mr. booker: mr. president, i'm grateful for the time. i'm hoping that the in the intervening hours and days that we are here in washington, d.c., that this profound obligation we have of keeping the functioning of three branches of government, that we can give some attention to that and perhaps solve this impasse. thank you. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: thank you, mr. president. i would ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. casey: mr. president, i rise today to commemorate the national day of remembrance for murder victims which occurs in just a few days on september 25. in 2007, the congress passed a resolution designating the national day of remembrance and affirming two central truths. first, that the murder of a loved one is an exceptionally difficult and devastateing experience for that family. and

mr. booker: yes, there is an objection. i okay to the modification. the presiding officer: objection is heard. is there objection to the senator from north dakota's request? mr. mcconnell: i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. ms. baldwin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wisconsin. ms. baldwin: before i returned home for the august recess, i came to the floor to call on the senate to take up pending judicial nominations, and once again today i join my colleagues in calling for action on the crisis that is facing our federal courts. now, we had an unusually long -- what's called an august recess but actually started midjuly, and we have a brief period of time when we're back in session before we're about to have yet another recess prior to the elections. i i understand the senate has been in session fewer days than the senate has been in session in some decades, 60 years. i feel it necessary that we step up and deal with this crisis in the federal courts and do our jobs, and i call on my colleagues in the majority

mr. booker: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. purr purr mr. president, i -- mr. perdue: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. perdue: i rise today and ask for unanimous consent to engage in a colloquy for my republican colleagues for the next hour. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. perdue: mr. president, what we're going to talk about over the next hour is one of the most important issues i think facing our government. we've set here today and listened to a very valid pleas really for hope from the federal government. and the reality is, we don't have the money. there are four words that i have not heard in the united states senate or congress actually since i've been here over the last year and a half, and that is, "we cannot afford it." the problem is right now we have a budget crisis. we have a debt crisis. now, let me say this. fixing the budget process will not solve the debt crisis. let's b

mr. booker: mr. president i'm grateful for your recognizing me and i want to thank my colleague from washington for her remarks. as for me, this is the third time this month that i've come to the senate floor to speak about the supreme court nomination currently pending before the senate and the judicial vacancy crisis as a whole within our country. it's been seven months that chief judge merrick garland's nomination to the supreme court is still pending and it's been about 19 months that the nomination of judge julian neals of the district court of new jersey is still on hold. and just as was the case in the last few times i've come to the floor to speak our country is not only operating with an incomplete supreme court but it's also operating with a judicial vacancy crisis across our nation in multiple federal courts. the supreme court's term is about to begin in two weeks and without action to schedule a vote and confirm judge garland's nomination, the supreme court will still be operating without

mr. chairman. >> senator booker. >> thank you, mr. chairman. first and foremost, i want to thank you all for your work. you're truly patriots to euro country and obviously what we all witnessed happening in new jersey and new york this past week is a firster affirmation of your cal quality and commitment to the security of our homeland and i appreciate you saying earlier, director comey and director johnson, that this is a multiple-level commitment from local authorities as well as state and federal authorities because what we saw the commitment of amongst the linden police officers, for example, who literally took fire from a terrorist staked their lives. truly working at every level of the government. senator johnson, i've been very focused and interested on issues of rail security. it's something that i feel we're not doing enough, especially given the northeast corridor and more people trey trarchlt we've seen the pipe bombs found at elizabeth station were near amtrak in the state of new jersey. in 2007 congress passed legislation acquiring

mr. chairman. >> senator booker thank you mr. chairman. i want to thank you all for your work. the dedication you have, you are all truly patriots to our country and obviously what we all witnessed happening in new jersey in new york is a further affirmation of the quality of your commitment to the security of our homeland. i appreciate you saying earlier, director comay and director johnson that this is a multiple level commitment from local authorities as well as state and federal authorities because what we saw in the commitment of police officers who literally took fire from a terrorist to save lives. i've reached out to the two gentlemen last week and it was truly a wrote work being done at all levels of our government. secretary johnson, i have been very concerned and focused on issues of rail security. it is something that i feel were not doing enough, especially given the northeast court or weren't or people travel by rail then in air travel. we have seen pipe bombs found in the elizabeth train station or near amtrak, new jersey transit for millions of people ride in th

thank you. >> thank you, senator booker, senator carper. >> mr. chairman, just before we break up, we came here with a hearing in mind to how to better protect our homeland from threats foreign and domestic and i want to thank senator booker for adding something that i didn't expect and i really want to say to director comey thank you for the way you've engaged on what i think we all know is an important -- really important subje subject. when we had -- it's been many months in this room years ago on the heels of 9/11 with the 9/11 commission led by lee with 9/11 commission who had lee hamilton and governor king. they had a vision that we would address, fix some of the problems that led to 9/11 and allowed it to happen. part was stove piping information, talking together, you said we're not perfect, i like, we the people of the united states in order to form a more perfect union, doesn't say perfect union, a more perfect union. none of us are perfect. i look at problems, find out what works and do more of that. i must say i am encouraged by the way

booker. next up is senator sullivan. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to begin by thanking all of you on the work that you and your staff did on the alaska plan. i know that several months ago we had, we had a hearing where you all committed to make the decision, whether you were supportive or not by the end of the second quarter, and we're close. so i appreciate that, and i appreciate the work you're currently doing to finalize the cap two funding, and i know the staffs are working on that with alaska's price cap carrier. mr. chairman, you mentioned it, it is all about coverage, of course, particularly in the rural communities, the extreme rural communities that i like to say i was out like all of us, back home over the summer. and was in a lot of communities that are still struggling. sometimes you think about the most remote communities that don't have a lot of activity. i was in alaska, dutch harbor. out in the aleutian chain. this is the number one seafood port in america. it has enormous economic activity out there, but still really concern

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator gardener. senator booker has returned. senator booker. >> i'm really grateful and always excited when there is a corey to corey connection here. the corey caucus is thriving. >> both four-letter words. >> so as you all know, i was the mayor of newark, and cities is where innovation is happening. they're finding creative ways to get things done, innovative private/publ private/public partnerships. no republican or democratic way to fix a pothole. you just fix it. so you don't see the kind of partisan rankor up here. you just get it done. so i'm so supportive of the ideas of municipal broad band, especially in areas where there is poor or rural folks who aren't getting service. this idea that somehow the private sector is going to get this done, well, they're not, and other countries have greater broadband penetration than we have. and so we see that when it comes to overall, this crisis in our country, which i think is the broadband deployment, we have to focus on municipalities to get things done. so the slow broadband or

booker. ive them a round of' plause, -- apluse, please. [applause] many of you may remember the movie testimony last year of one of our former interns, mr.ontel beatty. he shared the inpiring story of his humble beginnings and how the internship experience was his only access to his current career in public policy on capitol hill. tonight, i'd like you to hear from another one of our future leaders. watch the video and after it airs, you will hear directly from him. thank you so much and do enjoy the rest of your evening. ♪ >> the university, such a buzz word now. you hear it from every avenue, from every sector, from every industry. diversity is important. and it's the thing to say today. but the goal of diversity is nothing new for the congressional black caucus foundation. when you're a person like me who watched debates at night or woke up in the morning to read political news, you weren't sure if there were others like you. but to see students from across the country come together and be interested and also passionate about the work of politics and policy really made me feel like there was a home. and i think that the congressional

mr. chairman coming thank you to the witnesses for being here today. the progress that we've made since the adoption of the of for the booker act has been very significant. and people return to questions i want to focus on how meaningful it has been to my neighbors back home in the state of florida. florida we're fortunate we have a very competitive marketplace, so families and consumers have a lot of choices. they have a good affordable option. in fact, it looks like in the coming year, that 82% of marketplace consumers affordable be able to purchase coverage for less than $75 or month. during the last open enrollment period, 1.7 million floridians signed up for comfort in the health insurance marketplace, including over 1 million women and children. and this is important because we have very serious and growing concerns in florida because of the spread of the zika virus. decorate zika infection count in florida is 800 individuals, including 86 pregnant women that we know of the. so this is very concerning. and what is especially troubling now is that florida hasn't expanded medicaid. so even though we have over 250,000 women ages 18-34 in my state to

mr. booker: thank you, mr. president. i really want to thank my senate colleague from delaware, senator coons, for his extraordinarily eloquent and frankly urgently passionate voice on issues of solitary confinement and, frankly, for all the work he's doing on criminal justice reform as a whole. this bill that he and senator durbin have worked so hard, that i'm so proud to join along with senator franken, this bill is a critically important bill when it comes to the overall reforming of our criminal justice system. and please understand, as he has said, this is currently a practice in our federal system as well as in state prisons. and it is an archaic and damaging and ineffective and inefficient practice that actually works against the public interest, not just their financial interests but even in the safety and the well-being of our communities. now, solitary confinement, many people don't know exactly what we're talking about as senator canes said. it's people being kept in a prison cell for 22 to 24 hours a day with