vote: vote:

the presiding officer: is there anyone in the chamber wishing to vote or wishing to change their vote? if not, the yeas are 29. the nays are 64. the amendment is not agreed to. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. jones: madam president, under the previous order i call up amendment -- the presiding officer: order in the chamber. please take your conversations out of the well. lets have order in the chamber.

order in the chamber. the senator from alabama. mr. jones: thank you, madam president. under the previous order, i call up amendment number 1141 as modified. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from alabama mr. jones for himself and miss mccaly proposes amendment 1141 to amendment number 948. mr. jones: i ask unanimous consent to dispense with the reading. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. jones: madam president, madam president, i rise in support of the amendment offered by myself and my friend from arizona senator mcsally. this amendment would permanently block an impending $1.2 billion in cuts to the federal public transportation investment. these cuts will affect every one of our states, everyone including about seven million to my home state of alabama. without this legislation to

block what is known as the ros rostin kauskin test, every public transportation agency will suffer 12% across-the-board cut to transit formula grants this year. for many transit agencies, particularly these smaller transit agencies that serve rural states such as mine, these cuts could be devastating. the presiding officer: order in the chamber. mr. jones: as i said, madam president, thank you. many transit agencies, particularly smaller transit agencies that serve rural states such as mine, these cuts could be devastating. these cuts would reduce services that are so important to the community. for instance, services to low income people, services to those who have disabilities. these cuts would reduce funds for important bus and rail efforts to modernize our transportation. the presiding officer: the senator has used one minute.

mr. jones: thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. ms. mcsally: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. ms. mcsally: madam president, i rise in strong support of my amendment with senator jones from alabama. as he said, this is a very important amendment to block $1.2 billion in cuts to these transit agencies that are impacting every single one of our states. across arizona, this is millions of dollars, a 12% cut again in every state. and we're going to stop that from happening here today. as senator jones mentioned, this is impacting people of low income, of disabilities, rural communities across the board. a broad coalition of over 30 associations, including the american public transportation association, associated general contractors of america, and the u.s. chamber of commerce support our efforts today to block these cuts. i urge our colleagues to please join us and vote for our amendment and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the question is on the amendment.

is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote? seeing none, the yeas are 82, the nays are 11, and the amendment as modified is agreed to. under the previous order, the amendment number 950 is withdrawn. amendment number 948 as amended is agreed to. the cloture motion on h.r. 3055 is withdrawn. the clerk will read the bill for the third time. the clerk: h.r. 3055, an act making appropriations for the departments commerce, justice, science and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2020, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: the

senate will be in order. we cannot proceed until the senate is in order. two minutes of debate equally divided. mr. leahy: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: madam president, i see my friend, the senior senator from alabama, on the floor. in this, i also praise him because we're going to vote on final passage of the fiscal year 2020 senate commerce, justice, science appropriations bill. the agriculture appropriations bill, the interior appropriations bill, the transportation, housing, and urban development appropriations bill. i would urge all members to vote aye. they are good bipartisan bills. they show that despite whatever political atmosphere we operate in, the appropriations committee can put partisan politics aside, we do our work on behalf of the american people.

these make responsible investments. they build on what we were able to accomplish in fiscal 2019. they strongly reject the shortsighted cuts the administration proposed. they back up our commitment to invest in rural communities and farms, law enforcement, the environment. and we reach this point because we worked together evenings, weekends, together quietly to get it done. i want to thank the chairs and the ranking members of the subcommittees for their work. senators hoeven and merkley, murkowski and udall, senators collins and reed, senators graham and shaheen. i've often said senators are merely constitutional impediments to their staff. senator shelby and i are lucky to have such staffs. they work long days and nights. i'd ask unanimous consent that full remarks be put in the record and the list of staff,

both republicans and democrats who deserve our staff be included in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: i yield the floor. i'd ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. there is. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber

wishing to vote or wishing to change their vote? seeing none, on this vote the yeas are 84, the nays are nine, the 60-vote threshold having been achieved, the bill is passed, as amended. the senator from utah. mr. lee: madam president, i ask unanimous consent the senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to h.r. 2740. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. lee: madam president. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: motion to proceed to h.r. 2740, an act making appropriations for the departments of labor, health, and human services and education and so forth and for other purposes. mr. lee: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: i'd like to speak briefly about an issue important to me, about an issue important to many americans, and i'd like to speak briefly about senator

durbin's recent request for a hearing concerning the fairness for high-skilled immigrants act. the fairness for high-skilled immigrants act is a bill that many senators have worked on for nearly a decade and it has long been a top priority of mine. i've introduced this bill in every single congress ever since i was first elected to the senate back in 2010. during that time it's been the subject of widespread debate and discussion. it's been a period in time in which a lot of people learned a lot about this area. the debate and discussion has occurred both on the hill and off the hill and throughout the united states. and other members, including senator schumer, have sought to pass the bill, as i am doing. whether that passage occurs by unanimous consent or through some other form matters less to me than we get it passed. we need to get it passed.

we have come closer to making this bipartisan reform a reality, closer than we have ever come before at any point over the nearly decade that this has gotten a lot of attention. inle early july, the house of representatives passed the bill on the suspension calendar by a wide supermajority vote by 365-65. senator grassley added to it by adding the h-1b reform bill. senator grassley for many years openly and publicly made it known he had concerns about the bill. i was therefore very pleased that we were able to sit down and work out an agreement to address those concerns while keeping the bill narrow and focus on the immediate problem it is trying to resolve. that is eliminating the country

of discrimination in our employment-based green card system. i thank senator grassley for working with me on that. the process by which i tried toes advance this bill through congress has been open, transparent and straightforward. i've sought and continue to seek unanimous consent to pass the bill on the floor. if any member has raised concern about the bill, i've been willing to work with them quickly and in good faith to address their concerns. that's why, after reaching an agreement with senator grassley, i also worked with other members to resolve their concerns. for much of the past few months i simply didn't know who, if anyone else on the democratic side of the aisle, might have had concerns with the bill. we were told that there might be holds on the democratic hotline but we were not told who exactly might be holding the bill and no one approached me with

objections. i certainly have no reason to think that senator durbin would have concerns with the bill. as i've explained before, he was a leading cosponsor of the bill in a previous congress. what's more, the only substantial difference between the bill he supported and the bill i put forward in this congress is the addition of the amendment that i negotiated with senator grassley, which was drawn almost entirely of the durbin-grassley h-1b reform bill. in september i learned that senator durbin did in fact have concerns with the bill in this congress. as i have with other members, anding as i've expressed a willingness to do with other members, i'm ready and willing to work with senator durbin in good faith to quickly and reasonably resolve any objection he might have while enjoying the

bipartisan support of this bill. as i've said before, i don't believe that any further factual development concerning this bill is necessary. indeed, at this point i believe a hearing can serve no purpose other than to delay speedy action on this important reform. and jeopardize our ability to act before the end of the year. for that reason i do not support senator durbin's calls for a public hearing. every day that we delay action on this bill is another day of suffering experienced by immigrants stuck in the green card backlog continues, and, indeed, intensifies. that is precisely why i will continue to work to pass this bill at the earliest possible date. the fairness for high-skilled immigrants act arguably has wider and more bipartisan support than any other immigration bill that's been considered in this body in

recent years. a reason for that is because it's focused on a single serious solvable problem that i think we canle all agree needs to be solved. whatever other reforms you think might need to be made to our immigration system, with good reason, we can all agree that america should not treat immigrants differently based on their country of origin. there's no reason for this bill to become yet another casualty to the polarized partisan divisions that plague immigration policy. and so, mr. president, i look forward to working with senator durbin to resolve the concerns he may have about this bill. and i reiterate that once again this is a narrowly focused bill, one that focuses on a simple but longstanding problem, a problem that subjects some immigrants to

needlessly lengthy delays for no reason other than their country of origin. this is from a bygone era that we shouldn't be perpetuating in this country. we need to fix the problem, the fairness for high-skilled immigrants act would do that, and i would encourage all of my colleagues to join me. we're almost there, but we need to get it over the finish line. thank you, mr. president.

the presiding officer: the senator for georgia wrd are we -- mr. perdue: are we in a quorum

call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. perdue: i rise to talk about the vote we're going have in just a few minutes actually to appropriate our first appropriation bills for this fiscal year which, by the way, we're already in the first month of our new fiscal year. we're under a continuing resolution which we talked ad nauseam about in this body about how damaging it is to our military and how expensive it is over the long run. i had breakfast with one of our secretaries of -- in the d.o.d. today. showed me in just the navy alone, continuing resolution this year would cost the navy almost $5 billion. that's $50 billion just in one service over the next decade. we can do better than this. but i want to praise senator shelby and senator leahy, the ranking member and the chairman of the appropriation committee. they have done their job. the subcommittee chairman and ranking members have done their jobs. we're ready to vote on these

bills. and it comes down to just an obstructionist issue about funding a wall versus funding our military. just last weekend, president trump announced that abu bakr al-baghdadi, the leader of isis had been taken off the battlefield by his own hand, i might say. this is a win not just for our opportunity but for the world in this fight against terrorism. as we now know, the world has gotten to be very dangerous, maybe the most dangerous in my lifetime. with five threats across five dough mains. -- five domains. we're worried about places like russia, china, north korea, iran as well as the asymmetric threats of terrorism around the world. over five domains, air, land, and sea and now we have to worry about cyber and as well. but let's just take a moment and realize that without a strong

military, this special operations op over the weekend would not have been possible. our intelligence community, our special operators, our military personnel, all the supply people, all the people involved in supporting these people at the tip of the sphere came to bear a victory this week over the number one terrorist in the world. everybody in america should be celebrating this incredible achievement by our military. rather than celebrating, however, our friends across the aisle are trying to change the subject in many ways, one of which is in the u.s. house with just the hypocritical approach that we're seeing right now of denying due process to our president and having a vote this week that's a real mockery of the process in itself. because there's no guarantee of due process to the president in this resolution. i believe the democrats just don't understand how president trump got elected and they hate it so much, they won't even let him have this win relative to taking a major terrorist off the

battlefield. we must never forget how depraved this gentleman and their ideology really is. the isis thugs have been a scourge on that part of the world. and they're not going away, by the way. since 2014 isis has beheaded two american journalists, james folly, steven sotloff. let's us never forget that these things occur. they forced women into sex slavery, including one 26-year-old kayla moore, a humanitarian worker who went there to try to do good who was later killed. these are the people under al-baghdadi's leadership that set fire to a major obtainian pilot, a captured pilot violating the rules of war, put him in a cage, poured gasoline on him and lit him afire alive. these are the people that line

21 christians up on a beach in libya and beheaded them in front of the video. they crucified christians across the middle east for years. al-baghdadi inspired all of these atrocities. his death brings justice to these countless victims. the fight is not over yet. we've taken out the leadership. we've denied them the territorial caliphate. we're now moving to protect the oil so that these people will -- so they -- will be denied resources so they cannot reconstitute again. the ideology has not died. we have just taken their caliphate away. we have to continue to do that and the current strategy has not changed in syria. the president has said this publicly. the joint chiefs of staff has said publicly. we're there to defeat isis, defer iran -- deter iran and support our friends in israel. we need bipartisan support, consistent funding to achieve

this bigger mission. that's just one of them in window main. we have others across the world with an ever growing military capacity in china alone, we have to get of course about how we fund consistently our u.s. military effort. and yet as i stand here today, mr. president, we are under a continuing resolution which we know handcuffs our own military and adds hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade to the cost of funding our military. now look, we have a c.r. right now that has us actually spending $4 billion right now that the department of defense has already identified that we don't want to spend, but because of a continuing resolution rules, they have to keep spending against these obsolete programs and wasting that $4 billion, mr. president. in addition, we're sitting here at the end of october, the first month of the year, fiscal year, and we have not even finalized the authorization for our

defense because of being -- not being able to work this out with the house. we have to do that and get to funding right away to fund our military. our men and women in uniform are the best that we have in america, and we owe it to them not to drop the ball in this 11th hour to show them that we have their backs. they can do the job but only if we fund them, mr. president. this is a travesty. and right now it's broken down into partisan politics, not over defending our country. and it puts our national security at risk. i'll give just one little piece of data here to close this out. over the last 50 years, we've disinvested in our military by at least 25% three different times under three democratic presidents. that's just historical fact. that's not a partisan observation. we did it in 1976 to 1980. we did in in 1990's. dwe it in -- we did it in the

last administration over eight years. disinvest in the military by at least 25%. we saw the travesty that the military had in terms of readiness when -- january 1, 2017. we saw how bad our readiness was when two-thirds of our elite strike fighters, f-18's in the navy could not fly. only three of our army brigades of 58 army brigades could go to war that night. it was a terrible position to be in. under in you leadership we've gotten that readiness back but now we have to rebuild the military that's been burned up over the last 20 years fighting terrorism. mr. president, the challenge we have before us right now is to do our number one job, and that is to fund and appropriate the federal government. and of that discretionary spending is what this is all about, only $1.3 trillion of the $1.6 trillion but of that, the military, v.a., all the discretionary programs make up

$1.3 trillion. what i'm advocating today, mr. president, is we take seriously our responsibility to fund our military because of the growing threats around the world and the damage we see that it does to the efforts of freedom by our friends abroad. mr. president, no bigger responsibility could we have to support our men and women in uniform who put their lives on the line every day. the best testament of that is this example we just saw, a success in syria, very close to the turkish border. pulled off through places where russians and syrian government, syrian rebels and turkish sol soldiers were all -- soldiers were all in the general vicinity. we pulled off a victory for freedom in the world. now it's our job to get on with the defense. i urge we take that seriously. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

mr. leahy: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator for vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, today the senate is going to vote on whether to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to a package of appropriations bills. they'll include the senate defense appropriations bill, labor, health and human services, education,

labor-h.h.s. appropriations bill. there are many things in these bills that i support, but i'm going to strongly urge all senators to vote no. i am disappointed that the majority leadership has taken this step. they bowed to demand president trump and that's continuing to delay funding for our troops. this delay -- and let's explain exactly why. they insist on including in this bill authority for president trump to raid american tax dollars from our million, -- our military, munn that's intended for specific -- like cleaning up the substandard housing that many of our military families are living in. he wants to raid that money to pay for his wall which -- after he'd given his solemn word that

mexico would pay for it and that's unacceptable. because he could not keep his word about mexico paying for it, he's already raided $6.2 billion from the department of defense for his border wall. he did all of that without congressional approval of either republicans or democrats. first he diverted $2.6 billion from the fiscal year 2019 defense appropriation act. then he took another $3.6 million from military construction projects for a southern border wall. and let's look at where that money came from. projects that would improve the lives of our troops and their families. military schools, child care centers, improved training facilities, many of which have been damaged by hurricanes and other natural disasters. on this side we oppose this bill because we're fighting to protect funds that are meant for

the men and women of the military and their families. we oppose this bill because we stand with those patriotic pce the president's failed campaign promises on their backs. if all things were equal, the labor- h.h.s. appropriations bill, our largest funding domestic bill to receive an increase in 2020. the department of homeland security bill receives a 7%

increase to cover the costs of the president's demand for his law. it doesn't add up, nor does it add up to most americans who oppose president trump's wall. if we had an up-or-down vote in the senate on his wall, i suspect it would pavement but trying to do it through a backdoor way, well, the short had sighted cash grab directed by president trump is bill that fails to cover even the annual costs of inflation in public health, head start, child care, special education, veterans training grants, dozens of other programs relied upon by the american people. it will cut the veterans programs, it will cut the child programs to pay for this wall. i am disappointed by the willful spread of opposition to this bill, misinformation by president trump and the republican leadership.

they have baselessly accused democrats of blocking a 3.1% pay raise for our troops by opposing this package. well, listen. that's about as ridiculous -- i don't think the press will fall for it anymore than they fell for the histrionics over in the house when they were claiming closed-door meetings and no republicans. when of course there were republicans in those meetings. because regardless of the action we take in this chamber, the men and women of our military will see a raise in january. no matter what we do, they're going to get their raise. this well-deserved raise is based on a statutory formula that does not need to be authorized by the legislation before us. in fact, neither the house nor the senate defense appropriations bills contain any provision relating to a pay raise. reaching a bipartisan, bicameral

consensus on a $693 billion defense appropriations bill is hard enough without willful and irresponsible spreading of misinformation. but this campaign of misinformation is has not stopped there. the republican leadership has even accused senate democrats of holding up aid to ukraine. that would be laughable if not for the real-world consequences we're seeing play out in ukraine today. it is republicans who are holding both military funding and ukraine aid hostage to president trump's vanity wall. it is republicans who refuse to bring a bill to the floor unless congress enables president trump to continue stealing funds from our troops, our military families to pay for the wall that he'd given his solemn word mexico would pay for. now, senate democrats have long

advocated for aid to ukraine. we insisted it be included in the fiscal year 2020 appropriations bills. we'll continue to do so because it is the right thing to do. since 2015, i have personally supported more than $3.3 billion in aid for ukraine. that's a level that far exceeds the president's request. so baseless accusations are merely attempts to distract from why senate democrats are actually opposing this package. we're not going to stand idly by as president trump continues to rob our military families as his personal piggy bank for a failed campaign promise that he can't keep. and we'll not stand idly by as the domestic priorities of the american people are short is this changed to pay for some -- are shortchanged to pay for some monument along our southern

border. just last month the republican leadership failed to get the votes necessary to move these bills. i think it's prudent to remind everyone that this entire strategy has been tried before. it failed before. it'll fail again. the strategy of the wall over again, the strategy of the wall at all costs, no matter how much damage it does to our veterans, no matter how much damage it does to our military families, no matter how much damage it does to children, american children, it's a strategy of the wall and a campaign promise over the american people. that same strategy drove the country into the longest government shutdown in american history. earlier in year it cost the taxpayers billions of dollars, and they got absolutely nothing in return. and that, incidentally, republicans controlled both chambers of congress, and they

still allowed this shutdown. so if you think this failed republican strategy will work on the second go-around, please come to vermont. i may have a fence for you to paint back in my home in vermont. everyone here knows there's only one real path forward. that's to reach agreement on bipartisan bills. i believe there's time to reach that agreement. i have tremendous respect for my good friend, chairman shelby. look at the bills we just passed over whelmingly. that's because senator shelby and i were able to sit down and work on these bills, put them together, and do them in a bipartisan way. as i've told the secretary of defense and others, we still have time to do that on defense. we can do it.

we should try when we come back next week. try again. let the grown-ups in both parties in this body work on it. we'll get it done. the clock is ticking. it's really time to stop the political maneuverings. stop the sloganeering let's do real work. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. shelby: mr. president, i rise today here in the u.s. senate to fight for america's military here today. this past week our special forces eliminated the leader of isis and his likely successor. their accomplishments should remind all of us that our brave troops always -- always, mr. president -- carry out their duties, no matter what the circumstances. they shouldn't expect any difference from the u.s.

congress. yet they do. mr. president, they've come to expect that our elected leaders will fail to execute the most fundamental of their duties -- funding the government. they don't deserve failure, and they certainly shouldn't expect it. they deserve our gratitude. they deserve our unwavering commitment. and the best way, i believe, mr. president, to demonstrate that gratitude and commitment is by passing an appropriations bill that gives our military what it needs. our men and women in uniform should never find themselves on the battlefield wondering if they will be able to support their families back home. they should never wonder, mr. president, if their training needs, support requirements, or mission objectives will be held hostage by partisan bickering in

the congress. they should never wonder why america's adversaries are doubling down on their military investments while america is sitting idle. the u.s. must maintain, i believe, it's edge over our adversaries. china is he is can a i think lag its defense spending -- china is escalating its defense spending, as we all know, yet america is operating under a continuing resolution. that means, mr. president, that our military is having to face tomorrow's threats with yesterday's funding levels. that means, mr. president, that our military's planning and operations are way down with uncertainty. that should be unacceptable to all of us in the u.s. senate on both sides of the aisle. we have an opportunity to change that today by voting to proceed to the 2020 defense appropriations bill. what are we talking about here,

mr. president? $695 billion in total defense funding -- that's national security for the united states of america. that's an increase of about $20 billion over last year's level. this increased funding, among other things, would provide a 3.1% pay increase for our men and women in uniform, the largest in ten years, and, believe me, they need it. it would continue development of the world's most advanced weapons systems, and we will need them. it would increase our investments in hypersonics, 5g technologies, artificial intelligence, missile defense, and cybersecurity -- and we need that. all of this, i believe, mr. president, is absolutely essential to maintaining america's strategic advantage over our main adversaries and competitors -- china and russia. we better not lose sight of that

here in the u.s. senate. unfortunately, my democratic colleagues seem more -- at the moment, more focused on scoring political points than ensuring our military -- that our military has the certainty and the funding it needs to counter our adversaries. they have said that it will not allow us to fund our military here in the senate until funding levels for all 12 appropriations bills are agreed to with the house. if that defies most americans' sense of how our government works and what is most important, it should. my democratic colleagues want to press the pause button here in the senate, mr. president. i don't agree with that. i believe we must complete our works, and i believe most of them -- the democrats -- want to get this done. and we must certainly should complete our work on the defense bill, foremost.

funding, mr. president -- mr. president, funding america's military should be our priority. it should come first here in the u.s. senate. our men in uniform and women don't get to hit the pause button, as we do. they don't get to shirk their duty, and neither should congress. we cannot afford additional delay here. our service men and women, those troops who have entrusted to keep us save safe and protect our democracy, our country, our allies cannot afford additional delay. we must not kick the can down the road when it comes to earthquake in's security and -- when this comes to america's security and military. senator leahy and i have worked together. last year for the first time in years we met the deadline. we can do this again. -- we need the green light here. we need to provide the resources necessary to maintain the greatest fighting force the world has ever known.

we should never be second to anybody else. let's show our troops that we fuelly -- that we actually can get our work done here. that we actually care about them. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. grassley: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: i yield back all time. i ask that the vote start now. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. 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 140, h.r. 2740, an act making appropriations for the departments of labor, health and human services, and education, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2020, and for other purposes, signed by 17 norse. -- 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. 2740, an act making appropriations for the departments of labor, health and human services, education, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2020, and for other purposes, shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll.

vote: vote:

vote: