and expand these initiatives to our public's housing. i'm proud of the bill before us, but i want to work with my

colleagues to make amendments even better. i encourage senators to file amendments as soon as possible. before i conclude, let me compliment my colleagues who are managing the other bills. commerce justice and science, agriculture and interior, they have done excellent work, chairman shelby and vice chairman leahy. i hope we can complete our work on all 12 appropriations bills before november 21. finally, our efforts were immensely aided and assisted by an extraordinarily dedicated staff at the thud staff, i want to congratulate the majority counsel and minority counsel which motivated their staff to go above and beyond and that's one of the major reasons today senator collins and i can stand with a very good bill to present

to the united states senate. with that, mr. president, i would ask permission to make a presentation that was previously scheduled on another topic. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reed: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise today to highlight my concerns about ongoing russian information warfare operations against the american people, including in the upcoming 2020 elections. the lack of strategy for the administration to counter an detour these attacks. i would also like to explain how statements by the president soliciting foreign governments to investigate political rivals for his personal benefit are part of a disturbing pattern of behavior that reinforces russian disinformation narratives and has implications for our national security the and the integrity of our democracy. it has been almost three years since russia interfered in our democracy during the 2016

presidentialelection. these hybrid warfare tactics are not simply opportunistic meddling by russia. russia's purpose is to further its strategic interest. russian president vladimir putin knows for now russia cannot effectively compete with the united states through conventional military means and win. instead, putin seeks to use tools from his hybrid warfare arsenal to divide the united states from our allies in the west and weaken institutions and open societies within. by weakening our democracy, putin can improve russia's perceived standing globally. similar to the other tools in its hybrid arsenal, they have been working on their warfare

playbook, with the technical operations in capability, sophistication and boldness. lessons learned from previous information warfare campaigns culminated in the attacks that the kremlin unleashed in the united states in the 2016 presidential election. the 2016 informational warfare campaign, according to our intelligence community, in their words, demonstrated a significant escalation in directness, level of activity and scope of effort compared to previous operations. special counsel mueller's report confirmed these assessments and detailed how the kremlin used information warfare operations among other warfare tactics, in the words of the mueller report, in sweeping and systematic fashion. the recent release of the volume two of the bipartisan investigation by the senate

intelligence committee on russian active measure campaigns and interveerns in the 2016 u.s. elections affirms both the experience community's assessment from 2017 and the special counsel's investigation. the committee, again on a bipartisan basis, concluded that, in their words, russia's targeting of the 2016 u.s. presidential election was part of a broader sophisticated and ongoing information warfare campaign. from these assessments and reports, we have been able to reveal aspects of the kremlin's playbook. in the 2018 mid-term elections, the government took steps in coordination with social media companies to disrupt kremlin praiptions. but as a nation, we have not undertaken a collected examination as we did after the terrorist attacks on september 11, 2001, to

understand what happened and how we should recognize our serves an reorganize ourselves, our government and our society to prevent it from ever happening again. to make matters worse, the findings of the special counsel's report, a detailed report on how kremlin actors attacked our democracy -- this absence of a krensive -- comprehensive assessment and the president's nonseriousness has implications for our national security as we prepare for the 2020 elections. equally troubling, the president has consciously or unconsciously has themes for operations on the campaign trail, including comments over the summer that our elections are rigged and that there were illegal voters cast in so-called blue states. not only does the president give the impression that he is

unbotherred by this interference in 2016, he appears to be openly asking for help in 2020 and willing to ledge the power of his office to get that assistance. you only have to look as far as his phone conversation with the ukrainian president where he asked for a favor to deliver weapons. or the president publicly inviting china to start an investigation into the biden family and saying, if they don't do what we want, we have the power. he said in an interview with abc news when he said he doesn't see anything wrong with taking help from a -- for a political campaign. he broadcast to the world that he is willing to throw the interest of the united states overboard if it means helping with his reelection process. these statements also have the

intended or unintended effect of disfurtherring russian campaigns, including that our democracy is fraudulent. this is part of a troubling pattern of behavior and must be called out for what they are. they are wrong. the president's troubling behavior coupled with the unwillingness to counter and deter this maligned influence is to the peril of our national security and the integrity of our democracy. we cannot allow this course to continue uncorrected. in order to further understand these dynamics and what to do to counter them, i want to highlight three aspects of the russian warfare playbook that we can anticipate will be deployed in 2020. the first aspect is the

kremlin's credibility and the recruiting of local surrogates to wittingly or unwittingly advance the kremlin's agenda. and how the trump campaign wittingly or not embrace that tactic. i will offer how we will look at foreign adversaries. this is supporting candidates that advance the kremlin's interests. for the 2020 election, that a trump presidency would advance their interests. maligned influence campaigns aided then-candidate trump. the intelligence community unanimously assessed in january 2017, again in their words, putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the u.s. presidential election to denigrate secretary

claind harm her electability and potential presidency. putin and the russian government developed a clear preference for president-elect trump. and a treent report by the senate -- and a recent reported by the senate intelligence committee arrived at a stronger conclusion that the kremlin-linked organizations social media activity was avertly supportive of then-candidate trump and to the detriment of secretary clinton's campaign. the special counsel's report that russian aim to bolster their candidate, that the russian would succeed from a trump presidency. the report described in detail how russia's two main warfare operations, the manipulation of social media and the hacking of stolen information favored

donald trump and disparaged hillary clinton. with regard to the manipulation of social media, the february 2018 indictment by the special counsel of the kremlin-linked troll organization, showed how they bowled a specific candidate. kremlin-linked trolls used any opportunity to criticize hillary and the rest, except sanders and trump, we support them. the other information warfare effort was carried out by the military units or g.r.u., which stole private information to damage secretary clinton. the senate intelligence committee's recent report confirmed this tactic assessing information acquired by the committee of intelligence oversight social media company,

the special counsel's investigative findings and research by the commercial cybersecurity companies helped to carry out another vector of attack on the 2018 election, the dissemination of hacked material. one of the ways that the g.r.u. was able to amplify its ability was by collaborating with wikileaks. the special counsel found that in order to expand the interference in the 2018 presidential election, they transferred many of the documents they stole from the democratic national committee and the chairman of the clinton campaign to wikileaks. it must be noted that the special counsel has established that the organization wikileaks was not just acting as an unwitting stooge for the russians. wikileaks had a role in the amplification of these information warfare operations. the special counsel's indictment

from july of 2018 stated that g.r.u. officers posing as a fake persona gucifer2.0 discussed the release of the documents to heighten their impact on the 2016 presidential elections. the special counsel's report further described how as reports attributing the d.n.c. or d triple c hacks the russian government emerged wikileaks and wikileaks founder julian assange made several public statements designed to stir -- that wikileaks was releasing. the weaponnization of this information stolen by the g.r.u. units through wikileaks was an important aspect of the kremlin support to then-candidate trump and heightened the impact of these operations against our elections. and the special counsel's report detailed a third line of effort

to advance russia's preferred candidate. the information warfare campaigns were conducted in coordination with outreach to the trump campaign to kremlin and kremlin-linked individuals. these overtures including office of assistance to the trump campaign, a quote from the special counsel's report. in contrast the special counsel's office found no parallel efforts of assistance directed towards secretary clinton's presidential campaign and in fact found the opposite. with regards to the manipulation of social media by kremlin-linked trolls, the special counsel's report stated, quote, by february 2016 internal -- that's the internet research agency documents -- referred to support for the trump campaign in opposition to the clinton campaign. and further states that throughout 2016, the internet research agency accounts published an increasing number of materials supporting the trump campaign and opposing the clinton campaign.

the special counsel's february 2018 indictment of the internet research agency described additional evidence -- efforts to oppose the clinton campaign, including information warfare campaigns across social media platforms designed to peel off certain groups that are traditionally identified as reliable democratic voters. the indictment stated, quote, in or around the later half of 2016, the internet research agency began to encourage u.s. minority groups not to vote in the 2016 u.s. presidential election or to vote for a third party presidential candidate. the recent senate intelligence committee report also affirmed this finding concluding that no single group was targeted more than african americans. and let me emphasize again this senate report was a bipartisan effort. president putin all but confirmed support for the trump campaign -- in july of 2018 at

the helsinki summit. when asked by the press if he wanted trump to win the election and whether he directed any kremlin officials to help with these efforts, putin replied, yes, i did. because he talked about bringing the u.s.-russian relationship back to normal. i think in this instance and it's rare we should take putin's word for it. equally disturbing, the special counsel provided significant evidence that president trump and his associates embraced, encouraged, and applauded russian support. the special counsel's report definitively concludes that russia saw its interest aligned with and served by a trump presidency, that essential purpose of the russian interference operation was helping the trump campaign, and that the trump campaign anticipated benefiting from the fruits of that foreign election interference. the special counsel report detailed evidence showing how trump embraced russian information warfare campaigns that sought to help him and damage his opponent. the evidence is overwhelming that the trump campaign

encouraged this interference in the presidential campaign even as it became increasingly apparent that russia was behind these attacks on our democracy. one example of embracing kremlin and kremlin-linked help is trump campaign associates, including the president's son, son-in-law, and then-campaign chairman meeting with russian agents in the hope of gaining dirt on secretary clinton. the e-mail to set up the meeting to donald trump, jr., held the kremlin's intentions plain as day. the offer was, and i quote, to provide the trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate hillary in her dealings with russia and would be useful to your father. as part of russia and its government support for mr. trump. trump, jr. embraced this and responded, quote, if it's what you say, i love it. i think that response speaks for itself. yet another example of this behavior was the trump

campaign's promotion of wikileaks' release of information stolen by g.r.u. the special counsel's investigation showed that, quote, the presidential campaign showed interest in the wikileaks, releases documents and welcome their potential damage to candidate clinton. on june 14, 2016, "the washington post" reported that washington government hackers were behind the hack in the d.n.c. and the dccc. mid june 2016, the trump campaign had a good idea that the stolen information distributed by wikileaks about the d.n.c. was stolen by russia. the mueller report described by the late summer of 2016, the trump campaign was planning a press strategy, a communications campaign, and messaging based on the possible release of clinton e-mails by wikileaks. by october 7, the department of homeland security and the office of the director of national intelligence issued a joint

statement naming the wikileaks disclosures as, quote, consistent with the methods and motivations of russian-directed efforts to influence public opinion and were, in their word, intended to interfere with the u.s. election process. if not prior to the release of that joint statement certainly by that point the president and his campaign should have known better. instead they appeared willing to embrace these russian information warfare campaigns aimed at damaging their oppone opponent. the special counsel's january indictment of long time trump associate roger stone further details how trump associates sought information about wikileaks' releases of stolen materials intended to damage secretary clinton. that indictment stated, quote, a senior trump campaign official was directed to contact stone about any additional releases and other damaging information wikileaks had regarding the clinton campaign. that indictment also showed that

october 7, 2016, a half-hour after the joint statement by d.h.s. and odni that wick kay leaks was part of russia's interference in the presidential elections. wikileaks disseminated the first set of e-mails. in response to those releases, quote, an associate of the high ranking trump campaign official sent a text message to stone that read well done. trump campaign associates applauded the actions by wikileaks which trump's then-c.i.a. director later labeled a nonstate hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like russia. instead of calling the f.b.i. the campaign celebrated and last month of the campaign alone, the president publicly boasted of his love of wikileaks at least 124 times. embracing wikileaks is not the

only example of the president's problematic embrace of russian information warfare operations. the president appears to have welcomed the gri's hacking -- g.r.u.'s hacking operation and its intention to damage its opponent's candacey. in july 2017 he announced publicly during a press conference, russia, if you are listening i hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing. i think you will be rewarded mightily by our press. and the special counsel's report confirmed that the g.r.u. tried to assist trump with those efforts finding within approximately five hours of trump's statement g.r.u. officers targeted for the first time clinton's personal office. this call for russia to hack his political opponent and find so-called deleted e-mails was not an isolated remark or sarcasm as the president likes to say. the special counsel report detailed that during the same period in their words trump asked individuals affiliated

with his campaign to find the deleted e-mails. michael flynn recalled that trump made this request repeatedly and flynn subsequently contacted multiple people in an effort to obtain the e-mails. further, as described in the special counsel's report, one of the people general flynn contacted to obtain secretary clinton's alleged deleted e-mails claimed he had organized meetings with parties we believe, quote, had ties and affiliations with russia. so the special council's investigation was not able to establish that flynn's contact interacted with kremlin-linked hackers. as brookings institution fellow benjamin wooty laid out in april, trump not only called publicly on the russians to deliver the goods on his opponent but he also privately ordered his campaign to seek the material out knowing that russia would or might be the source. as i mentioned earlier, the special counsel was not able to

find sufficient evidence to prove the trump campaign's embrace of kremlin or kremlin-linked operations constituted a crime beyond a reasonable doubt but clearly the special counsel established a breadth of episode where trump embraced operations in support of the campaign. maybe the acts don't meet a criminal standard but there are significant implications for this behavior. for instance, is it okay for a candidate to get elected president or elected to any public office by capitalizing on information stolen by a foreign adversary? will that be acceptable the next time around? will foreign campaigns targeting our elections be accepted as normal from now on? the actions of president trump indicate, unfortunately, it is acceptable in his view and even welcomed. and that is to the detriment of our national security and the integrity of our democracy. i'd like now to highlight a second aspect of the kremlin's playbook. operations to denigrate the

legitimacy of u.s. elections and democratic processes in general. the january 27 intelligence community assessment found that one of the main objectives of the kremlin-ordered interference into election campaign was for undermine the american public's faith in our electoral system. the intelligence committee assessed in january 2017 when it appeared to moscow that secretary clinton was likely to win the presidency, the russian influence campaign focused more on undercutting secretary clinton's legitimacy, including by impugning the fairness of the election. the intelligence community's assessment further stated, quote, bloggers had prepared a twitter campaign hash tag democracyrip on election night in anticipation of secretary clinton's victory. the special counsel report confirmed the intelligence community's assessment. the mueller report showed significant evidence how the kremlin-linked troll organization, the internet

research agency, deployed operations around the theme that the election was rigged, fraudulent or otherwise corruption. the special council's indictment of internet research agency officials february 2018 stated starting in or around the summer of 2016, the kremlin-linked troll organization also began to promote allegations of voter fraud by the democratic party through their fictitious u.s. personas and groups on social media. the kremlin-linked troll organization purchased advertising on facebook to further promote allegations of vote rigging including ads promoting a facebook post that charged, quote, hillary clinton has already committed voter fraud during the democratic iowa caucus. other examples include posts that voter fraud allegations were being investigated in north carolina on the internet agency's fraudulent twitter account at 10 underscore g.o.p. which claimed to be the

tennessee republican party. just days before the election the agency used the same fraudulent twitter handle to push the message hash tag voter fraud by counting tens of thousands of ineligible hillary votes being reported in broward county, florida. consciously or unconsciously, president trump also embraced this tactic from the russian information warfare playbook and ran with it. according to a "new york times" compilation, trump tweeted at least 28 times during the 2016 presidential campaign that the election, the electoral process, or certainly early voting procedures were rigged, fraudulent, and corrupt. let me give you a few examples. august 1, 2016, trump told a rally in ohio, i'm afraid the election is going to be rigged. i have to be honest. on september 6, 2016, he stated the only way i can lose in my opinion is if cheating goes on. go down to certain areas and

study to make sure other people don't come and vote five times. multiple press reports indicate that trump's campaign website invited supporters to serve as, quote, trump election observers to help him stop crooked hillary from rigging the election. at the final debate, trump indicated that he would not necessarily accept the results of the election, instead saying he would look at it at that time, alleging millions of people on the voter rolls shouldn't be registered to vote. at on ohio rally the next day, trump alleged that secretary clinton is a candidate to is truly capable of anything, including voter fraud. on october 21, 2016, trump told a rally in pennsylvania, remember, folks, it's a rigged system. that's why you have got to get out and vote because this system is totally rigged. in these instances and others, trump furthered the kremlin's

disinformation campaign by embracing and promoting the themes that our democratic system was rigged. as new yorker journalist jonathan blitzer observed, trump has taken the voter fraud concept to the extreme trying to delegitimize a national election even while campaigning for the presidency. it is wildly irresponsible to push conspiracy theories that threaten the integrity of our democratic system without any evidence. it is wrong when a candidate for president pushes conspiracy theories that advances the russian warfare interference campaign that our electoral system is rigged. these tactics also undermine the american public's faith in our elective system and strengthens putin's position. this is unpatriotic and cannot be accepted as part of our democracy. the mere idea that our entire

election system will be attacked by the russians to be delegitimized, to claim it is rigged and then to have those efforts echoed by the president does a huge disservice to the american public. if the american public does not have faith in the integrity of our electoral system, then we have profoundly lost a fundamental principle of our government that thousands of americans have defended over years and years of effort. our elections have to be protected. they can't be denigrated, and the denigration that we saw was outrageous. these two aspects of the kremlin 's playbook are supported by a third aspect -- the recruitment and exploitation of local surrogates. this process was described in an amicus brief from december 2017 tiled against president trump by former national security officials, including director of national intelligence clapper, c.i.a. and n.s.a. director

hayden, c.i.a. director brennan and acting c.i.a. director morrell. it stated, the russian government continues to use local being aers in a number of ways, including closer to a target especially one who would be hesitant to offer assistance to russian operative directly or manipulate a target to suit their needs. they use these agents to probe individual targets, to see if they might be open to a relationship or blackmail, and they recruit individuals within a country to help them understand how to appeal to u.s. populations and target and shape the contours of disinformation campaigns. the recent senate intelligence committee report affirmed these tactics, explaining, russian-backed trolls pushing disinformation have also sought to connect with and potentially co-opt individuals to take action in the real world. the special counsel's report described how the kremlin and kremlin-linked actors deployed these tactics in the united states to interfere in the 2016

election, including as early as 2014 the internet research agency instructed its employees to target u.s. persons to advance its operational goals. initially, recruitment focused on the one hand u.s. persons who could amplify posts at internet research agency. these grew over time to include assistance with organizing pro--trump rallies. the special counsel's indictment of the internet agency research officials stated by late august 2016 the internet research agency had an internal list of over 100 real u.s. persons contacted through internet research agency-controlled false u.s. persona accounts and tracked to monitor recruitment efforts and requests. these efforts to exploit local

surrogates including two different types of interactions with the trump campaign, according to the special counsel. reposting kremlin-linked troll content from social media and requests for assistance with organizing political rallies. this aspect of the kremlin playing -- recruitment and exploitation of local surrogates -- was embraced consciously or unconsciously by the president and his inner circle. it detailed how trump's family and campaign associates retweeted kremlin-linked posts, amplifying a foreign adversary's warfare campaign against our presidential election. the competition counsel found posts from the internet research agency controlled twitter account was cited by multiple trump campaign officials including donald j. trump)eric trump, kellyanne conway, brad

pascal appeared michael t. flynn much the posts these campaign surrogates cite or retweeted included two other aspects of the information warfare campaign, accusations that damaged secretary clinton's campaign and allegations of voter fraud. with regard to this act as well, the special counsel did not conclude there was enough evidence to establish that the embraced information was willful coordination by the trump campaign amounting to a criminal conspiracy. in may -- and may well be that the president and people around him didn't know that it wasn't the tennessee republican party but was in fact russian trolls thousands of miles away fraudulently pumping disinformation into our system. however, it still shows a willingness to embrace partisan advantage baseless, unsubstantiated allegations from unknown sources threatening the very fabric of our democracy. claims we know now were ginned

up by a foreign adversary. it may not be criminal but is incredibly reckless and wrong. it is not the state of conduct we should demand from someone seeking political office. and again this is part of a troubling pattern of behavior by the president. equally important, the election of a president who consciously or unconsciously immigrations the contact with foreign disinformation organizations has implications for our national security. as benjamin wittes from the brookings institution assessed that the internet research agency, a kremlin-linked troll organization, was able to get trump figures, including trump himself, to engage with and promote social media contact that was part of covert efforts to influence the american election shows a troubling degree of vulnerability to outside influence campaigns. now, unfortunately, we can

anticipate that these aspects of the playbook will continue and escalate in sophistication and scale in 20. the 2016 election was not just a one manufacture off operation for the kremlin. as then-director of national intelligence dan coates warned, russian maligned activities are persistent, pervasive and meant to undermine america's democracy. f.b.i. director christopher wray also emphasized similar concerns during a speech to the council on foreign relations stating, the threat from russian foreign maligned influence, quote, is not just an election cycle threat. it's pretty much a 365 days a year threat. director wray further warned, our adversaries are going to keep adapting and upping their game. the intelligence committee assessed in 2017 that the campaign against us represented a new normal in russian influence efforts in which moscow will apply lessons

learned from its campaign aimed at u.s. presidential elections to future influence efforts in the u.s. and worldwide. the recent senate intelligence committee's report concluded that information warfare attacks in 2016 represent only the latest instahlment in an increasingly brazen influence by the kremlin on citizens and democratic institutions in the united states. and director mueller told the house intelligence committee in july that russian interference wasn't a single attempt. they're doing it as we sit here. this interference has only increased in sophistication as the russians use lessons learned from attacks developed in the kremlin playing in 2016. we saw kremlin and kremlin-linked actors designed to advance their preferred candidate in the 2018 elections. on october 2018, department of justice indictment from the eastern district of virginia

detailed information warfare operations in 2017 and 2018 by the internet research agency leveraged to promote candidates aligned with president trump and denigrate candidates opposed to him, including anti-trump republicans. these operations demonstrated a high level of precision and specificity in messaging for the agency's employees including reference to relevant news articles and topical items of the day to promote russia's candidate and causes of choice. for example, the indictment cited how managers of the internet research agency provided employees a news article titled "civil war if trump taken down" and instructed them to use their fraudulent personas to name those who oppose the president and those who impede his efforts to impede his preelection promises. one of the targets of these efforts were anti-trump republicans. the trolling instructions

included detailed up to thes to include over social media platforms including, quote, focus on fact that the anti-trump republicans, a, drag their feet with regard to financing the construction of the border wall; b, are not lowering taxes; c, slandered trump and harmed his reputation (bring out mccain); d, do not want to cancel obamacare; e,are not in a hurry to adopt laws that oppose refugees coming to the middle east countries entering in country. this information warfare operation was designed to support the president in detail to sophisticated campaign deployed against an unwitting american public by told to be fellow citizens. as national security journalist natasha bertrand wrote in "the atlantic" detailed in the eastern district's entitlement, the messaging strategy minimum

micked the rhetoric that the internet research agency defloyd considerable effect during the presidential election. the partisan and at times hateful comments minimum mick the back and forth on social media but they seem to be those of real americans. she also observed how these messages promoted the president. the echo chamber between trump's election letter and that of the russian trolls was striking. russian information operations were not limited only to supporting president trump. the eastern district of virginia indictment also showed how the kremlin-linked troll organization worked to advance the republican challenges of several congressional races through a fraudulent twitter account called o.t.a. covfefe .net. it sought to the seek democratic

senators and represents in the 2018 midterm election. these demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of the american political system. we also saw evidence from the 2018 midterms of a second tactic from the kremlin's playbook that i discussed earlier attacking legitimacy of the election which is a fundamental attack on the democracy of this country. the ethic that holds us togetherment, too, the operation involved sophistication, the same indictment from the eastern district of virginia describes information warfare operations that worked to undermine legitimacy of the u.s. election. with specific messages for its employees to disseminate. one example from the indictment was instructions for the russian internet research agency employees to cite specific online articles on voter fraud. the criminal-linked troll deployed messages, quote, remind that the majority of blue states

have no voter i.d.'s which suggest that large-scale falsifications are bound to be happening there. the democrats in the coming election will surely attempt to falsify the results. the indictment also details how these information warfare campaigns were deployed across multiple platforms including being pushed out using multiple fraudulent twitter accounts to reinforce their messages. finally, we saw the continuation of a third aspect of the russian train. as the eastern virginia's indictment states, between march 2016 and around july 2017, while concealing its true identity, location and purpose, the kremlin-linked troll organizations used a false u.s. persona helen christopherson to contact individual groups in the united states to promote

protests, rallies and marches including by funding advertisers, rallies and supplies. the indictment further details how the troll organization use add different fake persona while concealing its true identity, location, and purpose to solicit at least one person presumed to be located in the united states tow assist with social media activities. these efforts to recruit surrogates including posting on and managing content on a fraudulent facebook page created specifically to further the russian information warfare campaign. as we have been warned, these operations will continue to look more american, and the kremlin and kremlin-linked agents will continue to try to recruit people in the united states to advance russia's hybrid operations. many of the president's national security officials have warned that we could see heightened russian information warfare attacks and other influence operations in the 2020

elections. even before the 2018 midterm, the homeland security, cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency director warned the minute -- the midterm is just the warmup or the exhibition game. the big game we think for adversaries is probably 2020. f.b.i. director wray echoed that assessment stating this spring that, quote, the 2018 elections were seen as a dress rehearsal for the big show in 2020 and that the f.b.i. anticipates the 2020 threat being even more challenging. former director of national intelligence daniel coates testified that the senate intelligence committee in -- to the senate intelligence committee in late january that in his words moscow may employ additional information tool kits such as spreading disinformation, conducting hack and leak operations while manipulating data in a more targeted fashion to influence policy, action, and elections. there are several examples which

further demonstrate how these efforts have become more sophisticated and persuasive. in 2016, russia disseminated what turned out to be authentic stolen information. however, just a few months later, during the french presidential elections, the kremlin and kremlin-linked actors disseminated a mix of real and fake information about then-presidential candidate emanuel macron to damage him and their preferred candidate. so next time foreign adversaries may use a mixture of real and fake information as part of their influence operations. we already saw a multicountry, multilanguage information warfare campaign uncovered by the atlantic counsel's digital forensic research lab that made use of fake accounts, forged documents, and dozens of online platforms to spread stories that attacked western interests in unity. it may be also hard to discern what's real and what's fake

because it will be more likely to look like it's coming from regular americans who are concerned about an issue. in february, 2018, russian experts have warned experts before the senate armed services committee on cybersecurity that russian information warfare campaigns in 2018 and 2020 will adapt and look more american, and it will look less russian. in addition, new technology, including the use of artificial intelligence and deep fake recordings that seem real are actually doctored or entirely fabricated, will add an additional layer of complexity and make it easier for us to thwart these operations. as then-acting director of national intelligence dan coates testified to the senate intelligence committee in late january, adversaries and strategic competitors will probably attempt to use deep fake or similar machine learning technologies to create convincing but false image, audio, and digital files to

augment influence campaigns directed against the united states and our allies and partners. despite these assessments by our senior national security officials and our intelligence community and voluminous evidence of the special counsel's indictments and reports, additional indictments to the department of justice and bipartisan reports from the senate intelligence committee, the president appears unwilling or unable to recognize the urgency of this national security threat or the need to immediately implement a comprehensive strategy to counter and deter russian hybrid warfare. instead of alerting americans to the threat, the president continues to ignore the analysis of his own intelligence agency instead of leading efforts to deter foreign adversaries, the president with the whole world watching at the july, 2019, g-20 osaka summit treated election interference as a joke, signaling to putin that he would not hold russia accountable.

and this doesn't only apply to past russian interference in the 2016 elections. the president's blind spot when it comes to russian election interference is harming our ability to counter further interference. "the new york times" reported in april that former homeland security secretary christian nielson was told not to bring up the issue of expected russian interference in the 2020 election with the president. acting chief of staff nick mulvaney said it, in his words, wasn't a great subject and should be kept below the president's level. the president's unwillingness to accept russia's interference and his public statements inviting other countries to interfere in future elections has created real impediments to formulate a whole of government and a whole of society strategy to counter and deter russia or others from attacking our elections. despite almost three years having passed since the 2016 election, the white house has not led efforts to develop a comprehensive strategy to

counter foreign election interference. while, as i mentioned, individual u.s. departments and agencies took steps to disrupt russia in the 2018 midterm elections, no wholesale strategies operations appear to have been i am -- implemented for 2020. don't just take my word for it. then-european commander for european and nato forces, general curtis gapperati, testified this spring to the senate armed services committee that u.s. efforts to counter russian influence operations still lacked, in his words, effective unification across the interagency. equally troubling was the assessment the united states has yet to develop a multifaceted strategy to counter russia. when christopher wray testified before the senate appropriations subcommittee on commerce, justice, science, and related agencies, he could not identify a lead person who was designated

to coordinate these efforts. this is despite a provision included in the fiscal year 2019 national defense authorization act, requiring the president to designate an n.f.c. official in charge of coordinating the u.s. government response to foreign influence operations. to date, no such coordinate has been named. moreover, the cybersecurity coordinate at the n.f.c. was dismissed over a year ago and that position remains unfilled. at the highest levels, we don't have anyone in charge. what additional steps can we take right now to protect the american people against interference campaigns by the russians and other foreign adversaries? campaigns we know are coming ahead of the 2020 elections? in the near term, i believe we must immediately adopt several measures that would provide additional tools to detect these information warfare operations and help reduce the american people's vulnerability to them.

we have no time to waste. first, we must designate the secretary of homeland security, with the concurrence of the director of national intelligence and the f.b.i. director, with responsibility for increasing public vigilance and reassuring the american people about the legitimacy and validity of our elections. this group of senior officials should be organized to detect foreign interference in our political process and expose maligned behavior, including on social media. in the run up to the election, this group must issue monthly public reports with a classified ad, if necessary, showing top trends in malign influence campaigns from countries identified as posing the greatest threats. they also must provide a public assessment as to whether these countries are engaged in interference in our elections 90 days prior to election day and again 30 days out. making such an assessment or requirement including a delivery

date will help inoculate these assessments from questions about political bias. and even after election day, we need to make sure this group is poised to affirm the legitimacy of the democratic process. no less than three days after the election, they must also make an assessment to the maximum extent possible where the foreign influence was detected. to further protect the group from accusations of political bias, the spot assessment should be backed up by a neutral nonpartisan panel which will review and certify the government's assessment in short order, such as within two weeks. these types of public assessments are not unprecedented. as i mentioned earlier, the office of the director of national intelligence and the department of homeland security made an announcement about russian influence operations ahead of the 2016 election. ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, the director of national intelligence, the adopt of justice, the f.b.i., and the department of homeland security

made a statement about foreign influence, and the president issued an executive order regarding elections interference ahead of the 2018 midterm elections which requires a 45-day report after the election assessing attacks from foreign adversaries. but these sporadic statements are not enough to reassure the american people. a report 45 days after the election is much too long to wait. the public must know that this group is going to keep us informed in real time in issue warnings regarding the threats. much of this idea was endorsed as a recommendation in the recent bipartisan senate intelligence committee report which calls for the executive branch to stand up a task force to continually monitor and assess the use of social media platforms by foreign companies for democratic interference that among other things would periodically advise congress and the public on its findings. second, we need a better understanding of how the kremlin

and other foreign adversaries are deploying disinformation and foreign influence operations across social media platforms. right now we are depending on social media companies to take down inauthentic accounts engaged in maligned influence activities. these companies have stepped up their efforts to identify or encounter these activities, something they failed to do in twaict, but ultimately they are for-profit enterprises and the government is -- on these platforms is limited. we cannot solely rely on the social media companies to look out for the public good and protect our national security. one way to increase transparency and help the american public understand the changing threat picture across the social media platform would be greater support for independent research with the participation of the social media companies and independent third party researchers to compile information, analyze trends relevant to for other purposes information operations.

such research would allow trusted independent researchers and academics to gain insight into cross platform and provide unless of foreign influence activities to the public. this mechanism could also provide an important tool for reforming our government's response to foreign influence and disinformation operations ahead of the 2020 elections. this concept also has bipartisan support from the senate intelligence committee which includes a similar recommendation in their recent report. we have proof that this concept works and is vital to national security. general paul nagasoni, commander of u.s. cyber command, publicly testified in both the senate armed services and intelligence committee that two two annal east done by independent researchers at the senate intelligence committee's behest were, in his words, a very, very helpful window into the adversaries' operations ahead of

the 2018 midterms. as our adversaries continue to evolve and adopt their techniques, we need to redouble our efforts to understand what to expect in the next election. third, we must reinforce the prohibition on candidates and campaigns assessing office of help from foreign adversaries interfering in our political process to advance their strategic interests. the trump campaign series of foreign context in the 2016 elections and the president's continued statements to solicit and show his willingness to accept foreign assistance from foreign governments make it clear that congress must act to prevent future interference efforts. that is why i'm a cosponsor of s. 1562, the foreign influence reporting and election act, or the fire act, introduced by senator warner. the fire act would require all campaign officials to report within one week any contact of foreign nationals attempting to make campaign donations or otherwise collaborate with the

campaign to the federal elections commission. the f.e.c. would in turn have to notify the f.b.i. within one week. it is in all of our interests to ensure that we can defend against foreign attacks on our democratic institutions and reporting these kinds of contacts to the appropriate authorities is our first line of defense. i'm disappointed that my republican colleagues have blocked senator warner's attempt to pass the fire act even after many of them insisted that politicians should report to the f.b.i. any contacts or offers of help by a foreign government. fourth, we should build up on the passage in the senate of s. 1328, the defending elections against trolls and enemy regimes act. this bipartisan legislation by senators durbin and graham was a step in the right direction by making improper interference in u.s. elections a violation of immigration law and violates both is deportable and eligible for visa into the united states.

these are some immediate steps we can and i would say we must take as a russian play for the 2020 election crystallizes, but we can already see a familiar pattern beginning to emerge. this is not hypothetical. just yesterday facebook announced it took down 50 accounts associated with an internet research agency. i've spoken about it consistently throughout my comments this evening. just yesterday they took down 50 accounts. these kremlin-linked trolls posed as real americans, including from swing states. they deployed information operation on social media to praise president trump and senator sanders and attack vice president biden and senators warren and harris, repeating tactics from 2016 and 2018.

facebook's authority stated we can guarantee bad guys are going to keep trying to do this. this is just one more confirmation that russia is deploying aspects of the same playbook in 2020. this time we know this information warfare campaign is coming. in fact, it's already begun. we need to build off what we have learned and what we anticipate coming next. we should be ensuring that we have in place counter foreign election interference and work together with private partners to continue to help the american people understand. we can speak the truth about how russia is exploiting our democracy and open society, to deploy its maligned influence playbook so that the public is not caught unaware of these sophisticated foreign tactics and attempts to manipulate the social media environment. we also cannot continue to let these moments pass without speaking about the tenets of our democracy and what it stands

for. russia exploited vulnerabilities in our society and their tactics were encouraged and amplified by a candidate seeking the highest office in the land. that candidate, now president appears to not change his behavior for the future. instead he has doubled down. congress as a body and we as a country must speak out and say this is not acceptable. it is not acceptable for candidates for political office, any political office, those seeking to hold a position of public trust, to seek to engage with our adversaries or foreign authoritarian regimes to advance their political campaigns. it is not acceptable to me with foreign agents about getting stolen information on your opponents, information acquired by foreign espionage, not acceptable to promote material stolen by foreign anniversary. it -- adversaries. it is not acceptable to promote

propaganda that work to delegitimize our democracy, a democracy generations fought and died to protect. any candidate for public office must be worthy of the american people's support. it is critical we unite in a bipartisan manner to take immediate action to counter these threats. the integrity of our lech -- electoral system is not a republican or democratic issue. it is an american issue. as abraham lincoln said, america will never be destroyed for the outside if we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. madam president, i yield the floor.

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: madam president, the senator from alabama, senator jones, and i have legislation that we propose to introduce tonight. i'm prepared to let him speak before i do because i understand he has another event. but i don't see him. so i ask -- i notice the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. alexander: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: i ask that the quorum be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: thank you, madam president. madam president, the senator from alabama will be here shortly and i'll go ahead and make my remarks and then he can add his. i ask consent that a piece of demonstrative evidence, that i may be able to use a piece of demonstrative evidence as a part of my remarks. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: madam president, about 400 million americans know what this is. this is the fafsa. this is the form that about 400 million -- excuse me. about 20 million americans fill

out every year in order to qualify for the pell grant and the student loan that they might use to go to college. 20 million americans. i was using 400 because it's about 400,000 tennesseans. they fill this out every year. and what senator jones and i propose to do is to reduce the 108 questions that are filled out online to between 17 and 30 as a way of making it simpler and easier for 20 million american families and their children and members to go to college. last month i received a letter from janet who volunteers with low-income students in nashville and has seen the challenges students and their families face to apply for college and financial aid. she describes the fafsa as, quote, being a huge impediment to students raised in poverty to even attend college. janet continued saying, quote, but a few years ago a different

hurdle became evident. she was referring to something called verification. she told the story of an excellent student who began classes at middleton state university but six weeks into her fall semester her fafsa was flagged for verification, a complicated process that stops pell grant payments while a student and their families scramble to submit their federal tax information or prove they didn't have to file taxes. quote, our student had to drop out of school as she lost funding, janet said. there has to be a better way. well, today senator jones and i are suggesting a better way. we call it the fafsa simplification act, to give students a better, simpler way to apply for financial aid. every year nearly 20 million families, as i said, fill out the fafsa to apply to federal student aid. that's 400,000 families in

tennessee. a volunteer mentor with tennessee promise, our state program which provides two years of free community college, told me that the fafsa has a, quote, chilling effect on students and parents. former tennessee governor bill haslam told me that tennessee has the highest rate for filling out the fafsa. more students fill it out than in any other state by percentage. but it's still the single biggest impediment to more students enrolling in tennessee promise, which gives them a free community college tuition. the fafsa simplification act will make it easier for families to apply for federal student aid by doing three things. first, it reduces the number of questions on the fafsa from 108 to 17 to 30 questions. second, it will greatly reduce the need for the burdensome verification that i discussed, the process that caused janet's student to drop out of school.

east tennessee state university said a third of its applicants, approximately 10,000 students, are selected each year for verification. and, third, this legislation will allow students to find out as early as eighth grade how much pell grant funding they may be eligible for so students can start to plan for college sooner. this result has been five years in the making. in 2014 at a hearing before our senate education committee, witnesses testified that the vast majority of questions on the fafsa are unnecessary. i asked of the four witnesses who came from many different directions, would each write a letter to the committee recommending how they would simplify the fafsa. the witnesses stopped for a moment, they looked at one another, and said we don't have to write you four letters because we all agree on how to fix the fafsa. we can write you one letter. and they did.

so senator michael bennet, a democratic member of the committee then, who was on the committee at the time, said, well if that's true and if there's that much agreement, then why don't we do what you recommend? i mean, how many times do we go home to tennessee, arizona, and alabama and explain something and people say well then why don't you do it? this is a case of well, then why don't we do it? and senator jones and i are here to ask that question reanld that we do. we started talking with other senators, students, other experts about how to simplify the fafsa. in 2015, senator bennet and i along with senator booker, senator burr, senator king, senator enzi, warner and isakson introduced bipartisan legislation that would reduce the number of fafsa questions to two questions. but after discussions with college administrators and states, we realized we needed to keep some questions where

states and schools would have to create their own additional forms that students would need to fill out. over the last four years we've improved that legislation. we now believe that what senator jones and i are proposing will permit us to move forward with bipartisan legislation that would reduce the fafsa to between 18 and 30 questions. that's the legislation we have introduced today. this is one more step to make it easier for families to fill out the fafsa. in president obama's administration, with the encouragement of our committee, families were allowed to use the tax information from the previous year so they could apply to colleges in the fall rather than have to wait until the spring. second, the trump administration has put the fafsa application on a phone app. i was at severe county high school last november and i saw students zipping through the fafsa on their iphones. third, last year the senate

passed bipartisan legislation that senator murray of washington and i introduced that allows students to answer up to 22 questions on the current fafsa with just one click. that will stop requiring students to give the same information to the federal government twice. i can't tell you the number of parents and grandparents who said to me why do i have to give the same information to the federal government twice in order to apply for a student loan or a pell grant? the answer is you shouldn't have to. this would dramatically decrease the number of students selected for verification. so in conclusion, madam president, that third step along with the bill that senator jones and i have introduced today is part of the package that i introduced last month to permanently fund historically black colleges and universities and other minority-serving institutions to provide pell grants for prisoners and to allow for pell grants to be used for short-term programs. this legislation which includes our bill to simplify the fafsa,

can and should pass the senate and the house this year so that it can be signed into law by the president. by reducing the number of questions on the fafsa, reducing the need for verification and allowing students to learn earlier how much aid they may qualify for, the fafsa simplification act will make it simpler and easier for students and families to apply for financial aid. madam president, i have some statements of support which i would like to read into the record, but i will pause at this moment and give senator jones a chance to speak. and then i'll come back after he's finished and ask for the floor and discuss these statements of support. mr. jones: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. jones: thank you, madam president. first of all, i want to thank deeply my colleague from tennessee for the work that he has done not just with me on

this bill, but over the years. this has been such an incredible work in progress, and i am appreciative of all of that work that's gone on and i'm honored today to be part of this bill that we're introducing that is i believe so important to so many families around the country, and particularly in our states of tennessee and alabama. anyone who has applied to college or helped someone through the process is all too familiar with that dreaded fafsa form. as a father with three kids who have gone off to college, i can tell you it doesn't get any easier. in fact, the free application for federal student aid hasn't gotten any easier for nearly 30 years that it's been in existence. despite the headaches it can cause, it is so important for students to fill out that fafsa. it is so important for families to have that fafsa form. it's the key to accessing

grants, scholarships and loans that can put a college education within reach. but far too often, as senator alexander said, it can intimidate people from even starting it, and also once they get the letter asking for an audit, they just stop. currently that fafsa is over ten pages long. i often tell when i'm back in alabama, it's almost like filling out the tax return for apple computer or i.b.m., it has 108 questions. that's why i have been very fortunate and honored to partner with senator alexander to simplify this fafsa form between 17 and 30 questions. as he said, this has been five years in the making, but this is a great first step in this congress to hone this down over the years, we are now going to ease the burden, reduce the number, ease the burden for

verification, make it easier for folks to start looking at it ahead of time. so what we've got with this bill, and i appreciate senator alexander's comments about the fact that this ought to be able to be -- out to be able to be done this year. this bill is a wonderful first step in the process that hopefully we can get across the finish line by the end of the year. graduating with debt can force graduates to put off other major life steps or buying a house or car, having children, getting married, investing in a business as an entrepreneur. the burden of step can literally change the course of a young person's life and guide their decisions for decades. nationwide only 62% of high school snoors completed -- seniors completed a fafsa in 2018. senator alexander's state of tennessee, along with

mississippi, ohio and delaware had the highest fafsa rates. this site called nerd wallet, which i find to be a fascinating name for a site, estimates that the high school class of 2018 across this country left $2.6 billion in pell grants on the table. that's billion with a b, $2.6 billion that was available to put kids through school and it was left on the table. form your future reports that students missed out on $24 billion in total aid anually. it also reports that 92% of low-income households will receive grants and 85% of students have a chance to receive financial aid. the department of education federal student aid staff share

that from october 1, 2018 to november 2019, there were half a million fewer total fafsa submissions, not just high school seniors, than the same time frame before. a half million fewer. i think there's a reason for that. i think people start an look at it and see the cumbersome nature of it and they just walk away and do something else. in alabama -- alabama high school seniors, according to the information that i have left $57.5 million in grant moneys on the table. grant moneys, not loan and debt, but grant moneys on the table, $57 million. and only 49.9% of the state's seniors filled out the form. alabama students might be surprised to learn that they could be eligible for federal financial aid including pell

grants that could provide up to 6,$100,000 a year. not only does fafsa does it help with what a student can receive but lead to state-wide scholarships. according to the institute for college access and success, college student seniors who graduated in 2018 from my home state of alabama's four-year public and private colleges had an average of just under $30,000 in student loan debt. it also found that more than half of our college seniors are graduating with debt. simply fieg this fafsa form -- fafsa form -- simplifying this fafsa form can get money in their hands, money that is badly needed. as i've gone around my state, i talk to people all the time that they know not every kid is going to college, not every kid needs a four-year college degree to do well, to become part of that

middle class, but for those who want to go, for those who have the aptitude to go, for others who desire to go and get that four-year college or even a two-year degree, college aid and financial aid is often vital. alabama is a relatively poor state. people want their kids to succeed and to do so that often means a college degree. the bill that senator alexander and i have filed today will help do just that. i hope, senator, that we can -- i hope that we can get this across the finish line. i believe it's going to help millions and millions of kids and i know it will help so many families in my state and the great state of tennessee. so thank you, senator alexander, for working with me on this. i look forward to working with colleagues to get this across the finish line. thank you, and madam chair, i

yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: madam president, senator jones made a very important point about alabama, but really about every state. the pell grant that we're talking about is money that you don't have to pay back. this is not a student loan that you lay awake at night worrying about. 40% of our college students in this program go to community colleges, two-year colleges. the average tuition at community colleges in america is $3,600, the average pell grant is $3,600. madam president, just those few facts show that basically 40% of those who go to college in america can go tuition free, or close to tuition free, because of the availability of the pell grant. now it's higher in some states

and lower in other states, but that's a fact tvment these are not -- fact. these are not loans that you have to pay back, these are grants that basically say that if you want two years of college past high school, you can have it. and in states like tennessee, and increasing number of other states, the government is stepping up to say if the pell grant doesn't cover your tuition, we'll cover the rest of it. so it's tuition free. so it's important to say to american people, to parents, grandparents, to students that if you want to go to college, you can, and tuition is probably free or about free, but first you have to fill out this 108 question fafsa. that's the problem. a president of the community college in memphis that has almost all african american students told me he thinks he loses 1,500 students a semester because of the complexity of the

fafsa. at the other end of the state the president of east tennessee state university says that 10,000 of his students get their classes interrupted by the so-called verification process. we would fix almost all those problems with this bill. so i'm glad that senator jones has stepped up and so many other senators are agreeable to this. i hope we can answer the question that people ask me when i go home, okay, why don't you do it? we should do it. we've been working on it for five years, whether it's senator bennet who introduced the bill with me, or senator murray who introduced with me the bill last year, that said with one click you can answer the tax questions and you don't have to give that information to the government twice, we can do that this year and 20 million american families will be grateful. now, i've received these

statements of support, which i ask consent to include in the record following my remarks. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: and i'll summarize some of them quickly. justin gregger, president of the national association of financial student administrator said, in short, this bill makes the process of applying for student aid much easier for all students, but the biggest positive impact will be for our nation's neediest students. and i would like to thank justin and his association of financial aid experts for working with us because the first bill we introduced didn't take into consideration a number of points that it should have. the administrators, the professionals pointed them out to us, and so we believe we've come up with a set of solutions that meets those needs and has their support. then the national college network executive director, kim

cooke, said, our organization has long looked at a streamlined fafsa. by combining the simpler fafsa with a pell grant lookup table, we can show students early in the decision-making process that there's money to help them complete college. and stacey lightfoot, she testified before our committee. she's vice president of college and career success at the public education foundation in chattanooga. quote, the fafsa is even more complex for families, especially for those from underserved backgrounds. those that get lost answering over 100 questions on the form. this proposal to simplify the fafsa is long overdue, she said. it has been thoughtfully created to ensure better access to college by eliminating unnecessary and irrelevant questions. the new bill takes the most intimidating aspect of college

process away for students. why would we cause 20 million families to answer unnecessary and intimidating questions and discourage their students from going to college? why would we do that? we shouldn't. executive director of the alabama possible said, quote, with the fafsa immification -- immification -- simplification of lookup tables, we can look at how students will be eligible and how to access it by implementing a shorter fafsa. this can shift the question of post-secondary education from if to when. how many times do we hear it said that particularly low-income families, parents, grandparents, others discourage the students from going to college because they are afraid it will mean a lot of debt, that

they'll never be able to pay back. they can't imagine how they could handle this. well, what this will do -- this bill and all that goes with it will allow a conversation to begin with middle school students, including low-income students, and say you may be in the eighth grade or the seventh grade or freshman in high school, but you can begin thinking now about at least two more years of -- of college after high school that are essentially free -- tuition free, and it's simple to do because of the simpler fafsa. mike krauss, director of the tennessee education committee said, quote, for tennessee, fafsa gives students a barrier for students to enroll in tennessee promise and tennessee connect and the hope access grant. simplifying the fafsa would improve college access for students in tennessee by allowing the government to

better target financial aid to the neediest students. what he is saying is that this complicated form is a barrier to free college for students of all ages in tennessee. they have to fill this out first. if they are discouraged from doing it, they done go to college. barbara duffield, executive director of the schoolhouse directive had this to say, the fafsa simplification act removes beariers for some of our nation's most vulnerable youth, those who experience homelessness, or foster care. madam president, this has been a good exercise in the united states senate. we've had testimony before our committee, our witnesses told us what to do. senator bennet and i and a group of others who were on the committee at that time said, okay, let's do it.

we got advice from the financial aid officers who said, you didn't think about this or that, for example, if you cut it down to two questions, then arizona and tennessee will have to ask more questions in order to do the state grant programs that they have so we recognize that and we adjusted our position. and then senator jones is -- as a new member of our committee stepped up and said he wanted to be a part of it and so now we're ready to go. the house has introduced senator -- chairman bobby scott, the kairm of the house education -- the chairman of the house education committee introduced a bill that would simplify the fafsa. it's not the same as our bill, but it heads in the same direction. i think every single member of this body wants to help students, especially low-income students, have an opportunity to end attend college if they want to do it. we have everything in place for

them to do it yet we've created this single barrier, this 108 question form with unnecessary, needless questions and a verification process in the middle of a semester that will yank your money and cause you to drop out of school. we can change that this year ifo we will do it. we have bipartisan support in the senate. the president will sign it. madam president, i hope it's law by the beginning of next year. i yield the floor. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. mr. moran: madam president,

thank you. last night i was at the same position having a conversation with my colleague -- the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. moran: thank you, madam president. i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. moran: madam president, last evening i was here at this exact spot asking my colleagues to support the idea of advancing appropriation bills, and i'm pleased to report to see today that that occurred and occurred on a vote of 29-2. -- 92-2. that's a good sign. it is a goal of mine to see the senate function, one of the ways we can determine whether we're doing our jobs is whether or not we can pass appropriation bills and the senate is considering four of 12 proposes bills that should be -- 12 appropriation bills that should be adopted on an annual basis. i began by thanking chairman shelby and vice chairman leahy for their leadership and working hard to bring appropriation bills to the floor including my subcommittee's work on the commerce, justice, science and

related agencies appropriation bill. as the chairman of that c.j.s. subcommittee, i worked closely with the ranking member, senator shaheen, the senator from -- excuse me -- the senator from -- the senator -- the senator from new hampshire whom i know very well. senator shaheen and i worked together to produce a good government, a bipartisan bill that is part of this appropriations package that we're now debating. i expressed my gratitude to her and her staff for their partnership and i'm proud we're able to report the bill out of the appropriations committee by a unanimous vote. i appreciate senator shaheen's willingness to find common ground and i look forward to seeing this bill pass the united states senate and also be enacted into law. like i said before, this is a good bill. it is consistent with our subcommittee's 302-b allocation. and i believe it balances the many competing priorities of our

funding jurisdiction. as you would expect in a bill that's titled commerce, justice, science, and related agencies, there are many competing interests in determining how we allocate the spending within that 302-b allocation. the c.j.s. bill supports activities related to national security, to federal, state, and local and tribal law enforcement, to space exploration, to economic development, to trade promotion and enforcement, to scientific research and many other critical government functions. the c.j.s. bill provides funding for the department of commerce which includes an increase of significant amounts of dollars that are necessary to be enacted in this fiscal year 2020 to fund the census bureau to ensure we have an accurate counting for the 2020 disseen yal census, a constitutional requirement.

it's one of the reasons it's difficult to allocate money in our bill because the census is so critical and must be done in a professional and timely manner, and we believe we've included the necessary financial support for that to occur. this bill also has a strong support for noaa programs, the national ocean -- oceanographic agencies, ocean monitoring, fishing management, coastal grants to states, aqua culture research and severe weather forecasting. and additional opportunities for economic growth by supporting the economic development agency and continuing the national institute of standards and technology, manufacturing extension partnership program. the c.j.s. bill also supports space and scientific exploration. this bill is the bill that funds nasa. as many of my colleagues know this year, the administration took a bold step in advancing the time frame by which american

astronauts will return to the moon. the plan is to now return to the moon by 2024. this bill helps accelerate that goal and will cement america's leadership in space exploration. the bill provides robust funding for nasa including funding for science and aeronautics and the trip to moon which will allow nasa to take the important steps to achieve its goal and a goal of mine to putting the first woman on the moon by 2024. the bill also includes needed funding for stem education programs. we've seen in most recent times when apollo 11 celebrated its 50th anniversary, it caused me to remember back to the days in which many people in this country saw what we were able to accomplish and dedicated their lives, young people dedicated their lives to science and research, to space exploration, and this bill is supportive of that and is designed to inspire young people and others to provide us with the next

generation of scientists. finally, the c.j.s. bill also provides for an increased funding for the department of justice. the funding includes additional resources for the department's law enforcement components, enabling the department to hire additional agents, deputy marshals, and correctional officers, and expanding the department's effort to combat mass violence and violent crime. funding for the executive office of immigration review is also increased so that additional immigration judges and support staff can be hired, continuing our committee's effort to reduce the immigration court backlog which is now over 960,000. additionally, as an original sponsor of the first step act, i'm proud that this bill provides $75 million, the fully authorized level, to the bureau of prisons for its implementation. our bill also provides $2.3 billion in funding for state, local, and tribal law enforcement assistance,

including a total of $517 million to combat the various opioid, meth, and substance abuse crises raging our communities. $500 million for grant authorized under the violence against women act and $315 million for juvenile justice grants. these grants will aid local communities to help them prevent crime and also to provide support and assistance for crime victims. unfortunately many of our law enforcement officials are under significant stress, increasing pressures, and there is an increasing level of suicide among law enforcement officers across the country. and again we've provided funding, provide counseling for something i wish was not necessary. we have a transparent product here, and we've worked in a bipartisan manner as many kansans and americans have asked me to do is can't we get along. and the answer is -- the answer is yes, can't we get along to do something as basic as an

appropriation bill. and again i hope the answer will continue to be yes. it is important for us to address the priorities and needs of our nation. i look forward to advancing this legislation. i'll be here on the senate floor from time to time to respond to my colleagues' questions and to respond to any amendments that may be offered. i urge my colleagues to support this package, four bills including our c.j.s. bill so that we can move one step closer to completing our constitutionally required work of funding the federal government. again, i thank the chairman, chairman shelby and the vice chairman, senator leahy for their leadership throughout this entire process, and i look forward to working with them for the next few days and throughout the year to see that we have a successful conclusion. madam chair, i yield the floor.

mr. moran: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. mr. moran: as in executive session, i ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be needly notified of the senate's consent to the resolution of ratification with respect to the treaty document number 116-1. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. moran: i ask unanimous consent the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. moran: madam president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 232, s. 1590. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 232, s. 1590, a bill to amend the state department basic authorities act of 1956, to

authorize rewards for thwarting wildlife trafficking linked to transnational organized crime and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the america. more -- to the measure. mr. moran: i ask the bill be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. moran: i know of no further debate on the bill. the presiding officer: if there's no further debate, the question is on passage of the bill. all in favor say aye. those opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill is passed. mr. moran: i ask unanimous consent, madam president, that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. moran: madam president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 373 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 373 expressing support for the designation of september 2019 as sickle cell disease awareness month and so forth.

the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. moran: i ask unanimous consent then that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. moran: madam president, i understand there is a joint resolution at the desk and i ask for its first reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the joint resolution for the first time. the clerk: senate joint resolution 59 expressing the sense of congress under precipitous withdrawal of united states armed forces from syria and afghanistan and turkey's unprovoked incursion into syria. mr. moran: i now ask for a second reading and in order to place the joint resolution on the calendar under the provisions of rule 14, i object to my own request. the presiding officer: objection having been heard, the joint resolution will be read for the second time on the next legislative day.

mr. moran: finally, madam president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. wednesday, october 23. further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, morning business be closed and the senate resume consideration of s.j. res. 50. i further ask that the debate time on the joint resolution expire at 2:45 tomorrow and that the senate vote on passage of s.j. res. 50. finally, following the disposition of s.j. res. 50, the senate resume consideration of h.r. 3055. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. moran: if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of senators merkley and bennet. the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon.

mr. merkley: i ask unanimous consent for my intern alec ker kerkhof to have floor privileges for the balance of the day. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: thank you. i come to the floor to recognize kaelin gaffney, a long time member of my senate team who after nearly 11 years is leaving to start a new chapter in her life. kaitlin has been a key part of team merkley since our earliest days. in fact, she was part of the original team that built our office and our constituent services operation from scratch. i don't know how many folks here have been part of opening a senate office, but it's not easy. it's daunting. you walk into a completely empty office. no computers, no phones. not even the basics in terms of pens and paper. and you know you have responsibilities, and you need to start fulfilling them.

in the early days, we haven't have a computer system to track our constituents' thoughts and opinions, so kaitlin and the team wrote everything down on paper before moving to spreadsheets. there was no training on how to serve constituents, but from day one, that's exactly what we were determined to do and that she was determined to do. so you have to hit the ground running, learning as you go. and kaitlyn did hit the ground running like an milk gold medalist. she built our constituent services operation from the ground up. i'm proud to say that today, 11 years later, it is an operation that is second to none and one that thattoringians across our state know they can rely on for help. it is oregonians who know that if they are in a bind, the team that they can call is my constituent services team and often that's kaitlyn specifically. in the beginning days, we were in the middle of the mortgage crisis. that crisis was forcing oregon

families out of their homes, so they couldn't afford the balloon payments or the doubling of the interest rate at the expiration of a teaser rate. they couldn't pay the high rate on the triple option loan, and they were desperate, and they called kaitlyn. kaitlyn was the point person on our team fighting to keep roofs over their heads. she was the one who day after day had to consult with them in that very stressful situation where often a mortgage company was simultaneously telling a family that they will be evicted for nonpayment and simultaneously saying we have this program in which you can sign up and don't worry. she is the one who brought together advocacy organizations, housing authorities ux local elected leaders to help assist a massive caseload of struggling oregonians. and her direct involvement meant that a very large number of them

were able to solve the challenge and stay in their homes. even today as i go around the state, i hold a town hall in every county every year. people come up to me at those county gatherings and say by the way, i just wanted to tell you that a decade ago, a person on your team, kaitlyn, helped me out, and i still have my home today. and it's en route to being paid off. that meant so much to families. and there are all kinds of different challenges that came up over the years that she was able to assist with. there was a time when she helped rescue an oregon constituent who was stranded on an island in the pacific. one day she got a call from a woman who was worried about her son who was on a trip to thailand and had gone missing. his friends said that he had told them that he was going to swim across the ocean to a specific island, and they hadn't heard from him, and there were

strong currents between the mainland and that island, and the efforts to find him on that island had turned up nothing. there wasn't really any organized effort to look for him, so kaitlyn did what she does so well. she picked up the phone. she started making calls. eventually, she was able to convince an office in thailand to send out a search and rescue helicopter to go looking for this lost oregonian. and because she did, he was eventually found and he was rescued. and thus the currents of the world changed with him still with us when it might have turned out quite disastrously. that's the type of team member she is. always determined to go to any length necessary. and that included the situation when the life of a sick baby wae

this baby was being barred from the united states to receive a lifesaving medical procedure. and baby fatima was being barred because of a policy that had been adopted to block muslims from coming to the united states. it was early 2017. and this baby needed an immediate procedure to save her life. it was considered by the experts that there was a very small chance of her surviving with this procedure in iran. the oregon science school in oregon said they had a very high odds of it going well, and that was her best shot. so we had to work together to lobby the administration, and, boy, i tell you kaitlyn was right at the heart of that working to coordinate all the phone calls. in the end, baby fatima was granted a waiver, she did come

to oregon, and her life was saved in case after case, kaitlyn succeeded because she cared about the vits involved and she worked every avenue to assist them. she certainly embodied the spirit of my complete constituent services team. so i can't thank her enough for her dedication, the intensity of her efforts, her incredible contributions to solving challenges for oregonians. she leaves extremely large shoes to fill. we will dearly miss her, but we wish her well after now this almost 11 years, she is on to another chapter, and i know she is just going to be as much of a phenomenal success in that chapter as she has been on my team, and we wish her well.

thank you, madam president.

mr. bennet: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. bennet: i would ask the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: the senate is not in a quorum call. mr. bennet: thank you, madam president.

madam president, republican tax legislation in 2017 was completely misguided, despite our best efforts to -- best efforts, the bill passed in the middle of the night. it was completely partisan. not a single hearing. there wasn't a single democratic amendment. and this is what that looked like. as i repeatedly pointed out, the republican tax plan gave 572,000 taxpayers with incomes over a million dollars more in tax cuts than the 90 million americans who had incomes below $50,000 a year, making income inequality worse in this country, madam president. in all 43% of the benefits of the g.o.p. bill went to the top 5%. households with incomes over $319,000 per year. that's why i came down to this floor repeatedly to oppose that tax code.

since 2001, the united states of america has borrowed $5 trillion from the chinese for the privilege of giving tax cuts mostly to the wealthiest people in our country. we never paid for any of it. we said the tax cuts would pay for themselves. they never have paid for themselves. and instead, we should bond, we should get the chinese by most of that debt to finance tax cuts for the wealthiest people in america. and over that period of time, we have actually made income inequality worse during a time when income inequality is the highest it's been since 1928. an we have had no economic mobility for 50 years for the bottom 90% of americans, for nine out of ten americans. madam president, if i had to

summarize my town hall meetings in colorado, a place with one of the strongest economies in this country, it would be the people come to those town halls, and they say michael, we are working incredibly hard, and no matter what we do, we can't afford housing, we can't afford health care, we can't afford higher education, we can't afford early childhood education. we can't afford a middle-class life, is what they are saying to me. the vast majority of people. i said that in an editorial board recently. somebody said do you mean the vast majority? i said yes, the vast majority. that's what it looks like when you have got an economy that's not driving growth from the bottom up, when only the people at the very top are the ones that are benefiting from it. for people that don't come to my town halls because they are too busy working two and three jobs,

the people that i used to work for when i was superintendent of the denver public schools, a school district where most of the kids live in poverty, most of the kids are kids of color, i know what their parents would say if they weren't too busy to come to my town halls. what they would say is we are killing ourselves, we are killing ourselves, and no matter what we do, we can't get our kids out of poverty. and that is straining at our democracy. it's straining at the whole idea that we are a land of opportunity. when there is no economic mobility for 90% of america. and when people that are in poverty, no matter how hard they work, can't get out of poverty. can't get their kids early childhood education. can't get their kids decent health care. in many places in the country, they have no access to early childhood education, even if they could afford it.

and notwithstanding this challenge over the last decade, what we have done in congress is borrow money from the chinese to give tax cuts to the wealthiest people in the country. that's not all we've done. we borrowed another $5.6 trillion to pay for 20 years worth of wars in the middle east. that's $11 trillion, $12 trillion, $13 trillion that from the vantage point of people struggling in this country, we might as well have lit on fire. for that amount of money, we could have fixed every road and bridge in america. we could have increased teachers' salaries by 50%. we could have paid for preschool for every kid in america who needs it, and that's every kid in america. we could have made it easier for people to afford college instead of having to spend 25 years of their life paying back their

college loans, like some of the pages who are here tonight are going to have to do when they graduate from college. we could have made social security solvent for my kids' generation. we could have paid down some of our deficit and our debt which is now over $1 trillion thanks to the irresponsible policies of the president with the able assistance of the majority leader. and tomorrow i take no pleasure in saying this, we're being asked to vote on something that will make the republican tax bill much worse. effectively repealing the cap on the state and local tax deduction, what is known as the salt cap. it is a bad idea. before i get into that, i want to acknowledge my colleague's very legitimate concerns who are going to be supporting this legislation. first, the trump administration

designed the salt cap to take revenge against people who didn't vote for donald trump. , to take revenge against some deep blue states and districts. tax policy shouldn't be designed with political retribution in mind. every single passing day this president looks more and more like a dictator who believes that the only ones that he serves are the ones who voted for him and he doesn't have responsibility for the rest of the country, and that's not right. and i could see why people would want to correct that injustice, and it is an injustice. and i'm not here to defend that injustice. it's wrong. second, the treasury rules to implement the salt cap are overly broad in ways that harm existing programs with legitimate purposes. nobody should be surprised at

all that the trump administration issued another sloppy policy that makes unnecessary opponents out of potential allies. that is, after all, their general approach to governing. but while i agree that these concerns from the proponents -- while i agree with these concerns from the proponents of the resolution, i believe we can address all of them in a much more effective and targeted manner than undermining the salt cap. some proponents have said this is not actually about the state and local taxes. if we wanted to write a bipartisan bill that isn't about salt, we could deal with the other tax policy issues affected by the treasury rule. but this is about the state and local tax deduction, so let me be very clear, the vast majority of the benefits of repealing the salt cap would go to high-income americans.

repeal would be extremely costly, and for that same cost we could finance much more worthy efforts to help working and middle-class families all over the country. let's take a look at what lifting the salt cap would do. these are the incomes of americans starting over here with people earning less than $25,000, and over here with people earning more than $153,000, and everybody else in between. the benefit of this bill, this resolution goes to the people at the very top. the top .1%, which are people that have $3.3 million of income on average. the top 1% who have an average income of $755,000.

and the next 4% who is at $319,000. together that exriems -- comprises the top 5% in america. under this resolution the top 5% will get 83% of the total. 83% of the benefits will go to people making more than $319,000. 56% of the benefits go to the top 1%. 56% of the benefits go to the top 1%. people making $75,000 a year -- people making $755,000 a year. if we want to help the middle-class families harmed by the salt carp there are much better -- salt cap, there are much better ways to do it.

salt cap repeals are worse for the economy than the republican tax legislation. far worse. to summarize, 83% of the benefits of the salt cap repeal go to the top 5%. 83% versus 43% in the g.o.p. tax bill. we can say we're for a progressive tax bill and for fighting inequality, or we can support the salt deduction, but it's really hard to do both of those things. and i feel really strongly about it because of how irresponsible the other side has been. i know that's not the objective of people on my side. but the way we approach these issues really matters to the american people. so they know who we're fighting for.

instead of repealing the salt cap which gives 83% of the benefits to the richest people and makes income inequality even worse in america, for almost exactly the same amount of money we could cut childhood poverty by 40%. that sounds like a useful thing to do for america at a time when you've got the worst income inequality that we've had since 1928. in one year we could cut childhood poverty in america by 40% with a simple change to the tax code that sherrod brown and i have written called the american family act. it costs about $1 trillion over ten years, which is about what the salt cap costs. that would be a much more valuable use of our resources than giving the money to the people that are making more than $319,000, especially after the

republicans have already passed the irresponsible bill they passed and we passed $5 trillion of tax cuts since 2001, almost all of which went to the wealthiest people in america, making income inequality worse instead of investing in our country, vainly waiting for it to trickle down to everybody else. and you can see here, these are almost the same income levels that you saw on the previous page, who benefits from the american family act. 31% of the benefit goes to the people that are making less than 24%. not 54% going to the top 1%, but 31% going to the bottom -- the lowest income earners in america. then 24% goes to the folks with a little less more than that and

19% and 19% and if you're making above $119,000, you get 2% of the benefit. that to me seems like a much more reasonable approach. are at a moment in the country's history when income inequality has been on the rise, economic mobility has been stagnant, when we have an education systea former school superintendent with no joy at all -- when we have an education system that's reinforcing the income inequality we have rather than liberating people from it, because the best predictor of the quality of your education is your parents' income to the point of savagery. that is your best predictor because your income is -- your parents' income is an excellent

predictor of where you will live, and that is an excellent predictor of the education we will have. the american people are desperate for relief in this economy. republicans have made matters much worse by passing the trump tax bill, and i think democrats should be on this floor fighting for progressive legislation that supports working people, that gives people a chance who are living in poverty to lift themselves out of poverty and it gives kids in this country a fighting chance, no matter what the circumstances of their birth is. and the good news is all of those things are available to us, if we would come together in a bipartisan way and actually invest in our country, create a tax code that actually drives economic growth for everybody, not just the people at the very top, rewards work again, ends childhood poverty, delivers an education system that liberates

people from their economic circumstances instead of shackling them to this, pursuing a climate change policy that actually drives economic opportunity throughout the united states in rural and urban areas. we have an incredible opportunity in front of us as a democracy to change the way our economy works so that everybody benefits from it when it grows. that's how you build a strong democracy. donald trump doesn't understand any of that, which is why he's pursued the policies that he's pursued. and it's important for us to fight those policies as well as offer ideas like the american family act, like the increase the earned income tax credit, like passing paid family leave and raising the minimum wage. these are things we could do that would make an enormous difference to working people all

over this country, and i believe that's the agenda that we should be pursuing. madam president, with that, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate stands adjourned until