senator isakson. ms. gianopoulos, i was in the real estate business before coming to congress and did a lot of shopping centers and watched the increase of sales over the internet at christmastime. i think 20% to 22% of sales at christmas are made by the internet and not going to the store and shopping and buying which is exponentially grown retail sales over the internet. is a growing in comparable rate other products other times of the year? ms. gianopoulos: you know, senator, we didn't take a look at the growth of ecommerce per se. we were focused on the challenges that were associated with ecommerce as it relates to counterfeits. as i said in my statement, it's very difficult when you're going online and just looking at a photo of an item to determine whether or not it's real. you may go into a store and be able to pick it up and see if it's a different weight or color or something like that. what some counterfeiters do, they take a photo of an actual item and put it online even though they're giving

senator isakson. ms. gianopoulos, i was in the real estate business before coming to congress and did a lot of shopping centers and watched the increase of sales over the internet at christmastime. i think 20% to 22% of sales at christmas are made by the internet and not going to the store and shopping and buying which is exponentially grown retail sales over the internet. is a growing in comparable rate other products other times of the year? ms. gianopoulos: you know, senator, we didn't take a look at the growth of ecommerce per se. we were focused on the challenges that were associated with ecommerce as it relates to counterfeits. as i said in my statement, it's very difficult when you're going online and just looking at a photo of an item to determine whether or not it's real. you may go into a store and be able to pick it up and see if it's a different weight or color or something like that. what some counterfeiters do, they take a photo of an actual item and put it online even though they're giving

senator isakson? senator isakson: thank you both for being here today. we appreciate it very much.overnor hogan, in my state it is estimated by professionals there are 541 million doses, circulating in my state right now, of opioids, in georgia. last year in june we had an epidemic run where in two weeks there were eight deaths of overdoses, 40 hospitalizations, through middle georgia where a number of percocet pills laced with fentanyl had gotten loose in the public. you testified on fentanyl in your testimony and i understand your state has been dealing with similar problems because it is a growing -- fentanyl is a growing magnification of the opioid problem. what are you all doing in maryland that's working and what can you share that will help us to work to reduce the fentanyl effect? governor hogan: thank you, senator. very we first started with prescription opioids and we put in a regional, in fact, we worked together with the district of columbia and virginia and did a regional prescription drug monitoring program. we put in legislation to limit the number of pills you can p

isakson: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. isakson: mr. president, i rise out of a great sense of pride to exercise one of my responsibilities as united states senator, to speak on behalf of mr. self, a judge for the circuit courts for the northern district of georgia, for the state of georgia. the vote will take place not too long from now. i want to encourage every member of the senate to cast their vote for judge self. he's now -- he's the whole package. he has a wonderful wife and family, four great children, worked in the private sector for years, accomplished many things in the private sector. he went to the university of georgia law school, graduated cum laude, summa cum laude from the military college of south carolina. went on to have a distinguished private career. then went to the superior court of the state of georgia and macon georgia, macon middle district. in that job on the superior court did something i'm very close to. he's a entrepreneur. he started the veterans court for the middle district of georgia today and for that

school days and i read the first volume of the last line of my future friend, evan thomas and walter isakson's book, the wise man. i love you so much that i didn't rewrite both sequentially. i was at a job interview and i said i want to tell you a richer book i was 13 years old. he looked at me and said he must have been a real loser. [laughter] the first volume of the last line is a wonderful portrait of churchill, the great victoria center. not enough people read my early life, which i think is his best book. the memoir was published in 34 or 35 i think. another book of his dipping in and out of where he did portrait. >> margaret, one or two favorites. >> favorites as heroes because i always think heroes are the dangers because they tend to seem better than everyone else. >> the risk by the way if you write about them defined. >> the lovely thing about discovering people in the past is how human they were. one of the people and fascinated by and won't know much about it and found it in india in the 16th century -- [inaudible] he came from a very small kingdom in central asia and when he was

interesting to look at the common set of come out of the veterans affairs committee and the senate, johnny isaksonnd jon tester for montana, republican and a democrat, both saying they are looking forward to learning more about him. i think that is mainly the issue here. they are not completely sure what is going on. the outgoing v.a. secretary was confirmed 100-0. there is precedent tier of uniformity and approving secretaries. i think it is the management experience that is the crux of the issue. >> shannon: i saw this reaction yesterday and it reminds me of a couple weeks ago when john bolton announced he would be the new national security advisor and i looked up and literally one of the screen to set "fox news analyst tapped to be the national security advisor." this man was an ambassador to the u.n. he was an undersecretary at the state department. do you think it is a knee-jerk reaction to go after these nominees? >> no doubt about it, shannon. i say tell max that same lower third as you. it was a laughable how they underplayed, downplayed mr. bolton's experience. same here. they are calling

isakson: thad, it's an honor it to come to the floor of the senate and talk for a minute about my friend thad cochran. i know everybody has probably said everything that needs to be said but just everybody hasn't said it yet. kind of in the vein of what senator blunt said, everybody says the same thing about thad cochran. he's gracious, smart, genteel,esquive. he's a great colleague. i want to tell you about thad cochran. when i came to the senate 14 years ago, i did what -- i served in every legislative body i could be elected to living where i live. the georgia house, georgia senate, the u.s. house, u.s. senate. in each one of them i got advice my first year in the georgia house 41 years ago that was real good advice. a friend of mine said johnny, the first year you're down here don't say a word. just watch everybody talk. watch what everybody else does. look at people you'd like to be like. for the remainder of your career be like that person. because in the end this business is about relationships and effectiveness, not about bluster and bragging. i did pick out a guy. his name was c

. >> senator isakson. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. cameron, thank you for being here and thank you for what you're doing. i was just thinking the chairman and i, chairman corker and i went to the sudan and the countries that you referred to today, those are primary examples of the two ways in which they can exit or stay in the sudan al brashear's goal was to keep it a fragile state, and because of that fragility, the people were kind of what's happened under the dutch disease where a lot of the rich countries and national resources and the leadership keeps the money and doesn't use it to invest in the people and they'll build their way out of the poverty that they have and then you take the opposite example. rwanda is the example where kagami came in and he ended a horrible genocide between the hutu and tutsis. they had a mass slaughter of each other and it's a ten hut and one hutu and one tutsi get in there and they sell the baskets to bloomingdale's in new york and they get a commission on the sales of the baskets. remember, bob, wh

isakson: thad, it's an honor it to come to the floor of the senate and talk for a minute about my friend thad cochran. i know everybody has probably said everything that needs to be said but just everybody hasn't said it yet. kind of in the vein of what senator blunt said, everybody says the same thing about thad cochran. he's gracious, smart, genteel,esquive. he's a great colleague. i want to tell you about thad cochran. when i came to the senate 14 years ago, i did what -- i served in every legislative body i could be elected to living where i live. the georgia house, georgia senate, the u.s. house, u.s. senate. in each one of them i got advice my first year in the georgia house 41 years ago that was real good advice. a friend of mine said johnny, the first year you're down here don't say a word. just watch everybody talk. watch what everybody else does. look at people you'd like to be like. for the remainder of your career be like that person. because in the end this business is about relationships and effectiveness, not about bluster and bragging. i did pick out a guy. his name was c

brown: thank you, senator isakson. i am terribly sorry for your loss. this is one issue that unites all of us, regardless of where we live we have had family, friends, relatives impacted by substance abuse. because it's an issue that unites us we can work together to tackle it. education and prevention are key for us. we want to make sure that our students throughout our schools -- oregon is, but we are small in terms of number of population, only 4 million. we want to make sure students have access to mental health mentals, comprehensive health services, behavioral health services in every school across the state. we think that's key that students access therapy and treatment of the needed from an -- if they needed from an early age. age. we also need to make sure we are working hard to educate students about the impacts of sexual abuse in schools throughout the state of oregon. i think the challenge is these drugs are coming on so quickly and they're so dangerous it's hard to get the word out. certainly partnering with us at the state level providing

have come back along with a substantial number of our colleagues, including senators graham, rounds, isakson and murkowski, among many oh, on this very important insurance stabilization and rate reduction package. let me begin by outlining the major provisions of what it is that we are proposing, flaws has been -- because there has been, unfortunately, mr. president, a lot of misunderstanding and, tear i say, misinformation. first, our legislation based on the alexander-murray bill would fund the cost-sharing reductions subsidies for three years. these are vital for americans who have incomes that are below 250% of the poverty level. c.s.r. provides government assistance to help them pay for their deductibles and their co-pays. second, our proposal also improves the ability of the states to take further steps to lower insurance premiums for their citizens. we provide meaningful flexibility for states by revising section 1332 of the affordable care act, which authorizes state innovation waivers. and, third, based on a bill that i authored with senator bill nelson, our proposal provides a tota