mr. boozman: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas is recognized. mr. boozman: i ask that the quorum call is rescinded. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. boozman: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h.r. 430, which was received from the house. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 430, an act to extend the program of block grants to states for temporary assistance for needy families and related programs through june 30, 2019. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. boozman: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. boozman: i know of no further debate on the bill. the presiding officer: if there is no further debate, the question is on passage of the bill. all in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill is passed. mr. boozman: i ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider

mr. boozman: the secretary and one of my mentors were great friends. again, thank you for your service and helping so many of us in so many different ways. we appreciate you. [inaudible] mr. mineta: i thank you for the honor of appearing before you this morning and permitting me to address you. it is a pleasure to see so many senators and former colleagues with whom i've had the pleasure to work over the years. thank you for this honor and privilege to speak on behalf of nicole r. nason, the nominee for federal highway administrator. i have known any i -- nicole since 2003 when she came to the department of transportation to serve as our assistant secretary of government affairs. and as secretary of transportation, i met with nicole nearly every day to discuss legislative proposals and strategies. however, her counsel went far beyond legislative issues. she was a key member of my executive team and was one of the department's liaisons with the white house and the office of management and budget. after three years as the assistant secretary, i recommende

mr. boozman. >> i ask content a letter recording epa dismissal of the-- agency's moving forward with secretscience proposal, advisory panels while attempting to ignore scientific studies where the underlying data has not been made public or greatly hinders epa's used best available science to protect human health and the environment. >> without objection, thank you. >> senator merkley. >> thank you, mr. wheeler. yesterday when we talked, i laid out all the things affecting oregon through climate chaos, affecting our formests, our farming, our fishing, and i asked you how concerned are you about these impacts on my constituents, the people of the united states and you shifted to saying, my job is to follow rules and work to obey lawsuits. so i came back to you again and i said again, these are tremendous impacts that we're seeing, hugely damaging. how concerned are you? and you shifted to saying you're looking forward to going to africa to talk about clean drinking water for africans. i'm going to give you a third chance here to answer this question. the calamities we're seeing are enormous

before handing to senator boozman senator inhofe. >> thank you mr. chairman. there is an editorial in the investors business daily that looks at the government charts that map out hurricanes, droughts, wildfires and all of that. and there is no upward trend in extreme weather. no trend in any of them and i asked that this be made part of the record. >> without objection. >> senator boozman. >> thank you mr. chairman, thank you for being here and your willingness to serve. first of all i want to thank you , you and your staff for your timely response. we have an issue going on in bella vista, arkansas with a fire that is -- has to do with stump disposal. your staff has been very, very good. this is a state problem that you have the expertise on staff to help them. >> senator boozman commander of for just a moment? i drop the ball here. you had agreed to help out senator ernst by allowing her to go first. would you still like to do that? >> go ahead. >> okay. sure? >> i'm sorry. >> anyway, like i said, thank you for during that. i think it is a great example of