mr. murray. the man whose head is ab secured -- is obscured behind him in this torrid hug is our energy secretary. so you knew things were going to go well for mr. murray at this meeting after that nice, cozy reception that he got. and then the photographer went on and took this picture, which is murray energy corporation's recommendations to the honorable j. richard perry as to what he should do about the environment. now, i will spend some more time on that memo in just a moment because after long delays, we're actually able to get our hands on it. they delayed and they fiddled and faddled and wouldn't confirm that they had it. but when the photograph showed that they had it, they said okay, we'll give it to you when we give our our foyer request. great. thanks a bunch. so much for congressional oversight. i hope that the now majority, if you're ever in the minority in the senate, don't get treated this way, being told line up with the folks. we're not interested in responding to oversight requ

mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. i come up to the floor today to urge my colleagues to vote against the nomination of carlos muniz as the department of education's general counsel. the department of education's primary responsibility is to help schools educate our students and prepare them to be successful in life. a good education can open doors of opportunity for children who may not have thought that their dreams were possible, and a good education can lift millions of families out of poverty and into the middle class. that's certainly what a good education did for me and for my family. so as many working families are struggling today, we should be working to make sure every child can attend a good public school in their own neighborhood. we need to do more to ensure every student who wants to attend college can afford it, graduate, and find a good-paying job and isotaddled with a mountain o debt. and it's absolutely critical that every student, no matter whatagers is learning in a

mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president of. mr. president, i come to the floor today to oppose kyle duncan's nomination to serve on the fifth circuit court of appeals. a review of mr. duncan's record, his cases, his chosen causes, show he is a dangerous, ideological nominee who has consistently been on the wrong side of women's rights, lgbtq rights and civil rights. let's start with his record arguing against women's rights and reproductive freedom. when he served as lead counsel in the infamous hobby lobby case, he argued that an employer can interfere with a woman's personal health care choices. in texas, he filed a brief in favor of abortion restrictions that would have shut down the vast majority of clinics in that state, restrictions the supreme court ultimately ruled an undue burden on women's constitutional right to safe, legal abortion. in my home state of washington, he filed a brief arguing pharmacies should be allowed to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions for ideological reasons. fortunately, his views did not pr

following talks over the ongoing situation in syria the un asked special envoy to syria seven day mr murraysaid that it is very important now to lower not only the a military tension now but political as well now you've just heard that he said that the risks and airstrikes conducted by the u.s. france and the u. of cape did not how to deescalate the situation there but the countries which conducted those these strikes had a slightly different view on the subject saying that these talks were unnecessary and just to fight music from. within.

and murray energy, for whom mr. wheeler lobbied, was one of the top donors to that pruitt super pac. and the relationship between pruitt and wheeler and bob murray gets even cozier when we see that bob murray was a co-plaintiff in eight of the 14 lawsuits that pruitt brought against the e.p.a. before pruitt became the administrator. so i want to get this right. you have mr. wheeler, who was the lobbyist for mr. murray, and mr. murray joined with pruitt in filing eight of 14 lawsuits against the e.p.a. so you can see we have a very cozy relationship there and one which will only reinforce -- not counterbalance -- mr. pruitt's worst instincts at the e.p.a. and among those challenges is the question of climate change. you know, just yesterday in the environment and public works committee, we had a hearing. we had a hearing on using federal incentives to have more carbon sequestration, to try to take carbon out of the environment and a carbon recapture technology. what was interesting, mr. president, was every single one

mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i come to the floor today to voice my strong opposition to director pompeo's nomination to be our next secretary of state. this position is too important. the stakes are too high to let this nominee slide by without full consideration of what it would mean for director pompeo to be our nation's top diplomat. the person whose every word and action broadcast america's values to the rest of the world. some of my opposition concerns director pompeo's harsh views on matters of war and peace, and his blatantly false accusations regarding members of the muslim community. and some of my opposition surrounds my deep concern about director pompeo's ability to stand strong against president trump's erratic and uninformed foreign policy positions. but what i wanted to take a few minutes this afternoon to do is to express my serious concern about what director pompeo's ideological, extreme positions on women's rights and reproductive freedom would mean for women across the world. our na

moscow following talks over the ongoing situation in syria the un as special envoy to syria seven day mr murray said that it is very important now to lower not only the a military tension now but political as well now you've just heard that he said that the risks and airstrikes conducted by the u.s. france and the u. of kate did not help to deescalate the situation there but the countries which conducted those these strikes had a slightly different view on the subject saying that these talks were unnecessary and just to fight. we had reached the point where the strike have become indispensable to be able to return credibility to our communities and words should be action was taken to alleviate humanitarian suffering in syria by degrading the regime's chemical weapons capability and deterring its use of these weapons the airstrikes were conducted in response to claims of an l.n.h. chemical weapons attack on the syrian city of too much even before the official investigation of the organization for the pocket bishan of chemical weapons even started now the u.s. said that it could not wait for the

into international credit worthiness problems or if you like being downgraded we asked to interview mr murray yani to discuss these allegations but sars didn't respond since twenty fourteen under his leadership fifty five senior staff and five hundred others have quit. great friendships were broken people got divorced children were affected as a result of that's. also the independence of the investigation is being called into question over a fundamental issue nobody who is implicated. named in those aboard as being inverted commas guilty of war and the lot of was asked to put their point of view at first from. the k p m g investigation i envisaged a process whereby k p m g the lawyers and myself sat down in a room behind closed doors for once being honest and open and frank going through the report line by line but declined to sit down with him and then in september twenty fifteen a draft of the report was leaked to the media i received a text message from a journalist from the sunday times please can i comment. how do you comment on a report picture unseen k p m g should've immediately acted

following talks over the ongoing situation in syria the un asked special envoy to syria seven day mr murray said that it is very important now to lower not only the military tension now but political as well now you've just heard that he said that the risks and airstrikes conducted by the u.s. france and the u. of cape did not help to deescalate the situation there but the countries which conducted those these strikes had a slightly different view on the subject saying that these acts were unnecessary and just to fight. would had reached the point where the strike have become indispensable to be able to return credibility to our communities reward should the action was taken to alleviate humanitarian suffering in syria by degrading the regime's chemical weapons capability and deterring its use of these weapons the airstrikes were conducted in response to claims of an l.n.h. chemical weapons attack on the syrian city of too much even before the official investigation of the organization for the pocket bishan of chemical weapons even started now the u.s. said that it could not wait for the of

following talks over the ongoing situation in syria the un asked special envoy to syria seven day mr murray said that it is very important now to lower not only the a military town show now but political as well now you've just heard that he said that the recent airstrikes conducted by the u.s. france and the u. of kate did not help to deescalate the situation there but the countries which conducted those these strikes had a slightly different view on the subject saying that these talks were unnecessary and just to fight. with had reached the point where the strike have become indispensable to be able to return credibility to our communities words should be action was taken to alleviate humanitarian suffering in syria by degrading the regime's chemical weapons capability and deterring its use of these weapons the airstrikes were conducted in response to claims of an l.n.h. chemical weapons attack on the syrian city of too much even before the official investigation of the organization for the pocket bishan of chemical weapons even started now the u.s. said that it could not wait for the off

following talks over the ongoing situation in syria at the un as special envoy to syria seven day mr murray said that it is very important now to lower not only the a military town show now but political as well now you've just heard that he said that the risks and airstrikes conducted by the u.s. france and the u. of kate did not help to deescalate the situation there but the countries which conducted those these strikes had a slightly different view on the subject saying that these talks were unnecessary and just to fight. we had reached the point where this strike have become indispensable to be able to return credibility to our communities and words should be action was taken to alleviate humanitarian suffering in syria by degrading the regime's chemical weapons capability and deterring its use of these weapons the airstrikes were conducted in response to claims of an l.n.h. chemical weapons attack on the syrian city of too much even before the official investigation of the organization for the pocket bishan of chemical weapons even started now the us said that it could not wait for the

following talks over the ongoing situation in syria the un asked special envoy to syria seven day mr murray said that it is very important now to lower not only the a military town show now but political as well now you've just heard that he said that the risks and airstrikes conducted by the u.s. france and the u. of kate did not help to deescalate the situation there but the countries which conducted those these strikes hit us like a different view on the subject saying that these talks were unnecessary and just to fight. we had reached the point where the strike have become indispensable to be able to return credibility to our communities and words should be action was taken to alleviate humanitarian suffering in syria by degrading the regime's chemical weapons capability and deterring its use of these weapons the airstrikes were conducted in response to claims of an l.n.h. chemical weapons attack on the syrian city of too much even before the official investigation of the organization for the pocket bishan of chemical weapons even started now the us said that it could not wait for the o

culture does not fit with ours and having them here doesn't help public safety because mr sherman and the c.e.o. of murrayagree that the issues such as corruption are problems in politics but he says they are nothing new for him the positives of the fittest government outweigh the negatives. we benefit greatly as a big family and years ago utility costs started to decrease that's also good for us in. opinion polls but if it is firmly in the lead some in the opposition would consider it a victory if they manage to deprive over two thirds majority in parliament all agree hungary is heading for a fateful election for the speak to the author of that report to our very own for the char she is in hungary's capital budapest and i can even say you funny so mr orbán is strongly pushing an anti margaret message is this the most important issue to voters. brant according to recent polls and they are many of them during the last day have headed up to the actions it's about social issues that seem to matter the most to hungary and social issues the practical issues like a more competitive education system care in hosp

mr. singleton, dave brown, former senior advisor intimate counsel to senator murray. he is also a democratic strategist. thank you for joining us right now. when i look at all of this and i hear the blowback from members of congress, the president, was he within his right to actually take a military strike, joint military strike along with the uk and france to take up the chemical weapons manufacturing facilities of assad? >> it was actually within his right. i think as a nation, we have made it very clear where we stand on these types of barbaric acts. i like to know back in 2015 it was the washington times that noted that president obama had approved 2800 strategic strikes and that was in syria and iraq without congressional approval. that was with growth and expansion. if you look at previous administration there was reason for this. i do think the president wants to increase that if you will and he should go to the people that the american people voted to represent them but at this point in time i don't think you know congress likes a debate but sometimes they deb

murray's first role in the animal kingdom. he was a badger in another wes anderson film "fantastic mr. fox."jungle book." and he even played a grumpy cat in a movie he starred in by mistake. >> first thing monday morning, i'm going to get to work on losing those last 20 pounds. >> i did the garfield movies, which were one crazier than the next. >> is the story true about you signing up for that movie thinking it was a different director? >> yeah, it's true. absolutely true. and i didn't really read the script. i was like, i'd love to do one of these animated movies. it would be fun. i'm going joel cohen, one of my favorites. the cohen brothers, they make great movies. well, it wasn't that joel cohen. >> there's an "h" in the one you signed up for. >> do you have any regrets? >> garfield, maybe. >> one of only a small handful of professional regrets in the life of william james murray, born and raised in the suburbs of chicago. one of nine siblings, murray has three brothers who also are actors. when murray was 22, he joined one of those brothers in the second city, chicago's famed improv com

murray deals. and there was not an attempt to reverse that course. the sequester argument, mr. speaker, is an argument of constraint imposed by the majority party, not by us. we had urged that the sequester be rescinded. and in fact, we supported the ryan-murray agreement. matter of fact, i didn't support the first agreement because i thought it was a facade and turned out to be pretty meaningless in terms of what the agreement was. so we haven't grown the economy. we had the worst economy any of us have seen under the bush fiscal policies supported by my republican friends. i didn't support that. c.b.o. says this bill will not grow the economy. but this bill will create substantial debt. i asked the gentleman a question that i want to go back to, and that is, does the gentleman this us to have a budget month, but before i do that, the gentleman says and it was a good strategy if they passed 12 appropriation bills and packaged them in two packages. they didn't consider them individually, but two packages and sent them to the senate and they were partisan bills. and mr. mcconnell

mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i come to the floor today for two reasons. before discussion the nomination at hand which is john ridge for the national relations -- ring for the national relations board, i want to take time to mark the equal payday. it tags women three additional months to make what their male colleagues made in may 2017. in the 21st century, there's absolutely no excuse for the reality that women are still being paid less than men for the same work. it's wrong. it's harmful. and it has to change. and what's even more unacceptable is women of color the pay gap is even worse. african american women working full time only make 63 cents for every dollar their white male colleagues make. and latinos on average earn 54 cents for every dollar their white male colleagues make. the wage gap doesn't just hurt women. it hurts famil

mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: i ask for the yeas and nays on the pending nomination. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. the presiding officer: without objection, the question is on the nomination. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, the yeas are 55, the nays are 48. 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. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. gardner: thank you, mr. president. in the past 24 hours, we have learned of a high-level meeting between director mike pompeo, the president's nominee to become secretary of state, and kim jong-un, the tie n rant leader of -- the tyrant leader of north korea who has threatened to use

mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i come to the floor today to oppose in the strongest terms the nomination of patrick pizzella as deputy secretary of labor. with this nomination, president trump is once again breaking his promise to put workers first. mr. pizzella has a record that is time and again at odds with the goals of the very department he would help lead as deputy secretary. his track record is one of not merely failing workers, but of failing to enforce laws to protect the health and safety of workers seeking to diminish workers rights and protections and undermining the unions that represent and fight for them. in fact, his record includes working with convicted lobbyist jack abramoff on behalf of causes counter to the mission. in the 1990's congress was moving to expand labor protections to the northern marianas islands, a u.s. territory, to end the operation of sweatshops that did not follow federal labor laws. the law at the time let companies bring in foreign workers to toil under inhumane c

mrs. murray: thank you. i ask unanimous consent the senate now proceed to the immediate consideration of a bill which is at the desk that provides alternative minimum funding rules for certain single employer plans maintained by a community newspaper. the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. hatch: mr. president, reserving the right to object. the legislation in question makes a significant change to the pension funding rule that is narrowly written to only address issues considering a single retirement plan. there are a number of companies that have similar funding issues which are not addressed by my cool league -- colleague's proposal. i appreciate the work my colleague, senator murray has done and know there's ongoing bipartisan work on issues that her legislation addresses as well as other issues surrounding retirement plans. the committe

mr. wheeler working so closely as a lobbist for the same fossil fuel industry, specifically murray energy. how can you say an individual will enforce the rules when he represents the industry? that is the challenge. mr. president, our united states president said he was going to drain the swamp, but scott pruitt is the swamp. he is the person who is proceeding to fail to enforce our clean air and clean water laws. he is the person who is stopping his team have investigating violations. he is the person who is allowing his friends to have their pay increase or actively working to increase their pay when it is outside of the regulation. he is the person wasting our taxpayer money in so many kinds of way that is documented from security details to trains of cars blowing lights so he can get someplace in the city five minutes faster, violating rules, demoting people who homed him accountable. -- holding him accountable. every possible ethical violation. and the nominee before us is a straight backup to that kind of misconduct, absolutely not -- should absolutely not be confirmed by the united