mr. barrasso: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, madam president. madam president, as you well know, last december republicans voted to cut the taxes that american families pay. we simplified the tax system, we made it fairer, we cut the rates, and every single democrat in the senate voted against giving americans this tax relief that they needed -- every single one of them. democrats claim that only rich people would benefit and that businesses would never share their savings with the workers. well, the democrat leader, senator schumer, actually said that tax cuts like these, he said, benefit the wealthy and the powerful. he actually said to the exclusion of the middle class. so what happened? what have we seen all across america? well, the american people know that the democrats were wrong. the very day -- the very day the tax bill passed the congress, at&t came out and said that they were giving their workers a bonus. the company said that 200,000 hardworking employees were going to get an extra $1,000 each di

mr. barrasso: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. when i'm back home in wyoming, as i am every weekend, people often tell me about how they've suffered under the health care law known as obamacare. and i've been able to give them some very good news recently about things that republicans in congress and this administration have done to help people get out of the obamacare problems that they have been having and escape some of the problems that have been caused by the law. this is a headline in the "wall street journal" from june 20. exit from obamacare, which is something i've been working on ever since the law was passed. and what i've been able to tell people at home in wyoming is that we have now scrapped the law's terribly unpopular individual mandate. done that successfully this past year, so that people aren't forced to buy insurance that may not be right for them or their families and certainly much more expensive than they'd like to pay. you know, that individual mandate is part of the law t

mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without asso: thank president. mr. president, last week, i traveled all around my home state of wyoming. many senators have done the same in their home states over the last week. i will tell you, the people i talked to had a great sense of optimism, confidence, and just positiveness of how things were going with their lives. people are feeling very positive about the american economy and about their own lives, and of course about their future. we have just seen new numbers on friday showing that the american economy has created more than one mlion new jobs since we passed the tax relief and jobs act in december. since president trump was elyot more understand that 3 million more americans working. unemployment is now at 3.%. that matches the lowest rate in 50 years. even "the new york times" ran a headline saying, "we ran out of words to describe how good the jobs numbers are." think about that. "the new york times," "we ran out of words to describe how good the

barrasso. >> thank you, chairman murkowski. mr. chatterjee, april 26th senator risch and i introduced the act to bring the 40-year-old public utility regulation policy act in line and to protect consumers from unnecessary costs. back in '78, things were different then. we have access to transmission, abundant renewable energy, so i believe that the regulations need to be updated to reflect these modern realities and insure electric utility customers aren't footing the bill for power that they really don't need and don't want to pay for. so, you know, i'm encouraged by the commission's announcement on may 17th that you're going to be reviewing the regulations. would you please give us some additional detail on the scope and the timing of the review and any of the specific rules that you believe need to be updated. >> thank you, senator. i commend you for introducing your legislation. i have said repeatedly, i think major changes need to come from this body. but that said, the time has since passed. we immediate to take a look at our

mr. barrasso: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: the senate is not in a quorum call. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. last week, president trump took what i believe is a historic first step in making america and the whole world more safe, more stable, and more secure. his efforts to end north korea's nuclear weapons program has already, i believe, produced tangible results. north korea is dismantling a test facility. it is also committed to recovering and sending home the remains of americans killed during the korean war. now the trump administration is taking the next steps. the state department is hard at work at follow-up discussions. secretary of state pompeo says he may return personally to north korea before very long. when we heard from president trump about his trip to singapore last week, he was upbeat about the talks. he understands that these follow-up talks were going to be where the specifics, where the specifics really star