as well as senator merkley for his support. i stood with kentucky's agricultural commission to announce my intention to introduce new legislation on the subject. were introducing the hemp farming act of 2018. will build on the success of recent pilot programs and take a big step towards growth and more innovation. as i travel i have spoken with farmers, manufacturers, and small business owners. time and again they shared with me their enthusiasm of hamm's potential to re-energize and create a new spark to the u.s. economy. this bill will help make that a reality. let's remember how we got here. in 2014 i secured language that had a hemp pilot program in states that allowed hemp research. the results are extraordinary. in kentucky hemp is useful in a wide friday of products. fibers are being added to concrete and home insulations. extracts are being research for health benefits and some breweries have cra crafted hemp infused beer. that is decades research pilot program and that is just one state. already, around $600 million of

senator merkley: i want to point out a pat herb i found quite interesting. under president carter, we had essentially him closing out with the same deficit that existed a year before he took office despite the oil shocks, about $73 billion. under president reagan, the deficit increased from $73 billion to $149 billion, roughly doubling. under president bush, the first president bush, we had another near doubling, going from $249 billion to $290 billion. under president clinton we had ea ducks from $290 billion to a surplus of $236 billion. a vast decrease in the deficit. a surplus. and so we were reducing our national debt. under bush the second, we had increase from $236 billion to $458 billion another rough doubling and under president obama, the results of the recession, his first year in office, $1.4 trillion in deficit reduced to about $584 billion when he left office. why is it the deficit decroces under democratic leadership and increases under republican leadership? dr. hall: i wouldn't want to offer an opinion on that senator merkley: have i read th

merkley: thank you, mr. president. we're at a critical moment in world history, filled with ee -- filled with dangers. riewsh is attacking -- russia is attacking the foundation of democracy around the world, developing new tools to move public opinion in countries other than its own while hiding behind robotic machines. we have critical talks about to occur over the effort to denuclearize the korean peninsula. syria is not just in the grip of a civil war, it's in the grip of a fractured chaotic state that has resulted in destruction of cities and towns throughout the nation, leaving them as destroyed shells of buildings with infrastructure completely decimated. we have a humanitarian crisis in burma and bangladesh with massive ethnic cleansing. we have four famines unfolding in africa. there's more in everyplace you look of these challenges, challenges related to the corruption of foreign governments, to climate chaos, to civil conflict. we need a secretary of state who can help navigate our country in these difficult

merkley: thank you. the most important words in our constitution are the first three words, we the people. that's the mission statement of our constitution. our founders did not seek to design a government that would enable the powerful and privileged to make rules to benefit themselves. ey didn'tay w to have a constitutionhat enables the wealthy and the well-connected to take away the riches of this country at the expense of the people. no, they laid out the vision. we the people, they put that mission statement in super-sized font, so even if you were reading the constitution from across the room, you'd understand it's core mission. a core mission that, unfortunately, has been sabotaged in the citizens united decision, which instead of pursuing government of, by, and for the people, instead of providing what jefferson called the equal voice mother principle of america that each citizen should have an equal voice, proceeds to give the powerful the reins of power through unlimited third party campaign sp

merkley: thank you very much. it's very exciting to have maile pearl with us on the floor just moments ago. certainly the first time i have seen a little baby on the floor of the senate and maybe a good symbol for the work the senate will be doing in the future. congratulations to tammy duckworth and her husband. we are looking forward to seeing little maile as she grows and prospers and all of the chapters of her life ahead. i'd like to ask unanimous consent, mr. president, for quinn nugar have privileges of the floor for the balance of the day. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: thank you very much. when accepting his nobel peace price, the humanitarian and holocaust survaifer elie wisele said, wherever men and women are persecuted because of race, religion, or political views, that place must at that moment become the center of the universe. as we look around the world today, there are far too many places where men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views.

senator jeff merkley, thank you. >> you're welcome. thanks. >> here to help make sense of tonight's extraordinary presidential meltdown, natasha bertrand, who follows the russia investigation closely for "the atlantic." democratic strategist, former "apprentice" contestant tara dowdell, and msnbc contributor sam cedar, host of the majority report with sam cedar. and i'll start here today. the president -- we played about two minutes of what was i think seven, eight-minute rant. rant by the president. and i just thought, wow, i haven't quite seen this level of pinned, caged, cornered panic. you're nodding your head, sam. >> yeah. he was almost like regurgitating a day's worth of fox news talking points, and there was no real cohesion to it. he started off by saying that the fbi broke into the hotel rooms, the house, the office. >> that's the phrase he uses. the fbi broke into. >> broke into. that's not what the fbi did. they had a warrant. and they went in with a court order. he seems a little bit panicked. and frankly, i share the sena

. >> i thought it was merkley but i'll go to murphy. [laughter] >> merkley, murphy, it's hard. our ears are not -- >> i don't want to be standing to be corrected. it's murphy. go ahead. [laughter] >> thank you, mr. chairman. we are belaboring these questions of authorization, and i suspect you know why. many of us have had misgivings about how the executive has expanded the ability to act unilaterally without congressional authorization. both in this administration and in prior administrations. there are differences, though. president obama didn't think he had the authority to launch missile strikes against syria without congressional authorization. this administration believes it does. but the concern spans both. so i'll ask one last question on this subject. the rationale for u.s. military troops in syria has been to fight isis and many of us support that even if we don't believe the authorization exists, we believe in the mission. the administration has started to signal publicly that there is a follow-on mission for our existing presence, which is to combat the influence of

senator merkley. >> thank you, administrator green. good to have you here. i wanted to explore a little bit the situation in burma and bangladesh with the rohingya. as you're well aware, 700,000 refugees in bangladesh. bangladesh deserves accolades for having opened their border, but everybody is in a tight spot now. one idea is to -- that they are pursuing pretty actively in bangladesh is to put 100,000 people on an island and say you basically can't leave. it will be patrolled. will that be -- is that an appropriate strategy? >> senators, as you know, i'll be heading into the district myself, and i look forward to making with bangladeshi officials to learn more about the challenges that they face, but clearly as you're pointing to they need assistance to help meet the costs and demands of the rohingya population that is there, and we certainly have been supportive but we're deeply concerned as you are about the plight of the rohingya both certainly in burma but also in bangladesh. >> thank you, and i think it's important that america has put in $180 millio

know doing military action without congressional authorization whose purpose is unclear so that's merkley meanwhile the air with people saying maybe the op wants to distract attention and be a war hero so that's another. so really it's very hard to predict right now. what which way the tropic ministration will go i'm hopeful that the trumpet ministration will look for some other way out the president drop a look or some other way out then the corner that he's. painted himself into with this rhetoric certainly as negative compunction about switching in the past so i hope you'll switch again but in the meantime the u.s. state department said as we listen to have been out there that don't know the chemical weapon used but at the same time you pointed to still a consideration of a military option why then would that be the rush to strike. well. first of all the. government of the best we saw in iraq and in two thousand and three critics of the bush administration which was saying you know there's been work and give their report and the bush administration said no no it's too much of an emerge

senator merkley reminded me of my conversation into vision of being the most effective but also left out the most customer focused, and we know we do that with people and with bill finally on board for the undersecretary of the division, we are undergoing a strategic nationwide staffing plan that we know there are obviously some deficiencies on attrition in various places that haven't been many risks or layoffs or anything like that. this is a matter than 100,000 plus employees of a certain degree of attrition every year and this hasn't been purposeful to leave them unfilled. it's been a strategic plan of getting where the right people ought to be and the right amount in the right places to do what we want to do by our customers in that regard. we are probably i would say 75% through that, and we've authorized different levels and different mission areas and i hope to have that completed in the next three weeks for all of those agencies including the forest service as well. >> is there a hiring freeze? i understand the organization but is there a hiring freeze? >> there was initially

senator merkley. >> thank you very much for coming and bringing your expertise to bear on our economic situation. i was looking at numbers from the joint committee on taxation, which laid out that 17 out of every $20 in the benefits from the tax reductions goes to richer americans or roughly 84%. that did not include the estate tax, by the way, which was specifically excluded which goes 100% to the very richest americans. what is your analysis of the percent of the tax benefits that go to those who earn more than $100,000? >> we haven't updated those numbers. we did in this baseline. we tried to reproduce that. so i couldn't tell you anything different than bha jct has on the topic. >> do you have any reason to think jct is far off the mark? >> no, no, i don't. >> and would you agree that if you include the estate tax, the numbers would be even worse? >> that sounds right. >> yes. well, i think that's an important point. because something that was sold as beneficial to middle class is actually beneficial to the best off. and that brings me to the second point, which is your analysis sh

there were three senators against all three democrats. ,simon of illinois, levin of michigan and merkleyf montana where the three who voted against it. let me tell you who voted for it. mr. left of california. mr. death tax of ohio voted for it. my next-door neighbor down the street, a guy i like very much al gore voted for it. ,i do, by the way. he's a great guy. i just didn't like some of his economics. he is a great guy. just last week we had a big snow in nashville. just a little off the story. all of my neighbors and i got a big dump truck and loaded it was -- it with snow and dumped it in his front lawn. no, we didn't. [laughter] just kidding. just kidding. look at who else did. colin pink, bill bradley. he voted for it. chris from connecticut he voted , for it. the senator from delaware. joe biden. he voted for it. teddy kennedy voted for it. in the house barbara boxer voted , for it. harry reid, has member from nevada voted for it. dick durbin of illinois voted for it. charlie wrangle voted for it. chuck schumer voted for it. let me tell you what happens. once a growth model star

why senator ron wyden and i along with senator jeff merkley will introduce legislation to modernize and allow american farmers to explore this promising new market. leader mcconnell on the republican side, state of kentucky, hemp,kentucky, explai connections. >> well the state of texas would like to have an industrial hip hop nation they have a poverty nation i believe. mitch mcconnell is a very conservative guy in a lot of ways, wants to get his state off the ground on this. industrial hemp is a close relative of marion but doesn't have the same element. the idea is you can use it to make a lot of useful things like rope, and all sorts of other cloth and materials like that. so, they think it could be a pretty good cash crop if it were legal but it sort of falls under the same identity of marijuana because it looks so close. the police didn't want to have to walk through a field and figure out if it was marijuana or hemp. but, yeah, kentucky really wants to get in on this that's why you see the senate majority leader all of a sudden rallying for industrial hemp. >> we have a few more c

merkley.want to play what he said didn't give you a chance to respond. >> cannot support a nominee with a lengthy track record of tweets attacking prominent democratic and republican women. taking the russia threat seriously. >> it is upsetting to be confirmed and not very diplomatic. i wanted to talk to every sen. and show them who i was. my writings are very clear. looking at russia and the russian threat i talked about the russian threat in eastern europe for a long time, one of the first people to call attention to what was being done by the russians. there has been a long threat there and i wish people would look at surface issues. jillian: the german chancellor was meeting with the president, you were with them. let's talk about the pres. allies, he's talking about getting to that 2% of gdp all nato allies are expected to do. >> other countries should be paying more. we pay more than anybody else in nato is wonderful but it helps europe more than it helps us. >> they said the next budget

notably the nominee to be ambassador for germany and he is being held up by one democrat senator, jeff merkleyf oregon. now, what could mitch mcconnell do to move things along? he could tell chuck schumer the following, the senate is not going to recess until you all start dispensing with this 30 hour rule and allow key votes to nominees. and if he needs to change or dispense with the filibuster rule he may need to do that too. you can't let this continue. remember in 2013, harry reid blew up the filibuster rule for federal appointments in the executive branch and the judicial branch. this is how obama was able to pack the lower courts. trump could do the same. donald trump has been asking for that. but now some are looking to put another scallop on the wall. who do they want? mike pompeo's scalp. trump's cia director who has been nominated for secretary of state. during his confirmation hearing, america saw the democrats demonization game on full display. auditioning for 20/20 was cory booker. >> is being gay a perversion. >> when i was a politician i had a clear view on whether it is appropr

sort of hung in the doorway watching. ,hen one of our good colleagues a senator from organ, jeff merkley, he came to the podium of his desk and he read the corridor scott king letter and nobody said a word. was kamalai thought harris, a former prosecutor, former attorney general. [applause] again, it had to do with jeff sessions, who was appearing before the intelligence committee she was on. she was cross-examining him. , did that to witnesses sometimes it wasn't particularly pleasant, but if you were trying to figure out what happened, you owe it to your constituents to drill down, so she was doing that. she was ordered by the chairman and another republican member to stop. there going, whoa, this is bigger and deeper than i thought. i want you to ponder that, because both of their women -- because both of those women were doing their jobs. [applause] they were doing their jobs and away their male counterparts do them every day. you get up and speak and criticize somebody. you sit in a hearing and you ask questions. that is part of a job description. being a womanon in politics i said,

senator jeff merkley from oregon, who sits on the committee who held today's meeting, so you were therehere were a lot of questions in the hearing about pompeo's relationship with trump, whether it was too close, whether he was willing to do the president's bidding when it cub to russia. what did you make of it? >> well, certainly i understand that he didn't want to disclose a personal conversation, probably there was no expectation that he would disclose it, but what really the hearing came down to was whether mike pompeo, teaming up with john bolton, is a war cabinet that is going to not exercise appropriate restraint and diplomacy in international affairs. so, obviously we have a big question tonight on syria, but i want to ask you about a couple other things that came up here. when mike pompeo, who of course is cia director currently. he was asked whether he sways spoken to bob mueller, and he said yesterday, he had been interviewed and answered mueller's questions. he didn't reveal what they discussed. were you surprised he had been interviewed. >> i was surprised he had been bur v

so with that, i'll turn to our ranking member, senator merkley. >> thank you very much, chairman holman chblt it's been a pleasure to work with you, now we get to take on the fiscal wreer 2019 of the i want to echo you're welcome to senator hide smith. terrific to have you here. and i understand this is your very first committee hearing, so welcome, that kind of makes it official, you are here and engaged. and certainly appropriate given that you were cochair of president trump's ag advisory committee. so i know you'll have a lot to contribute to the conversation. you've already accomplished several things. one is you are sitting here on the appropriations committee. a goal that i had when i was elected but it took me seven years to make that happen. you've done it in a single week. so well done. second, you've brought the number of women into the senate to all-time high of 23, so pushing forward on new boundaries and it's great to have you here. welcome. secretary per due, thank you for coming for us to explain the fiscal year 2019 ag budget and welcome to your colleagues as well, mr.

and then one of our good colleagues, the senator from oregon, jeff merkley, he came to the podium of his desk and he read the coretta scott king letter and nobody said a word. okay? next thing i saw was camilla harris a former prosecutor, a former attorney general, and again it had to do with jeff sessions who was appearing before, i think the intelligence committee she was on and she was cross-examinati kroesz ex cross examining him. i did that to witnesses, but if you feel lying something is happening, you yo it to your con stitch wents to do that. she was ordered by the chairman and another republican member to stop. so i'm thinking, whoa, this is a lot bigger and deeper than even i thought. and i want you to responder that. -- ponder that. because those two women were doing their jobs, and doing their jobs in a way that their male counterparts in the senate do them every day. you get up and speak, and you criticize somebody, you sit at a hearing, and you ask tough questions. that's part of the job description. so in my chapter on being a woman in politics, i said, look, we have t

of hung in the doorway watching, and then one of our good colleagues, a senator from oregon, jeff merkley he came to the podium of his desk and you read the coretta scott king letter and nobody said a word. okay? next thing i saw was kamala harris, a former prosecutor, a former attorney general. [applause] and to get it had to do with jeff sessions who was appearing before i think the intelligence committee she was on, and she was cross-examining him. i mean, i did that to witnesses. sometimes, you know, it wasn't particularly pleasant but he returned to figure out what happened, you owe it to your constituents to drill down and she was doing that. she was ordered by the chairman and another republican member to stop. i'm sitting there thinking, whoa, this is a lot bigger and deeper than even i thought. and i want you to ponder that, because those two women were doing their jobs, and do doing their jobs in a -- [applause] -- in a a way that their male counterparts in the senate do them every day. you get up and speak and you criticize somebody. you sit at a a hearing and ask tough questio

. >> i appreciate efficiency but it did ridiculous -- [inaudible] senator merkley. >> thank you, administrator green. good to have you here. wanted to explore a little bit the situation in burma and bangladesh with the raqqa. as you are well aware, 700,000 refugees and bangladesh. bangladesh deserves accolades for having open their border. everybody is in a tight spot now. one idea is they are pursuing pretty actually to go 100,000 people on an island and you basically can't leave. it will be patrolled. both happy -- is that an appropriate strategy? >> senator as he know i'll be heading into the district myself. i look forward to meeting with bangladeshi officials to learn more about the challenges they face. clearly as you are pointing to the need assistance to help meet the cost in demands of the rigging a population that is they are and we certainly have been supportive. we are deeply concerned as you are, certainly in burma, but also bangladesh. >> thank you. i think it's important america is putting $180 million in 2017, 2018, which has been enormously help full and i'm glad you're going

jeff merkley / oregon (d)the fact is the wall itself doesn't stop people from coming.g. so, it's a huge enormous waste of money.rep. jim costa / california (d) there's high technology means in which we can better secure our borders. than simply building a 2400-mile wall. since daca negotiations fell apart democrats are increasing critical of the border wall. in washington alexandra limon. in san francisco.....natsan emotional reunion between a san jose father and his wife and daugthers after he was released from ice custody after being detained nearly 6 months.he was picked up by ice agents after dropping his 5 year old off at daycare.last week a federal judge withdrew the order to remove carrillo after he proved his would be perscuted in mexico. now carrillo can kiss his wife....and hold his baby girl....who clung tightly to her dad...i'm just extremely happy. he can now apply for a work permit and says he was given indication by an detention agent that might be able to become a citizen maureen kelly kron4 news here in sunnyvale, a call to action on daca from senator

that is why senator ron wyden isng with jeff merkley exploring this promising new market.xplain the connections. guest: the connection is the state of kentucky. kentucky would like to have an industrial hemp project. they have a pilot. senator mitch mcconnell is a conservative guy in a lot of ways. he wants to get his state off the ground with this. is a closehemp relative to marijuana, but it is not psychoactive. it can be used to make a lot of useful things like rope and cloth. they think it could be a pretty good cash crop if it were legal, but it falls under the same rubric of marijuana because it looks so close. i think the reason it got outlawed is because police did not want to have to walk through a field and worry if it is marijuana or hemp. that is why you see the senate republican majority leader hemp.ly ra-raing for host: we have about seven minutes left in this segment. expanding marijuana laws. done: they have not ever experiments of people that smoke marijuana. i worry about the health consequences such as cancer from inhaling all that smoke for years. when

. >> i thought it was merkley but i'll go to murphy. >> merkley, murphy, it's hard. our ears are not -- >> i don't want to be standi to be corrected. it's murphy. go ahead. >> thank you, mr. chairman. we are belaboring these questions of authorization, and i suspect you know why. many of us have had misgivings about how the executive has expanded the ability to act unilaterally without congressional authorization. both in this administration and in prior administrations. there are differences, though. president obama didn't think he had the authority to launch missile strikes against syria without congressional authorization. this administration believes it does. but the concern spans both. so i'll ask one last question on this subject. the rationale for u.s. military troops in syria has been to fight isis and many of us support that even if we don't believe the authorization exists, we believe in the mission. the administration has started to signal publicly that there is a follow-on mission for our existing presence, which is to combat the influence of iran in the

you will be talking to the former enron ceo, i cannot agree he's agreed to talk to you >> ucal merkleyomeone we know, i know brian knows and herb greenberg, a friend of cnbc and "squawk" and we're doing this in new york at the auditorium next wednesday and we were able to get with a little bit of pressure andy fastow as our keynote lunch speaker. after he speaks, anthony mcclain, who did smartest guys in the room and i will be questioning himch kind of exciting >> how did they agree to this? i can't understand >> they didn't send me out to ask him. but he did agree >> do you guys know each other >> i've never met mr. fastow just by history. >> does he know you are interviewing him smr yes, he does know schnot giving away the store, what is one of the things you want to know, all these years later? >> you have to come to the conference, we will be asking at one point do you think you crossed the line this wonderful theory i teach in my fraud class at yale of legal fraud. she makes the wonderful point, it's where corporations do every single thing by the book as said before, this isn't f

senator merkley. >> thank you very much. earlier, it was noted that the office is involved and you've taken it several times, the oath to support and defend the constitution against all enemies of the united states, foreign and domestic. recently, president trump has talked about a domestic enemy, saying that the execution of a search warrant by the u.s. law enforcement authorities on michael cohen's office constitutes an attack on -- "an attack on our country in a true sense." do you agree with the president's evaluation that that is an attack on our country? >> senator, i have always believed that the rule of law matters. i continue to believe that. multiple times, individuals have asked me to comment on statements other people have made, friends of mine, adversaries have made, people coming after me. today what i'd like to talk about is what i believe. i believe deeply in the rule of law and will continue to do so in my role as cia director. >> would you say the rule of law does enable appropriate warrants to be executed

and colleague from oregon, senator wyden, for their leadership on this issue, as well as senator merkley for his support. during the recent state work period, i stood with kentucky's agriculture commissioner ryan quarrels to announce my intention to introduce new legislation on this subject. so today we're introducing the hemp farming act of 2018. it will build on the success of recent pilot programs and take a big step toward growth and more innovation. as i traveled across kentucky, i've spoken with farmers, manufacturers, and small business owners. time and again, they shared with me their enthusiasm for hemp's potential to reenergize agricultural communities and provide a new spark to the u.s. economy. this bill will help make that potential a reality. but first let's remember how we got to this point. in 2014 i secured language in the farm bill that established hemp pilot programs in states that allow hemp research. the results have been extraordinary. in kentucky, hemp is proving useful across a wide variety of innovative products. it's fibers are being added to concrete and home i

senator merkley and i have heard that from farmers in oregon. and that is why it is so important that we move to a system that really is built on common sense, something that will be good for farmers, something that will be good for consumers, certainly offer additional consumer choice, and to, if i might, build on the now sort of memorialized words of nancy wyden -- because when she said, hey, if you can buy it in a market in oregon, the farmers ought to be able to grow it, i think that's a pretty good watch word for this bipartisan bill we're undertaking. i look forward to working closely with you, mr. we're obviously going to be working with chairman roberts and senator stabenow, the ranking democratic leader. this is long, long overdue. as you noted, we've got bipartisan supporters, and we are going to pull out all the stops to get this legislation passed. and i think i mentioned to the majority leader that those who have been involved in this effort -- and it's been a really impressive coalition of farmers and health advocates and others. t

merkley: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that my fellow, sharmaine said be granted privileges to the floor for her time in office. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: thank you, mr. president. in federalist paper 776 alexander hamilton wrote it was the job of the president to stop unfit characters. to make sure unfit characters do not have roles of power and influence within our government. the nominee who is before us, andrew wheeler, for the number-two job at the environmental protection agency, raises a series of questions and concerns related to whether or not he is fit for office. he's a man whose entire career working for the fossil fuel industry stands in direct opposition to the mission of the environmental protection agency. the mission to protect the health of the american people and the well-being of our planet. at such a volatile moment for the e.p.a., an agency plagued by scandal and ethical misbehavior and pandering to polluters, this nomination deserves the

merkley: thank you. the panel of our constitution lays out a vision that includes establishing justice and promoting the general welfare. certainly we have the challenge in america of making sure the doors of opportunity are wide open, not slammed shut. and for centuries we've been working to try to make sure that that vision comes into full realization. but today we're considering the nomination of stuart kyle duncan to a lifetime appointment of the fifth circuit court of appeals, and this individual is not supportive of our constitutional vision of open doors. he's intent on slamming them shut. slamming them shut on lgbtq community, slamming them shut for women seeking reproductive rights and health care. slamming opportunity shut on those who simply wish to vote in america, a fulfillment of the vision of our constitutional democratic republic. slamming the doors shut on those that are here, have been here legally or who are seeking to become citizens. mr. duncan is probably best known for his work on

merkley: thank you. if i told you a kabul of wealthy elites and special interests were spinning a web of deceit to lie to the american people and rig the levers of power in their favor, you'd think i was talking about the plot of some movie. some tv show, some novel. but as senator whitehouse and several of our colleagues have come to the floor to demonstrate this past week, this isn't about a plot of a movie. this is real life. it's happening here right now, and it's important that we as americans and that we as members of this senate face it squarely and understand how this manipulation is being designed to take our we the people constitution and turn on its head, turn it into a government of, by, and for the powerful rather than of, by, and for the people. today i'm going to share with you a little information about one piece of this web of deceit, and that's the heritage foundation. it's a well-known name here in washington. after decades of engaging in a mission of formulating, promoting right-wing

i think we should go back and senator merkley and senator udall have suggested that it should be a realfilibuster. this notion of a hold, the idea that one senator can say i care a lot about this, so please don't take it up while i'm flying back from somewhere else, that's what hold used it to be, a temporary courtesy. it wasn't, i object to this, you can move that legislation and about the way you cannot move those 10 nominations either. system is out of control. trent lott in 2005 in his memoir said wendy's morphing of this, so i looked it up and found they marked quite a bit earlier, so that's one reason i want to look at the rules. i think you do have to reconsider the rules and what works, but i don't want to lose -- i don't want to lose the point that the manipulation of the rules for partisan reasons is first the real problem? host: we have seen an extraordinary manipulation to the rules with the-- with both parties invoking the so-called make an option where just on a simple vote overwriting the role of the chair we change the rule in the senate, once for the democrats in 2013 a

merkley: thank you, mr. president. if i can wrap-up in two sentences, i will say this web of deceit is enormously damaging to our nation. let's call it out. let's have an actual debate based on the science, not let the koch brothers do what the tobacco industry did and mislead the american public decade after decade after decade to the great damage of the citizens of this great country. the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. boozman: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent that alex abdra webb be granted floor privileges prsm. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. boozman: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i spent time with several business leaders. we had a lively and informtive discussion about the economic growth in arkansas. much of our conversation was focused on forward-thinking ways to continue these positive trends. there was also a frank and candid discussion about an issue holding our communities back, the opioid crisis. policymakers have been struggling to address the