inhofe: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: i ask unanimous consent that the following intern and fellow from my office be granted floor privileges until november 18 of 2022. j.p. cooper and law r are a hill. the presiding officer: -- and laura hill. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. inhofe: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that i be recognized for such time as i shall consume. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. inhofe: thank you, mr. president. as a reflect of my 28 years serving in the united states senate, i'm reminded of the lessons i've learned from my former colleagues and friends who have served beside me in the senate. i had the privilege of serving with many great titans for a fairly long period of time. some people thought maybe too long. i had the privilege of serving with the people that i've known very well, people like orrin hatch, mike enzi, friends i miss dearly. i single them out because they're no longer with

. >> i did not understand before i started the research i did go to alaska you just need a permit inhofehe park is in the united states half in canada have the best backpacking of ever done and it is lovely and then to pan for gold because then i could run back to the hotel to breakdown and give those experiences.ho so the mining it is permafrost. so if they find a creek to get ten cents or 20 cents and then they have to get down to bedrock. all of these terms we use from the casino like pastry can paid her that come from you cannot dig in permafrost it is frozen muck you cannot dynamite it freezes up you cannot put his spade in it so every night they would build a fireey and burn their way down and in the morning they would get in there with the / while it was still 33 degrees and to get out and put it in a bucket and dump it and then do that all mentors at the end of winter youou would have the whole goes down to bedrock and thenen find the pastry. and then to burn their way through your under the permafrost in the pastry there would be $200 a pan but 5 feet over it is ten cents opinio

reported that weekend that according to sources it was anonymous the shanahan's had to cut the playbook inhofe this is a guy who took the team to super bowl, prole bowl quarterback assuming the eagles made the playoffs and now in one week he is called out of shape, not prepared and finally done. of course we knew where it came from it came from one of the shanahan so the next day i went on a tv show "washington post" live when i said this is racial coding it goes back to the sixties and seventies when people claim that black people were not smart enough to play the quarterback position but it was how i was attacked i was accused ofs playing the race card that's what happens when you bring it up as an issue when i bring up race as an issue people say why you making race and issue and i say because it is and of course he is 100 percent right so with that anthem protest but then most of the media was writing stories according to sources to say he's just not good enough anymore 29 years old the starting o quarterback now all of a sudden he's not good enough to be the top 64 quarterbacks in the lea

republican candidates lead it at this point, and mark wayne mullin hoping to replace senator jim inhofe. >> looking at balance of power. white are those not yet called, it is now 50/50. we'll track that. >> to governor race in florida. ron desantis will defeat charlie crist again. margins are eye-popping, we'll let brit talk about that. >> that is a huge number. for governor ron desantis in pennsylvania that will have a long lasts -- >> florida. >> that brit will fill us in on, looking at pennsylvania governor race shapiro with a strong lead against d mastriano this is too earlity call. >> oklahoma governor race too early to call, joy hoff meister against kevin stitt. >> and not enough data for race in maine. governor mills has lead against predecessor. we'll see what happens there paula page. >> massachusetts, project healthe healy will be next governor, and that goes to democrats. >> fox news decision desk governor sununu has lead in new hampshire. >> connecticut democratic governor lemonte with lead against candidate bob. >> and not enough data, governor dan mckee, will take his firs

thanks to the bipartisan leadership of senator reed and senator inhofe and our colleagues on the armed services committee, they completed their work in the senate armed services committee last summer, but the defense authorization act has just lingered on the senate's agenda without any action by the majority leader, the senator from new york. thanks to bipartisan leadership on the senate armed services committee, they compiled a strong bill that will strengthen and modernize our national defense, but that bill was filed on july 18 last summer. in the meantime nothing has happened here on the floor of the senate, now four months later. the majority leader has so far refused to provide floor time for the defense authorization bill. this isn't a matter of scheduling. the senate has had plenty of time to work on the defense bill in september, and there was certainly bipartisan appetite to get that done. but the senate majority leader, senator schumer, the senator from new york, could not be swayed. he hasn't prioritized our national defense, which i believe is the single-most important du

senator inhofe brought an amendment saying let's put a cap. biden administration said 10% cap. on contingency fees. sounds fair. the rumors we're hearing already is unscrupulous trial lawyers are charging 50% and 60% contingency fees for sick marines. biden administration said cap add 10%. we put in annual amendment that would cap it at 10%. my colleagues on the other side of the aisle blocked it. i wonder what's going on there? we know they -- trial lawyers. the president of the united states' justice department asked us to address this before it would become a problem. but my colleagues chose trial lawyers over sick marines, okay. as a result some marines have already lost money because of scams. some of these law firms are promising big paydays. of course they're asking for money upfront, much of which they'll likely use. others are being used without getting any money. a recent media story highlighted a marine veteran in kentucky whose face was used in an ad claiming he received a $35,000 settlement. in fact, he told a reporter he got 35 cents. how's that for justice? i hop

our colleagues on the senate armed services committee led by senators reed, a democrat, senator inhofe, a republican, completed their work on the national defense authorization bill last summer. this year's national defense authorization bill was filed on july 18, four and a half months ago. i was hopeful that the senate would advance this bill in september and work with our colleagues across the capitol to send it to the president before the end of the year, but that obviously didn't happen. again, not an accident but by design. now we're at the end of november and the national defense authorization bill hasn't even hit the senate floor. so not only are we talking about not appropriating the money so that our national security leaders can plan and implement the sort of needed investments that are critical in a great power competition, we don't even have the authorization bill on the floor. i hope that will change in the next couple of days, but we've already wasted most of the year, and we can't get any of that time back. so my point is, mr. president, that in order to plan for and pr

officer: the chair lays before the senate a communication regarding the resignation regarding senator inhofe. without objection, the letter will be printed in the record and spread upon the journal. mr. schatz: i ask unanimous consent thats s. 5068 be discharged from the committee on energy and natural resources and referred to the committee on indian affairs. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schatz: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today it recess until 10:00 a.m. on wednesday, november 30, and that following the prayer and pledge, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the velez-rive nomination. if any nominations are confirmed during wednesday's session, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately noift of the senate -- notified of the senate's actions. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schatz: there will be two roll call votes beginning at 11:30 a.m. and two roll call votes at 2:15 p.m. if there i