mrs. gillibrand: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mrs. gillibrand: madam president, i rise to join my colleagues, senator heinrich, and the others who have come before, in calling on senator mcconnell to act now to address the gun crisis in our country. every day that the senate republican leaders renews to act, they are making a choice to be complicit as more lives continue to be lost. people across my state and the one want to see action, and they're tired of waiting for it. i've met with countless families across new york who have lost their children, spouses, friends, community members, neighbors to gun violence. i've met people who have survived mass shootings and people who live every single day with the threat of gun violence in their neighborhoods. i've heard their stories and seen thousand their lives have been foreign-- torn apartment by gun violence and paid i want to tell some of those stories to you. one of citizens units from long island and a father of young children was at the route 91 harvest music festival for work. he he

mrs. gillibrand: mr. president. mr. cardin: i ask unanimous consent that my statement in regards to stephanie gallagher, we will be voting on her later today for district court judgeship, appear separately in the record in support of her nomination. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. gillibrand: mr. president, i rise to join my colleagues in discussing our country's horrific gun violence epidemic. i have risen to speak of this problem many times over the years. and to be honest, it's exasperating to have to do it over and over again. el paso, dayton, gilroy, odessa, midland, brownsville, new york. the list goes on and on. city after city, community after community devastated by gun violence. we witness these tragedies. we watch hard breaking and nightmarish footage on our televisions. we offer our thoughts and prayers. we have heavy hearts, deep disappointments and horror, and still nothing. the senate has still not passed any meaningful legislation to address the problems, so here we are once

gillibrand: please submitted a letter to my office, thank you. shaheen: thank you, mr. chairman and congratulations on to thesenations important roles in your past service and willingness to serve this country. i want to start with a question pfas. i know this has come up in your secretary esper announced the formation of a pfas corps. myself orhy: either mr. james mcpherson attended those meetings and we are taking a leadership role on that. mrs. barrett: the air force has been working to clean up those contaminations. sen. shaheen: and as we the aird yesterday, force has been responsive to the issues we have had at the air force base in portsmouth, new hampshire. we hope you will continue that cooperation and that you will support the health studying underway by the agency for toxic substances and disease registry where it is a model site for that. mrs. barrett: i look forward to it, if confirmed. sen. shaheen: also, i hope you will both commit to urging the department of defense to come up with an alternative to the firefighting foam that has had these pfas chemicals

mrs. gillibrand: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mrs. gillibrand: i ask unanimous consent to speak as much time as i consume. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. gillibrand: thank you, mr. president. i rise to speak in opposition to the republican motion to instruct on paid family and medical leave. before i move to the issue at hand, i do want to address the serious allegations against president trump and the new information we are learning from the memo the white house released today. it is deeply concerning to learn that president trump asked the ukrainian president zelensky to work with the united states to investigate vice president biden. our democracy is at risk and president trump has betrayed our country. i support speaker pelosi in starting the impeachment inquiry she announced yesterday and the revelations today make these investigations even more necessary. i now want to talk about an opportunity we have in the senate today to serve the nation by gua

mrs. gillibrand: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mrs. gillibrand: madam president, i rise to join my colleagues, senator heinrich, and the others who have come before, in calling on senator mcconnell to act now to address the gun crisis in our country. every day that the senate republican leaders renews to act, they are making a choice to be complicit as more lives continue to be lost. people across my state and the one want to see action, and they're tired of waiting for it. i've met with countless families across new york who have lost their children, spouses, friends, community members, neighbors to gun violence. i've met people who have survived mass shootings and people who live every single day with the threat of gun violence in their neighborhoods. i've heard their stories and seen thousand their lives have been foreign-- torn apartment by gun violence and paid i want to tell some of those stories to you. one of citizens units from long island and a father of young children was at the route 91 harvest music festival for work. he he