lankford: i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:

lankford: reserving the right to object. mr. president, i do object to this bill moving forward on a unanimous consent today. and the issue is, this bill needs reform. i enjoy our national parks. my children enjoy our national parks. 29% of the united states is already under federal ownership. 29% of our federal -- of all of the united states is under federal ownership. and a significant portion of this, in account far, last year it was $306 million that was spent from the lwcf, $178 million was for new land acquisition. so the bulk of what this program is used for is used for new land acquisition. but the real issue to address here is not only what happens if we allow it to happens, but what happens with it day to day? the day-to-day operation is for putting in a state grant to have them buy new state facilities, not maintain it. we're not setting aside the money to maintain it. we have an $11.5 billion deferred maintenance backlog at our national parks right now. the new dollars are used to be able to pick up new properties, n

lankford: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. lapping lappinlapping langmr. ls consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lankford: people in my home state are trying to figure out what they missed in this budget deal. it was announced that this is a great job-creating achievement, but all i see is more spending and no change in the status quo. everyone throws around numbers, but here's the one number the people in my state want to hear: how much does it save the american taxpayer? put another way, does it help us balance our budget or to address the debt problems? we need two things to be able to balance our federal budget: spending restraint and a growing economy. right now we have neither. we've $18.5 trillion in debt, over $430 billion in deficit this year. to start paying down our debt, we have to first balance our budget. the presiding officer knows very well that we passed a budget earlier this year that took the next ten ye

my friends, senator cotton and senator lankford have their own proposals, and there have been an equal amount of policy innovation by our colleagues in the house of representatives. they're all commonsense ideas that would bring us much closer to real ssdi reform than what's found in this budget deal. but you won't hear much about them in this debate because there won't be any real debate on the bipartisan budget act of 2015. no amendments, a fast-approaching deadline. and in the end a take-it-or-leave-it choice forced upon us on our backs up against a cliff. this is not how congress is supposed to operate. this is not how we promised the country we would conduct the american people's business if given control of the house and the senate. we should be the party of ideas, but we won't be so long as we continue to tolerate a legislative process that stifles our most innovative proposals from evenly getting a fair hearing. we should be the party of reform, but we won't be so long as individual senators are blocked from offering amendments to legislation. we should be the party of fiscal s

. >> senator lankford. >> thank you for your work to protect the nation. it's extremely important and i want you to hear from the folks in oklahoma we appreciate the work that you and it's incredibly valuable. we understand very well, as jeh johnson was in oklahoma not long ago, director comey was in oklahoma not long ago. we understand the threats that we face such as what you'd hear from us again we are grateful for what you are doing. i want to ask you, secretary johnson you mentioned before about the cybersecurity do. can you explain the why, why that is so important right now but not the threats but the specific language in which a need on the cybersecurity don't. >> yes, sir. two principal things come to mind immediately. one, explicit congressional authorization for dhs' ability to monitor, identify and block unwanted intrusions and other federal agencies through our einstein system. the virtue of young cynicism is it has the ability to block intrusions and it is a platform for greater and better technology into future. future. >> that's in the fede

lankford: this land and water conservation fund has been around for 40 years. it has $20 billion built up in reserve. the authorization as is expired at this point only changes the amount of money coming into it. we're still doing the same projects. literally this fund has 65 years worth of reserve built into it. what we're trying to find is some way to be able to help protect the lands we already have. we're adding more lands. we're not doing maintenance on the lands. we have an $11 billion maintenance backlog just in our national parks. so i do have a concern. we're continuing to add more lands. we're not taking care of what we have. there's not an immediate emergency need for this because the fund continues to operate. we're just not adding new dollars into it in the days ahead. again, we've got about 65 years of reserve currently in it, so we're not in a hurry. we do want to be able to get this right, though, on how we actually maintain our lands as well as actually do purchase or state entities, whatever it may be. so i do object. ms. cantwell: mr. preside

critical role in this, senator schumer, senator burr, senator baldwin, senator feinstein, senator lankford, senator sullivan, senator tillis, senator toomey and senator david vitter for cosponsoring this bipartisan legislation. after being approved by the committee, arizona congresswoman martha mcsally led the organization to get it passed in the house. she played a great role there. i want to thank her for leading this effort in the house. i want to also thank everyone's support and the hard work of the committee staff including brook erickson, holly idleson on the senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee and paul anstein of the house homeland security committee. nowp because of their efforts, we have this bill ready to head to the president's desk. in conclusion, let me just say those leaving the military need jobs. c.p.b. needs officers. this is a great bill that will require coordination between the two and that will lead to greater staffing at less cost and certainly in less time. so i look forward to having the administration look at this and look forward to having

lankford: would the senator consent to join the colloquy? mr. udall: please, senator lankford. mr. lankford: thank you for letting me be able to join the conversation. the argument here is not against whether i would want or other members would want cancer-causing items or would want to have the degradation. the problem is the degradation in our public pass and lands. we have $11.5 billion backlog in our national parks right now. and inexplicably, the land and water conservation fund does not allow for the maintenance of what we have. the united states government currently manages 29% of the land pass this the united states. and we have a multibillion-dollar backlog, including in our national treasure, that is the national parks that are out there. this amendment that i have and that others are proposing is to simply say, before we keep adding land, at least at the same rate we're adding more land, we should be maintaining that land. equivalent to if you're going to buy a car, you need to at least set aside some money to pay for gas in it. so all that we're asking for is something

lankford: mr. president, i'd like to ask the quorum call be eviscerated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lankford: mr. president, it's not uncommon for me when i'm around oklahoma at home that i'll have a mom that will approach marriage penalty -- approach me at different town hall meetings or a store or restaurant. it's very interesting what she wants to talk to me about. almost always the moms that approach me lately want to talk to me about national security. they want to talk to me about the fear that they have that the world is spinning out of control and they're very concerned about their kids and they're concerned about terrorism coming to the united states. there's a sense of a loss of trust that's happening with a lot of moms in oklahoma that this is a safe world and a safe place. i can't tell you that that's isolated. as i've talked to other members of this body, seem to find the same theme coming up over and over again as toe talk to -- as they talk to people at home. they