ms. klobuchar: madam president, i want to thank senator nelson for his leadership on this amendment. it's a very simple amendment for a very simple proposition, and that is that the tax code should be simpler -- that's true -- we should make it more streamlined -- that's true -- but our focus should be helping the people of america. and our problem with the bill that's on the floor right now is that it is weighted much too heavily in terms of helping the wealthiest among us and not the middle class. and senator nelson's amendment, which i'm a proud cosponsor, gets right to the meat of this, to the bread and butter, to helping the middle class with their groceries -- since i used meat and bread and butter -- but also with their mortgages, with paying for college, with everything they need to do. and our problem with the bill right now is that too much of it goes to the top. in fact, when you look at the numbers, it's quite startling. the first thing you notice for the middle class is that $1.4 trillion in additional debt comes out of this bill. now, our colleagues were claiming until

ms. klobuchar: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: madam president, if i could three minutes to talk about my colleague. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: madam president, you saw in senator franken's closing words here, the passion that he has for all the work that he has done in this chamber and for the people of our state, you saw the love he has for his family, for franni, and the love that he has for his stf, and they are not good -- staff. and they are not good staff, they are wonderful staff. when i think about the legacy that he will leave, one of them is that staff and the work he has done for veterans and health care with the medical loss ratio, one of the major achievements in the affordable care act, with the work he has done way ahead of his time for the lgbt, for the work he has done for his tribal communities. that was the number ask when he got to the senate was to be on the indian affairs committee. that is not what other people ask for. he did that. the work that he did on bullying in

ms. klobuchar: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i rise once again today to express my strong support for taking action on the dream act. i want to thank all the dreamers who in recent weeks traveled from all across the country to washington to make their voices heard. last month i met with 50 minnesotans who traveled here by bus to show their support for the dream act. they took time away from their jobs, from their education, from their families because this issue is so critical to them and to their loved ones. i want to get this bill passed, and while i remain hopeful that we will reach an agreement soon, i know that this has real consequences with each day and every day as over 100 dreamers lose their status per day. we have already seen the harmful effects of the administration's decision to end daca and the situation will cont

ashley: in 2014 -- senator klobuchar: since 2014. ms. ashley: since 2014, yes. senator klobuchar: ok. and i understand that there has not been an i.s.o. issued for a distributor or manufacturer of opioid medication since 2012. is there a reason why only pharmacies and practitioners have been the subject of the most recent i.s.o.'s? ms. ashley: i can explain that when investigators engaged with distributors and manufacturers, specifically, because we have the responsibility to make sure that patients have access, we want to keep them in business. we want to bring them in compliance. it's only the most egregious that we would ever use an order -- an immediate suspension order for. senator klobuchar: so there were no distributors since 2012 that the agency felt they should go after? ms. ashley: we have engaged but we may have used a different tool as senator whitehouse mentioned, there are so many other things we can use to bring them into compliance. senator klobuchar: i understand that in addition to the immediate suspension order, as senator whitehouse smentionme

ms. klobuchar: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i stand today to call for bipartisan action on several things that are really critical. one of them has really become routine since it started as something, a bill that democrats and republicans did together, and that was the children's health insurance program, something that my colleague from vermont has referenced. in my state, we have been a good government state. we have had a budget surplus for years, and believe it or not, we relied on the fact that congress would come through and do what they were supposed to do and reauthorize the children's health insurance program, but that didn't happen. and so, as a result, we have a slight budget deficit, something we haven't had for years, but it just to me really hit home the fact when i called our budget director in the state, and i said, how did this happen when we had these surpluses. and he said, well, we actually thought you guys would reauthorize the children's health insurance program, but you didn't. instead, what we

ms. klobuchar: madam president, i want to thank senator nelson for his leadership on this amendment. it's a very simple amendment for a very simple proposition, and that is that the tax code should be simpler -- that's true -- we should make it more streamlined -- that's true -- but our focus should be helping the people of america. and our problem with the bill that's on the floor right now is that it is weighted much too heavily in terms of helping the wealthiest among us and not the middle class. and senator nelson's amendment, which i'm a proud cosponsor, gets right to the meat of this, to the bread and butter, to helping the middle class with their groceries -- since i used meat and bread and butter -- but also with their mortgages, with paying for college, with everything they need to do. and our problem with the bill right now is that too much of it goes to the top. in fact, when you look at the numbers, it's quite startling. the first thing you notice for the middle class is that $1.4 trillion in additional debt comes out of this bill. now, our colleagues were claiming until

ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i rise to join my colleagues in expressing my support for taking action on the dream act. as well as my continued opposition to the administration's decision to end deferred action for childhood arrivals. i would like to thank my colleague, senator durbin, for organizing today's remarks as well as her leadership and advocacy on behalf of the dreamers along with senator graham who is leading on this important bill with senator durbin. it is critically important that the senate pass the dream act and not wait any longer to take action. 22,000 eligible daca recipients did not meet the administration's deadline to renew their status, and as a result about 122 dreamers are now losing their daca status every day. that's more than 11,000 who have already lost their status as of today, and that number will continue to increase every single day that we fail to act. so this is nothing that we can wait and wait a week and wait a month and wait two months. every single day it affects m

ms. klobuchar: i rise today to join with the senator from vermont in opposition to the f.c.c.'s planned vote to end net neutrality protections. tomorrow, as he noted, the f.c.c. will hold a vote on their plan to eliminate net neutrality on chairman pai's plan. these rules have kept the internet free and open. and in a day where a lot of things aren't working, this was something that was actually working. people were able to access the internet. people in my state that maybe didn't have a lot of resources, kids were able to access the internet to do their homework. it was working. but if the f.c.c. votes to abandon net neutrality, it will put internet service providers, not consumers, in charge of determining the future of the internet. net neutrality holds internet service providers big, mega internet service providers accountable for providing the internet access consumers expect while protecting innovation and competition. it is the bedrock of a fast, free, and open internet. net neutrality has allowed the internet to become one of the great american success stories, transfor

ms. klobuchar: mr. president, earlier this morning, the senate voted on the tax bill. i voted against the measure. and as i have said many times, i don't think this is a bill that's going to work for my state or for america. and the house now has one more opportunity -- i don't think many people think they're going to change their vote, but i just hope instead of celebrating, what happens today they're going to step back and look at what this really means. i am in a group of people that have long called for tax reform. in fact, two weeks before this bill passed, we stood before the public and said we would like to work with the republicans on a bill to bring the business rate and to bring the money in from overseas. but a bill that didn't add this kind of weight to the debt and a bill that actually was good for all americans, not just some americans. we also could have done so much more. we're adding $1.5 trillion to the debt yet we are doing nothing for infrastructure. we didn't change the carried interest loophole. we did nothing to fix so many things that even the p