mr. alexander: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: mr. president, i ask consent the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: mr. president, i have seven unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: in about 15 minutes the senate will vote on final passage of the energy and water appropriations bill that senator feinstein, the senator from california, and i have been working on with members of the senate for the last few weeks. the senate began consideration of this bill on wednesday, april 20. according to the congressional research service, this is the earliest date the senate's begun debating an appropriations bill in the last 40 years. when we finish to

mr. alexander: and, mr. president, i would like to include following my remarks an editorial from the "wall street journal" entitled "obama's end run" that was published on april 18 of this year. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: the journal said among other things, the administration is now rewriting the parts of the law it doesn't like. a law passed with big bipartisan majorities. mr. president, this is an intolerable situation. this is complete flouting of the specific bipartisan intent of large majorities of the senate and the house by a small group of people in a single department who know better than to do this. they know better than to do this. they're ignoring what we have written into law. they are not elected to anything. if they'd like to be in the congress or the senate, they can resign their positions and the elections come up this year. they can run and they can try to change the law. it took us seven years to debate. we debated these provisions, very good people. i mean,

mr. alexander: mr. president, i'd like to make a few comments about senator bennett, and -l i will yield the floor to senator nelson, who has another schedule. for the information of senators and staff, i'll make some comments about how we're going to proceed on the energy and water bill, of which i hope we can wrap up pretty quickly, but i'll wait until senator nelson finishes with that. i'm glad i had a chance to hear the majority leader, senator mcconnell, as well as senator reid and senator hatch, all of whom were great friends of bob bennett, as was i. bob bennett came to washington with his father who was a united states senator, wall as benefit -- wallace bennett. he was in the senate when i first came here as a senate aide. i first met bob nearly 50 years ago when we both worked in effect for bryce harlow who was president nixon's chief of congressional relations. mr. harlow who was revered in washington still would have saturday morning meetings of all of us who have the job of being congressio

mr. alexander: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator ten tfnlt. mr. alexander: while the senator from connecticut is still here, i want to say to him through the chair that i'm glad aid chance to hear his -- that i'm glad i had a chance to here his remarks. i agree with him that there is a mental health crisis. and i congratulate him for his leadership, especially with the senator from louisiana, senator cassidy, in focusing the senate's attention on dealing with it this year. i think he has, in a very passionate but practical way, made the argument that while there may not be a consensus on what we do about guns, there is a consensus, i believe, in this body, on what we do about mental health, or at least an important step on what we're do in dealing with the crisis. senator cassidy and senator murray will deserve great credit for that happening. i plan to attend for a while the summit tomorrow that senator murphy and cassidy are hosting. it will help to draw attention to the efforts that t

mr. heyman: jamie alexander's show is very popular, called "blindspot." ere is quite a lot of media down there. mr. heyman: for sure. and it goes back to the celebrity sort of traffic jam. commentator: the dinner began in 1914, all white and all mail. mr. heyman: -- all male. mr. heyman: some aspect of that has been maintained in terms of the loose attitudes about powerful people. and the main people have been pretty tolerant of that. famously, some not happy about the jokes made. here is helen mirren. commentator: and look at that prince tattoo. mr. heyman: it looks like the prince symbol. is a star who has only gotten bigger. commentator: and that is tammy who is with nbc for a long time. she hosts the breakfast that is held the morning of, so that was this morning. it brings in quite a few celebrities and charities, as well. -- heyman: taylor has berg taylor, the very famous director, the husband of helen mirren. commentator: is that kennedy from fox? mr. heyman: it does look like kennedy. yeah. it does. by the way, but tv interviewed -- book tv intervi

mr. alexander post for the at large seat. >> is that okay. >> i. >> i wanted to follow the wishes of the district supervisor it was to keep the richmond seat open and appointing margie to the at large seat i realized she couldn't be here i'm not sure it is difficult to come here i don't know what they're doing during the day it is not necessary to or makes sense to use that as a rule you come to the meeting and have a shot to be on the committee she's been on the committee a lot of important experience that will continue the continuity of the work on the g r it that's where i'm at and i believe if we can have a roll call vote. >> i'm sorry double commissioner peskin so commissioner breed. >> i wanted to know i mean the at large seats and the district seats have equal say does that matter i want clarity on that. >> i see maria lombard coming up. >> one vote one seat. >> thank you. >> okay commissioner peskin thank you, madam chair colleagues ms. brown has appeared before this body when she was originally appoint the fact she's not here and seeking reappointment is kind of business as norm

mr. alexander: that's what it's about. we're trying to stop the labor department's so-called fiduciary which will restrict access to basic retirement advice for all but the wealthiest americans. it will force ordinary americans to go it alone, to try to make the best guess they can about how to manage their money no retirement. here's how. the administration's new rule updates the rules and requirements for retirement advisors now requiring them to act as -- quote -- fiduciaries. that like many of this administration's rules sounds good, sounds helpful but in practice is going to cause great harm. the administration has created a new legal liability, and that liability is so risky that advisors will take only -- take on that liability and risk only if they're advising individuals with big assets so that the potential return outweighs the risk. in other words, good retirement advice will be available only to the rich under this rule. we know this because a similar rule was implemented in the united kingdom in 2013. the resu

mr. alexander: i can still recall walking into grassy cove in cumberland county one spectacular day in 1978 during my campaign for governor. i had not seen a prettier sight. over the last few decades, pleasant weather and natural beauty have attracted thousands of retirees from tennessee and across america to the cumberland plateau. the proposed crab orchard wind project would be built less than ten miles from cumberland mountain state park where for a half century tennesseans and tourists have camped, fished and canoed alongside herrings and belted king fishers and around bird lake. it will be fewer than five miles from ozone fall seen incompetent state natural area where -- scenic state natural area where the water fall is to picturesque that it was filmed in the movie "junk balance book -- jungle book" so here are my ten questions for the people of tennessee. how big are these wind turbines? i have a picture somewhere, maybe it will show up in the next few minutes, but each one is over two times as tall as the sky boxes at the university of tennessee football stadium. three times as tall

i want to thank her but i want o thank jean, rick, tim, alexander, mr. tonko's staff, brenda and clinton. the last thing i would like to say, mr. speaker, before i close this named is named the frank r. lautenberg chemical safety act 21st century.-- senator lautenberg was a mentor to me. i worked on his first campaign back in 1982 and he was always looking out for the little guy and one of the most important things was health and safety. he felt that the primary function of the federal government was to protect people's health and safety. and one of the biggest things that was important to him was what i call the right to know. he always felt that if we pass laws that allowed people to know what we were facing in the health and environment area, that that would be good because they or even their organizations that they might be involved with on an activist level locally, would have the ability to if he can tu ate and carry out those laws. and one of the greatest regrets he had when you dealt with toxic chemicals over the time he was in the senate, longes

mr. chairman, chairman alexander and ranking member murray. i want to thank you all and all members of the community for the opportunity to appear before you today and to discuss a subject that is so critically important to the civil rights community, this implementation of essa. for over a decade, i have served , of la razt and ceo a, which is the largest organization in the united states representing hispanics, and we represent over 250 affiliates which are community local-based organizations serving latino and immigrant populations nationwide. i was very proud to stand with many of you behind the president when this important legislation was signed into law. again, i want to thank you for your leadership. we know it has the potential to benefit 13 million latino students and 5 million english learners across the country. for the first time, english learner students will be included in states accountability systems and states must standardize entrance and exit criteria for these students. that is a big step. my remarks focus on latino educat

mr. chairman. chairman alexander, and ranking member murray, i really want to thank you all and all members of the committee for the opportunity to appear before you here today and to discuss a subject that is so critically important to the civil rights community, this implementation of essa. for over a decade i have served as president and ceo of the national council of la rasa and clr, we're the largest civil rights and advocacy organization of the united states representing hispanics. and we represent over 250 affiliates which are community local based organizations serving latino and immigrant populations nationwide. i was very proud to stand with many of you behind the president when this important legislation was signed into law and, again, i want to thank you for your leadership. we know it has the potential to benefit 13 million latino students and 5 million english learners across the country. for the first time they will be included in states' accountability criteria. that is a big step. my remarks focus on latino educational attainment. i will share ways appropriate implementation of es

mr. trump today. is it a point with brexit were the system just shuts down until we get through november? alexander: that is the $64,000 question. let's start with how monetary policy looks at it. monetary policy is not shut down that is reactive to the fiscal or political side, and that is quite worrisome. you see it with carney's comments in england. he says until i know the outcome of the referendum, monetary policy has to remain accommodative. does that question whether central banks are independent? i think it does. in the united states i think it is a bigger issue. the u.s. central bank is reactive toward what is happening in brazil and china. tom: i have been dying to ask this question all morning. mr. friedman, is this a dead meeting for the bank of england? is it a dead meeting and not a live meeting? alexander: what is a dead meeting? tom: i do not know. i do not know what a live meeting is. come on, francine. what, they are going to hike or cut rates six weeks before the referendum? no, they are not. most important thing i've heard today is whether it is unanimous or whether one of the v

alexander. look what she had to say there talking about her relationship would characterize mr. trump. let's see a little more what she had to say. >> i was promised so many times by them and to my manager and myself over and over again, it was a positive article i was giving them and that's how it would be depicted. it was not a hit piece, each person's rendition of their experiences with donald trump. i don't have a negative story about donald trump and we had a great relationship. i feel they misled me the entire time into that article and it was almost a trap. >> i know donald trump has been out there tweeting. the campaign seems to have been a little bit quieter. are we hearing any more this afternoon in terms of reaction to the story? >> i think you saw senior advisor barry bennett get on the air and do what trump has done, relitigate this "new york times" piece over the weekend calling into question some of the characters the article illustrated, what was rather a complex piece, looking at donald trump's decades long relationship with women in business and personal life. trump h

mr. mccoy saying the $6 million was not donated. the trump campaign standing by that number. however, alexanderoy admits that the clinton campaign did participate in his protest. this according to the daily beast. joining us from boston mary ann marsh and katie paf issue will. we just got this statement in from mr. mccoy. this is about how much money was actually donated from the vets from that benefit. i approached the clinton campaign to see if they could help provide some press context, which they did, adding to my own. i appreciate their help in bringing attention to my message. so, his whole protest goes up in smoke because now is he associated with trump's competitor, am i wrong. >> look, i think if anybody has a right to protest is mr. mccoy who i believe served in the marines. but the problem here is hillary clinton's campaign actually helped orchestrate this. it wasn't a very big protest. and, when you look at the numbers, veterans support donald trump over hillary clinton two to one. i don't think they necessarily like hillary clinton's comments in the fall, saying the problems with t

mr. trump about that. first nbc national correspondent peter alexander with the latest.ood morning. >> reporter: this is donald trump like you have never heard him. the republican party's presumptive nominee used the media to boost his own political campaign caught on tape decades ago pretending to be his own publicist, bragging about celebrity and relationships all to inflate his own image. >> coming out of a -- >> reporter: the voice may sound familiar. >> and he's starting to do tremendously well. >> reporter: the 25-year-old audio recording obtained by "the washington post" capturing a 1991 conversation between a "people" magazine reporter and a man claiming to be donald trump's publicist, calling himself john miller. >> what is your position? >> i'm sort of handling pr. >> reporter: the voice sounds almost inmistakenly by trump boasting of celebrities like madonna wanted to date trump. >> she wanted to go out with him. the people you write about really are, i mean they call. they just call. actresses, people that you write about just call to see if they can go out w

. >> peter alexander at rnc headquarters, thank you. >>> with us now exclusively, dan quayle. mr. vice president, great to see you. have in a while. >> when all of this started a year or so ago, 17 gop candidates standing on that stage, could you have imagined with governors and senators in that group that it would end up with donald trump capturing the republican nomination? >> no. and i don't think very many people did except himself, his family. there's a few people who said watch donald trump, but i don't think anybody expected him to win the nomination. and quite frankly, i'm not sure he really thought he could win, but he's a winner. he knocked off 16 republican candidates. he is going to be the nominee, the presumptive nominee, and now the party is going to have to unify around someone that they did not expect to be their nominee. >> obviously this candidacy of donald trump has exposed some fault lines in the republican party, and there are some people who call themselves never trumpers, and then there are some on the trump train. which category do you fall into? >> look, i

mr. trump -- >> a lot to digest in the nine minutes that we have left in this show, but let me start off with a very important guest. we have former marine alexander mccoy. he's the head of the vets versus hate movement. we also have another panel assembled but i want to bring you on, alex, because you are one of the protesters out front of donald trump's tower. you or your organization referenced by representative from new hampshire. donald trump as well alleging that your protest and protesters out front of trump tower right now are plants by the hillary clinton campaign. let me get your response to that. >> well, i think donald trump has a problem with the first amendment. i think this grand conspiracy theory that my looking at pictures of my facebook that this is somehow some hillary plant is clearly ridiculous. there are republicans, there are independents, there are democrats, there are supporters of hillary clinton and bernie sanders. all of whom came forward to join me in a protest last week. and i think that it's clear from donald trump's statements that he had to very quickly find an organization and didn't have time to vet multiple orga

mr. thompson is that the installation was made between -- and this is a very rough guess, april or may of 1970, and perhaps the end of the summer or early fall 1970. >> alexander butterfield also is the primary source for bob woodward's highly readable account of this history the last of the president's men. this promises to be a wide ranging and engaging conversation, and i've been assured one without gaps, certainly not as long as 18 1/2 minutes. watergate as we know, changed the relationship of the press and the presidency looking back on events, we know that one of the historical ironies is that the press arguably may have exercised its greatest power on the eve of a digital revolution which has profoundly reshaped the news industry. >> before our time, before the era of big data, before public debate over government surveillance, it was an era of magnetic tape. the public debates then were about the separation of powers and the public interest and the workings of our democratic institutions of power. suffice it to say our notions of executive authority and the public interest were profoundly shaped by the final years of the nixon presidency. the last of t

mr. president, we had another opportunity to move the energy security and water infrastructure funding bill forward, and i was disappointed to see it stall once again. i want to reiterate what senator alexander, the chairman of the energy and water subcommittee, has said. advancing this funding bill is important, not only for policy but also for process. members worked in committee and arrived at a bill they reported out unanimously. then even more members had their voices heard out here on the floor, where we processed 17 amendments from both democrats and republicans. now, after much research -- much research, debate, and i put from both sides, we're almost ready to move this bill across the finish line. we have one outstanding issue to address. i.t. the amendment you a -- it's the amendment authored by senator cotton. we'll have a vote on it no later than tomorrow. senator cotton was rightly concerned about the administration's recent announcement that it would purchase so-called heavy water from iran. so he filed an amendment that would keep the funds we're appropriating through this bill from being spent on future heavy water purchases from our country -- or from that country. let me re

mr. de sanctis, is this standard in your judgment, is this standard for impeachment a criminal intent standard? >> no. i think that's pretty clear. if you look at alexander hamilton and the federalist, he said that impeachment was about the violation of public trust and that those offenses are inherently political as they relate more to injuries done to the society in the way the government works. and then joseph story, in his commentaries on the constitution several decades later, said that these need to be thought of as political offenses. growing out of misconduct or gross negligence. or usurpation or other disregard for the public interest. and he said that they must be examined on very broad and comprehensive principles of public policy and duty. >> gross negligence, dereliction of duty, breach of public trust, right? >> sure. >> mr. chaffetz, do you think -- do you think mr. koskinen exhibited some gross negligence in his conduct over the last several months in trying to help us get to the bottom of this scandal? >> absolutely. >> do you think there was a dereliction of duty? >> yes. >> it seems to me dereliction of duty when you wait four months t

mr. alexander: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: i ask the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: mr. president, the senate will proceed to vote in about five or six minutes. a scheduled vote in about five or six minutes on the cotton amendment on the energy and water appropriations bill. actually the cloture on the cotton amendment. i ask consent that before that vote, senator feinstein, that i be first be allowed to speak for a few minutes and following me senator feinstein and then we vote. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: thank you, mr. president. i'll save most of my remarks for after the vote, but i'd like to make two kinds of remarks. one is to give an update on the bill, where we are. and second, to restate my reasons why i will not vote for cloture on the cotton amendment. first, in terms of where we are, we've had -- here's where we are. we have the cotton amendment at 10:30. the senator from california and i at least have agreed, and i think our

mr. alexander: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: i ask consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today it adjourn until 9:30 a.m., thursday, may 12. following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day. further, that following leader remarks, the senate be in a period of morning business for one hour equally divided with senators permitted to speak therein. further, that following morning business the senate resume consideration of h.r. 2028. finally, that all time during the adjournment and morning business count postcloture on the alexander substitute 3801. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. alexander: i ask unanimous consent that the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up t

mr. alexander: mr. president, i have eight unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: mr. president, within a few minutes, we will be voting for the fourth time on cloture on the bill. this time i expect it to pass. the cotton amendment has been disposed of. following that, if it's successful, senator feinstein and i have recommended to the majority leader and the democratic leader that we move to a vote on the cardin and fischer amendments. at 60 votes, a voice vote on the flake amendment. then all that would be remaining would be a final cloture vote which may or may not be necessary and final passage. none of those votes have been agreed to yet, and we'll let senators know when they are, but in the opinion of the bill managers, we're r

mr. alexander: mr. president, senator feinstein and i said what we said before the bill but i would like to reiterate something that i'm sure she would agree with. first, i want to thank the majority leader for scheduling our bill early. he scheduled it earlier than any appropriations bill had been scheduled in the last 40 years. the reason i'm sure she agrees with that because she told me that and because not only good the majority -- did the majority leader make this a priority but so did the democratic leader senator reid. we worked hard to set an example for the senate for the next 11 appropriations bills. according to the congressional research service, this is the earliest that the senate has passed an appropriations bill in the last 40 years. more than that, the vote was 90-8 which is unusually large by partisan vote for such a large and complex bill. i think that reflects the fact that more than 80 senators made contributions to this bill. we processed more than 21 amendments and our experience