mr. lankford: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: mr. president, i would ask that the quorum call be set ad side. -- set aside. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lankford: mr. president, in february of this year justice scalia passed awatchet it was an enormous loss to the nation. in the hours and days following that, the republicans in the senate had the opportunity to talk about their constitutional responsibility, the responsibility of advice and consent. supreme court justices don't show up to the supreme court because the president just nominates them. the constitution in article 2, section 2, lays outer a 50/50 proposition. the president has the first 50%. the senate then has the second 50%, the power of advice and consent. the first half of that is when -- is this the right time to do a nominee? and many nominees historically, both ambassadors, justices, cabinet officers, the senate h's had a long delay to say, no, this is not the right time

mr. lankford: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: mr. president, talk of our debt in our nation seems to have diminished. the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. lankford: i would ask unanimous consent the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lankford: mr. president, the talk of the debt in our nation has been diminishing. unfortunately, debt itself has not also diminished. while the deficit has reduced significantly over the last several years, the debt continues to grow. now crossing well over $19 trillion. and it is my concern that we as a body continue to get distracted with other things and lose track of the looming debt issues that we will still continue to face, and we will be held to account for and rightfully so. the american people expect us to come here and solve a lot of issues, some not only issues of how we're going to handle crisis areas like zika and what we're going to handle in different areas around the country, what we're going to do with national defense and securi

hereby appoint the honorable james lankford, a senator from the state of oklahoma, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: orrin g.hatch, president pro tempore. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader of the senate. mr. mcconnell: americans continue to see the difference a republican-led senate can make on behalf of our country. we passed legislation to combat the prescription of opioid and heroin epidemic to provide a long-term highway funding solution, and to advance many other important issues. today i'm hopeful we'll be able to add to that record of achievement with an f.a.a. reauthorization and airport security bill which aims to keep americans safe in our airports and in the sky. recent terror attacks across the world emphasize the importance of assuring that our airports are secure, and i'm pleased the bill includes a number of provisions that will help to do so. from increasing security in prescreening areas to securing international flights arriving in the u.s. to ramping up measures aimed at deterring cybersecurity attacks, this legislation contains the most comprehensive aviation security reform in yea

mr. lankford: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator oklahoma. mr. lankford: as i traveled all over oklahoma during the state work weeks in march, i -- workweeks in marks i heard -- de state workweeks in marks i heard over and over concerns from my constituents. how could the administration release over $1 billion to iran the same month that our states were facing new cuts from c.m.s. that billion dollars that was sent to iron could have bailed out every single rural hospital in america. i talked to a move in lawton that did not understand why there was a conversation in d.c. about closing the guantanamo bay detention facility and bringing those individuals into the united states. i talked to a dad in tulsa, a dad of a soldier, that wanted to know what's happening with terrorism and what's america's response. i talked to an oklahoma business owner who is very, very concerned about cybersecurity and the threat of his business' network being attacked. as details came out from the brussels terrorist attack, every american has in mind their security and t