mr. wyden: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, i thank my colleagues senator blumenthal and senator warner have spoken strongly on the issue at hand, which is to protect our country, our great country. in 200 years of self-governance, this extraordinary experiment in self-governance, and to do it we have to add a new tier of strong protection for the sanctity of our elections. so i want to thank senator blumenthal. he is a member of the judiciary committee where he is doing important work on these issues. our colleague, senator warner, of course the vice chairman of the intelligence committee where i serve, and i just want to thank my colleague who is still on the floor, senator blumenthal, for all his leadership. i look forward to partnering with him and with senator warner in the days ahead. mr. president, in a moment i will be asking for unanimous consent to adopt a bipartisan bill that i have proposed with senator cotton. it is s. 890, the sen

mr. wyden: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent, mr. president, to vacate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. wyden: mr. president, today i rise to rebut the deeply flawed proposal that the attorney general has just made this morning. this morning, he raised a tired, debunked plan to blow a hole in one of the most important security features protecting the digital lives of the american people. mr. barr once again echoing the views of some on the far, far right, is trying to undermine the strong encryption and required government back doors into the personal devices of the american people. now, encryption is a technical term that gets thrown around by people in government who don't want you to use it. the idea, however, is simple. it's using math to encode your information so that the only people who can read it are the ones that you want to read it. as is often known, encryption is used every time a credit card is swiped or an online bank account is accessed. it helps pr

mr. wyden: mr. president, in the coming hours the senate could take up the nomination of elizabeth darling to serve as commissioner for children, youths, and families at the department of health and human services. if she is confirmed to that role, she would be a key official overseeing the foster care system. i previously had a hold on ms. darling's nomination, and i'm going to begin my remarks by saying that my hold was never about her personally or about her concerns -- or about concerns about her qualifications. in fact i believe she's qualified for the position. i placed a hold on her nomination because of serious problems at the department of health and human services affecting child welfare policies that would fall in her area of jurisdiction if she's confirmed. and i think this involves a matter national distinguished president of the senate might be particularly interested in at this point. i authored with former finance committee chair, senator orrin hatch, landmark families legislation ca

wyden: when it was taken, barbara, you just snuck in, great to see you, thank you for coming. let's give mrs. grassley a round of applause. [applause] sen. wyden: we are always glad to have barbara in the house. this picture was taken at a particularly exciting moment during the affordable care act debate. when it was taken, and i sent it to senator lincoln, i said "let's call it our honeymooner shot." what you have is rolf kramden on the left, and his wife alice, looking as they always did, deeply into each other's eyes -- not. [laughter] sen. wyden: it will forever be a little bit of the finance committee history, jane, that we call that the honeymooner shot. i will talk for a minute or two seriously. as the chairman said, and also jane, what an extraordinary honor it is to serve on the senate finance committee. i'm a first generation jewish kid. my parents could not possibly believe i would have an honor like this. i went to school on a basketball scholarship, i dreamed of playing in the nba. it was a ridiculous idea. at 6'4", i was too small. i made up for it by being really slow. [laugh

[laughter] senator wyden: when it was taken, barbara just snuck in, great to see you. thank you for coming. let's give mrs. grassley a big round of applause. [applause] senator warren: we are always glad to have barbara in the house. this picture was taken at a particularly exciting moment in the affordable care act debate. and i sent taken it to senator lincoln, i said let's call it our honeymoon or er shot. what you have is ralph kramden on the left and his wife, alice, over here, looking, as they always did, deeply into each other's eyes. not. [laughter] senator wyden: edit it will be forever of the finance committee's history, and we call that the honeymooner shot. , and alsoirman said jane, what a extraordinary honor it is to serve on the senate finance committee. i have a first-generation jewish kid. my parents could not possibly believe i would have an honor like this. i went to school on a basketball scholarship. i was dreaming of playing in the nba. it was a ridiculous idea because , and i, i was too small made up for it by being really slow. that is what i wanted to do. but to think that someone

mr. president, i want to salute the finance committee chairman, chuck grassley, and the ranking member wyden, for taking bipartisan action just last week in passing significant prescription drug -- the prescription drug pricing reduction act. that has many important provisions in it that will require more disclosure. it includes a bill that senator casey and i have authored as well as many other important provisions, including putting an inflation -- a medical inflation cap on certain pharmaceuticals. mr. president, i know how much you personally care about this issue and have contributed greatly to this work as well. my hope is that we can build upon this momentum, that we can seize the moment where three different committees of the senate have all been successful in reporting to the full senate three bipartisan bills. our help committee bill was reported by a vote of 20-3. that is remarkable consensus. let us bring all of these bills to the senate floor this fall, or certainly by the end of the year, so that we can deliver real results to the american people by lowering the price of prescr

mr. president, the environment and public works committee doesn't have jurisdiction, as you know, over revenues for the highway bill. ranking member carper and i are going to work closely with chuck grassley and ron wyden to responsiblely pay for this legislation. we've received extensive feedback p in the process of writing this legislation, from experts from our home states and from other senators. the bill has already received broad support from groups like the american association of state highways and transportation officials, the u.s. chamber of commerce, the national association of manufacturers, the american highway users alliance, the american road and transportation builders association, the american council of engineering companies, the national stone, sand, and gravel association; the north american concrete alliance; and many more. we plan to mark up america's transportation infrastructure act this week. the business meeting will be a great opportunity to strengthen the legislation and move this important process forward. i'm thankful to ranking member carper and all the members of our committee for working with me, mr. president, on this important piece of legislation. america's transport

quorum call: quorum call: mr. wyden: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: i stand here this afternoon -- the presiding officer: senate is in a quorum call. the presiding officer: i ask to vacate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. wyden: mr. president, i stand here this afternoon in a state of disbelief. last wednesday, my completion and i in the congress were briefed on the stage of election security in america. now, i am prohibited from talking about the details of that classified briefing, but the message from my republican colleagues at that election security meeting was very clear. nothing to see here. one senator said, it's clear the federal government is doing -- and i quote -- everything you can do -- unquote. the top republican on the house homeland security committee said, and i quote, i wouldn't say we've got a need for more election security legislation. a member of the house republican leadership said, and i quote, the agencies have the tools they need, and i'm confident they are addressing the threats. cas

mr. wyden: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that i be permitted to speak for five minutes followed by senator cortez masto for five minutes prior to the series of votes we will have. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. wyden: thank you, madam president. colleagues, the fourth of july picnics and parades, it is likely that complicated health care policy debates were not exactly a central topic of conversation. i'm pretty sure that's the way the trump administration wanted it to be. today lawyers representing the trump administration and a number of republican governors are attempting to have the affordable care act ripped up and thrown out by a federal court. they were unable to do that in the congress, so now they have headed off to try to get it done in the courts. the case is happening in the fifth circuit in louisiana, and it is not some theoretical exercise. this is an immediate threat to the health care of millions and millions of americans. and i want to be clear at the