ms. hirono: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. ms. hirono: mr. president, donald trump has consistently made promises to the american people that he refuses to keep. he says one thing and does the exact opposite. his empty promises have already hurt millions of people across the country, from our seniors who depend on medicare and medicaid, to the lgbtq community he promised to protect and dreamers who live in fear of deportation. and now with mr. robb to serve as the general counsel for the nlrb, drum has broke -- donald trump has broken another promise. as an independent agency, the nlrb has an important mission to enforce our nation's labor laws, protect american workers and safeguard their right to organized collectively -- to organize collectively. nlrb's mission is not to ignore our nation's labor laws, go after american workers, or weaken their right to organize. yet, peter robb's career has been dedicated to doing all the things that nlrb is not about. joining the antiunion, anti-worker forces, president trump has consistently -- consiste

ms. hirono: mr. president, the republican tax plan we are debating is a sham. it's a solution in search of a problem. the president and his allies in congress are bound and determined to give the richest people in our country and large corporations huge tax cuts that will magically trickle down to create a fantastic, incredible, wonderful economy. why? why do we even need this? corporations and the richest 1% people in our country are doing fine, thank you very much. they don't need more goodies. over the past ten years corporate profits have grown. more wealth is concentrated in the hands of the top 1% than at any time since the great depression. groups claim this is for new investments and to help workers. what world are they living? corporations have sheltered over $2.6 trillion offshore to avoid paying taxes. this is money they could already be using to create jobs, build factories, or rage employee -- raise employee wages. it will not happen. they do not need more money for profits. on the other hand, middle-class families have been seeing stagnant wages f

ms. hirono: mr. president, the judges donald trump appoints to lifetime positions on our federal court will be a lasting legacy, and he is determined to do what ever it takes to place as many nominees with an ideologically driven agenda on the bunch as possible. today the senate is debating whether to give gregory katsas a lifetime appointment to serve on the united states court of appeals for the d.c. circuit. throughout his career, including as deputy white house counsel under donald trump and a senior official in the justice department under george w. bush, mr. katsas has demonstrated a profound conservative bias inappropriate for service on the country's second most important court. as deputy white house counsel, mr. katsas has been deeply involved in crafting the legal justification for many of the trump administration's most controversial policies. he also played a key role in deciding which court cases the administration would support or oppose and recommending candidates for various executive

ms. cantwell. >> no. >> mr. franken. >> no, by proxy. >> mr. manchin. mr. heinrich. >> no. >> mr. hirono. >> no by proxy. >> mr. king. >> no. >> ms. duckworth. >> no by proxy. >> ms. cortez-masto. >> no. >>> by this vote the yeahs are 13, the nays are ten, the legislation as amended is agreed to. >>> madam chair, senator, make sure we have time for members to file decenting views. >> thank you. i think there will be plenty of time for members to file dissenting views. thank you for being here, the time you have given and the debate has been appreciated. with that, the committee stands adjourned. >> it seems like this is the closest politically, at least, anyone's ever coming. >> no, keep in mind that back in 1995, you know, i was not in office. i wasn't even in the state legislature at the time. it passed both houses, and it went up to president clinton for his signature and it was vetoed there, so that's probably as close as any measure has ever come. i will tell you, though, that it was back in 2005 when i had the opportunity to be here with senator stevenson and we, again, thought tha