mr. cornyn: mr. president, the hallmark of american democracy, the single greatest feature that sets us apart from every other country in the world is the peaceful transition of power that occurs every four, or sometimes every eight, years on january 20. it's a legacy we inherited from our forefathers and one that generations of americans have fought throughout our history hard to protect. it's a remarkable moment, the most powerful person in the world bows to the will of the people and sits only a few yards away as the next president takes the oath of office. think about the wars that have been fought throughout history over who the next leader of a country would be. yet in america, dating back to 1787, the peaceful transition of power has defined the american presidency. but a growing body of evidence suggests that the january 20, 2017, inauguration of president donald trump was an exception to that hallowed tradition. since the f.b.i. launched its russia probe in july 2016, there's been no shortag

mr. cornyn: madam president, the senate was gaveled out about six weeks ago now. we passed the $2.2 trillion cares act on march 25, and here it is may 4. since that time the global battle to gheit -- defeat the coronavirus has only intensified. there have been some who question the wisdom of the senate coming back to washington and convening, but i think we have, we need to be here, and we need to do our jobs. we know how do this safely. we know how to social distance. we know how to wash our hands, not touch our face. those are the responsibilities each of us bear to one another not to spread this virus. but if there is such a thing as essential and nonessential workers -- and i don't think that distinction is one we should, we should discuss because 26 million americans are not nonessential workers. they're absolutely essential to our economy and to our way of life. but make no mistake, self-government is essential under any construction, any definition of that word. our system was not made to run on auto pilot. so it's appropriate that we show up and we do our

mr. cornyn: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas is recognized. mr. cornyn: madam president, like other senators, around this time of the year i'm used to welcoming folks from home who are traveling to washington, d.c. between spring break trips and industry fly-ins, spring is normally a very busy season here at the capitol. and i always look forward to seeing both new and familiar faces, spending time with my constituents and talking about the challenges that they're facing and the changes that they would like to see coming out of congress. but as we all know, this is not a typical springtime in washington. normally busy sidewalks and hallways are largely empty as our constituents hunker down at home while we continue working to get them the help they need. just as texans have adopted new routines to meet social distancing requirements, so have i. so have all of us. over the last few weeks -- and i know i'm not alone among my colleagues -- i've logged some serious hours on phone calls and videoconferences with folks across texas. actually, i've been a

mr. cornyn: mr. president, the hallmark of american democracy, the single greatest feature that sets us apart from every other country in the world is the peaceful transition of power that occurs every four, or sometimes every eight, years on january 20. it's a legacy we inherited from our forat

mr. cornyn: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: madam president after every natural disaster, after every major emergency there is always a period of response that initial triage to think about search and rescue operations and providing medical care and setting up emergency shelters. you're moving quickly to complete these time-sensitive tasks and minimize the loss of life. at some point though, you begin to transition to recovery, clearing the debris, restoring power, rebuilding and eventually trying to return to life as normal. as always, there will be a period of transition between those periods where you continue to focus on the short-term response while planning for the longer-term recovery and while we're facing a different kind of crisis today the sim principles apply. our heroic health care workers didn't to respond to this virus on the front lines. our farmers ranchers, truckers, gro

mr. cornyn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the recognize the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, the coronavirus has challenged our country, indeed the entire planet, unlike few crises before, certainly in my life time. i was part of the post-world war ii generation, and do out in -- no doubt world war presented the preeminent crisis within memory, but it was, i think, 1917 and 1918 when the great influenza hit the planet and tens of millions of people died in that. but when this virus began spreading, it became clear it would put a clear strain on hospitals and providers, as businesses closed their doors and employees lost their jobs, it was obvious it would take a toll on our economy, an incredible economy we had in this country. it's like it fell off a -- fell off a cliff. and the combination of new stresses brought on this virus -- by this virus has led to a range of lesser known but no less severe consequences. earlier this week i spoke about the impact of the coronavirus on our country's mental health. as our lives have been flipped upside down, many americans ar

mr. cornyn: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president, both at home and around the world, the fight to defeat the coronavirus seems all too consuming. it's changed virtually every part of our lives from how we work to how we grocery shop. it dominates our conversations, news cycles and social media feeds and it feels like this is the only threat the world is facing. but even a pandemic is not enough to stop from bringing harm to our american people. our dedicated counterterrorism and counter intelligence experts are continuing their critical work to identify critical threats against our country and prevent them from being successful. one of the most powerful tools in their toolbox is the ability to covertly gather information about bad actors. that's absolutely critical to national security. but our commitment to public safety can be at odds with privacy and individual liberty so we, as a country,

mr. cornyn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, the hallmark of american democracy, the single greatest feature that sets us apart from every other country in the world is the peaceful transition of power that occurs every four, or sometimes every eight, years on january 20. it's a legacy we inherited from our forefathers and one that generations of americans have fought throughout our history hard to protect. it's a remarkable moment, the most powerful person in the world bows to the will of the people and sits only a few yards away as the next president takes the oath of office. think about the wars that have been fought throughout history over who the next leader of a country would be. yet in america, dating back to 1787, the peaceful transition of power has defined the american presidency. but a growing body of evidence suggests that the january 20, 2017, inauguration of president donald trump was an exception to that hallowed tradition. since the f.b.i. launched its russia probe in july 2016, there's been no shortag

mr. cornyn: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas is recognized. mr. cornyn: madam president, like other senators, around this time of the year i'm used to welcoming folks from home who are traveling to washington, d.c. between spring break trips and industry fly-ins, spring is normally a very busy season here at the capitol. and i always look forward to seeing both new and familiar faces, spending time with my constituents and talking about the challenges that they're facing and the changes that they would like to see coming out of congress. but as we all know, this is not a typical springtime in washington. normally busy sidewalks and hallways are largely empty as our constituents hunker down at home while we continue working to get them the help they need. just as texans have adopted new routines to meet social distancing requirements, so have i. so have all of us. over the last few weeks -- and i know i'm not alone among my colleagues -- i've logged some serious hours on phone calls and videoconferences with folks across texas. actually, i've been a

mr. cornyn: madam president, my home state of texas is a great place to do business. we keep taxes, government spending, and regulations at a rational minimum in order to give people and businesses the freedom to pursue their dreams and prosper. texas is consistently ranked on the list of the best states for business, best states to start a business, and the best state for female entrepreneurs. according to the small business administration, there are more than 2.6 million small businesses throughout the state, accounting for 99.8% of all texas businesses. those businesses employ nearly half of our state's work force and account for a massive portion of our texas economy. to say that small businesses are an economic force in texas would only paint half the picture. in big cities and small towns like these businesses play a critical role in our communities. locally owned restaurants and bars we visit, the gyms that are part of our regular routine, the dry cleaners, the pardon me sis, the hardware stores we stop by when we run errands. our small businesses aren't just e

mr. cornyn: madam president, let me join my friend. let me join our friend and my friend, the senator from south dakota, and say i'm glad to be back in this chamber doing the work of the 29 million texans. and i see the presiding officer, my partner, my fellow senator from texas, joining us as well. and i was listening closely to the senator from south dakota's recitation of all the things that we have to do. there is no shortage of work for us to do, and there is no reason for us to continue to curl up in a fetal position in some undisclosed location and be afraid to go outdoors, because the fact is the experts at the centers for disease control, people like dr. fauci, dr. birx, they tell us what we need to do in order to function safely. it's the same thing that our grocery clerks and our doctors and our nurses, and, frankly, our law enforcement personnel are doing. we know how to do this and how to do it safely. at the same time we simply cannot hide out and not show up for work. what kind of message does that send to the american p

mr. chairman. congressman, congratulations on your nomination. senator cornyn underscored the will hurd op-ed. i think think it's very important and i hope folks here read that as well. he is widely respected on these issues. thanks for the time we've had over the last few weeks in the classified session. i'm going to ask you more questions to press you on whether you think the odni works right now, whether it's a functioning bureaucratic layer of whether it's an encumbrance was in the post-9/11 reasons that it were created are actually being advanced. what one of the specific pieces of data that doubletalk and a classified said adam want to unpack more fully here is, you know it's my view there's no more pressing national security threat to the united states aces in the next decade of the tech race with china. all 17 of our intelligence agencies but especially the cia and nsa are getting that message and their wrapping it up. we've been talking about pivot to china for ten or 15 years in this country, editing to agencies are still slow to devote sufficient mind share, money, personal, et cete

mr. chairman -- >> senator cornyn will ask. senator whitehouse. >> thank you, chairman. let me start by thanking mr. perrone and his food and commercial workers. there are a lot of people staying at home in rhode island pursuant to our governor's order. as a result, it seems our new cases have crested. we seem to be stabilizing. we have started to announce beginning of a reopening strategy. through all of this, it's been ufcw workers who have made it possible for our groceries and so forth to continue to flow. they have done so at some risk to themselves, particularly early on when they didn't know how contagious this was. mr. perrone, a big thank you to you on behalf of the people working in rhode island and the country to whom we owe a lot. if you are a small business and you are trying to figure out how to open safely, it seems to me you want to have somebody who knows what they are talking about tell you how to do it. so you look around for guidelines. you look around for a standard of care of a checklist you can go through. sadly, that's what we don't see. apparently

senator cornyn: you, mr. chairman. always good to be with my colleagues on the senate select committee on intelligence and it is my pleasure to introduce john ratcliffe, the nominee for director of national intelligence. as the chairman said, we do have a letter from the former attorney general and it is rather lengthy. i'm not going to read all of it/ i will refer to some excerpts. i ask for consent that it be made part of the record following my remarks. the reason why i think it is so important for the committee and the senate to hear from former attorney general ratcliffe -- excuse me, former attorney general ashcroft, is because of his intimate knowledge of the professional qualifications of the nominee, as well as the personal qualifications, his intelligence and his integrity. for high-quality decision-making, sound intelligence must never be contaminated by personal bias or political predisposition. i've known and worked with john for more than a decade. person,f no person, no with a higher commitment to integr

mr. chairman, and let me say to my friend, senator cornyn, i'm here doing my job. i came here because we are in the midst of what this nominee has characterized as an unimaginable crisis. i can't imagine i could go to the state of texas or illinois and ask americans who are concerned, worried, frightened by the current situation facing what theoronavirus, highest priority of the senate judiciary committee should be. we know what it is when it comes to senator mcconnell. is this nominee. of all the things we could be debating, things that are relevant to this crisis, we have been brought back here to debate this nominee. that is the point i wanted to make in my opening statement. i am here. at some risk, i assume, may be some danger, i am here. that is the point i wanted to make. so let me ask you this. you've been careful and i've written down over and over again how you've referred to your responsibility when it comes to the supreme court decision upholding the affordable care act, and only once or twice have you deviated from saying it was binding on you as a dis

mr. chairman, i will submit further questions for the record. >> yes, sir, without objection you may do so and it disher statement also. senator cornyn. >> thank you, mr. chairman. judge, welcome. congratulations on your nomination. i've been amazed that are members of the senate, in congress generally, i don't think it's okay for us to be here doing our job. they think it's okay for grocery clerks tok show up to make sure we have food on our tables. they think it's okay for doctors and nurses to show up and tend toto the sick in our hospitals d healthcare facilities. they think it's okay for police officers to show up, but haven't for bid the united states congress show up to do our job. i thought our friend, senator durbin, get a good job of making a long list of things that we can do, and we may end up doing, but you've got to start somewhere. and as we, know, the responsibility to provide advice, consent of nominations to our courts is one of the most important responsibilities of the senate. i guess you stand accused of actually knowing a united states senator or two. i don't know how you a federal judge without knowing the unit

cosponsors, senators lee from utah, booker from new jersey, cornyn from texas, white house from rhode island, and paul from kentucky. and, mr. president, you know those senators. that is about as broad a political array in terms of the political spectrum in america and the aesthetic, democrats and republicans, who believe in this issue, and that's what i think it's so important. our system of justice will be more fair once a bill passes the house the house and a signed into law by thene president, and i just want to thank my, colleagues, all my colleagues, who voted for this necessary and important and simple piece of a legislation. and, unfortunately, we need in america today. i yield the floor. >> watch c-span sedately unfiltered coverage of the government response to the coronavirus pandemic with briefings from the white house, congress, and governors from across the country. plus join in a in the conversan our live call-in program "washington journal", and if you missed any of our live coverage watch anytime on-demand at c-span.org/coronavirus. >> this memorial day weekend on booktv, saturday at 3:25 p.m. eastern best-s

mr. chairman. i appreciate the opportunity. cornyn this morning read a really great letter from attorney general ashcroft, you should be very pleased with how he commanded you in the letter. this is attorney general -- thet, he said the best friend and national security. national security is a singular -- most allergic to the infection and evaluation that results from an accuracy and distortion. for high quality of decision-making, sound intelligence must never be bias orated by personal political predisposition. you agree with that statement? rep. ratcliffe: i do. thaty is it so important sound intelligence, above all else, really must never be contaminated by personal bias or political predisposition? rep. ratcliffe: simply because it would jeopardize national security decisions. >> can? ? you elaborate rep. ratcliffe: well, again, what the intelligence community does, the best men and women in the world, the best collection, the best analysis, it has to be delivered accurately so that you as a legislator, the president as the comma

mr. chairman, ranking member warner, i appreciate your careful consideration of my friend and fellow texan, john ratcliffe and appreciate the opportunity to introduce him today. thank you very much. >> senator cornyn, thank you for that introduction. with that, congressman ratcliffe if you would rise and raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear to give the committee the truth, the full truth and nothing, but the truth so help you god? >> i do. >> please be seated. before we move to your stateme statement, i'll ask you five standard questions the committee poses to each nominee who appears before us. they just quire a simple yes or no answer. one, do you agree to appear before the committee here and in other venues when invited? >> yes. >> if confirmed, do you agree to send officials from your office to appear before the committee and designated safe when invited? >> yes. >> do you agree to provide documents or any other materials asked by the committee in order for it to carry out its oversight and the legislative responsibilities? >> yes. >> will you ensure that your office and staff provide such materials to the committee when requested. >> yes. >> and five, do you agree to inform and fully

mr. cornyn: s. res. 560, i would ask unanimous consent that the preamble be agreed to and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sullivan: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: mr. president, thank you. it's thursday and i'm back on the senate floor partaking in one of my favorite times of the week which is to come down on the floor and talk about somebody who is making a great difference in my state. we call these -- these individuals our alaskan of the week. to those who watch the floor back home, sometimes we break the rules a little bit and recognize more than one person. we just call them the alaskans of the week with an s. so pandemic or no pandemic, i think it's important still that we come down and recognize particularly during these challenging times people who are making a difference in our states and across our country. and as i mentioned last week, mr. president, this pandem

mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: rewould in a quorum call in. the presiding officer: we are. mr. cornyn: i would ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president, over the past couple months, our country has gone into lockdown, but then slowly but surely begun to adjust to the new normal brought on by covid-19. many of us have been working safely from home, as kitchen tables have been transformed into makeshift office tables and in many cases classrooms, as parents navigate the challenges of remote working and learning. but many of the most critical jobs in our country captain be done with a laptop and an internet connection. defense contractors, for example, the intelligence community, law enforcement agencies, and, of course, our heroic health care workers. they have to be on the front lines doing their job eve and every day -- each and every day, in a matter what th

mr. cornyn: madam president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. cornyn: i ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: madam president, as our nation's war against the coronavirus has waged on, the senate has taken decisive action to provide the resources we need to win the fight. we've sent critical equipment to our front line health care workers and expanded testing resources nationwide. we've provided loans to small businesses in order to protect jobs, and we sent direct financial assistance to the americans who are struggling the hardest to make ends meet. these four bills now laws passed by congress have addressed both the public health crisis at the heart of the pandemic and the ensuing economic fallout. now with the states beginning to gradually reopen their economies, we're staring down the barrel of a second epidemic, one generated by opportunistic lawsuits, crushing legal fees and drawn out court battles. according to a database combuyed by the law firm hunt and kirth, more than 950 suc

mr. cornyn: madam president, president eisenhower once said farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil. and you're a thousand miles away from a cornfield. those were wise words from a wise man. if you're trying to get a view of what's happening across america, you certainly can't get a comprehensive picture staying here in washington, d.c. or even listening to the national media. that's why whether you're working on a farm bill, a highway bill, or a coronavirus recovery bill, i'd look to my constituents for feedback, and i know we all do the same. since we first learned that evacuees from china would be headed to joint base san antonio for a 14-day quarantine, i have been in close contact with folks in texas, starting with san antonio, about the coronavirus. i have joined dozens if not a hundred or more videoconferences with groups covering every industry who have shared honest perspectives about how things are going, what's working, and what more is needed from congress. i've spoken with nurses and hospital administrators about the need for additional personal protective equipm

mr. cornyn: madam president, the senate was gaveled out about six weeks ago now. we passed the $2.2 trillion cares act on march 25, and here it is may 4. since that time the global battle to gheit -- defeat the coronavirus has only intensified. there have been some who question the wisdom of the senate coming back to washington and convening, but i think we have, we need to be here, and we need to do our jobs. we know how do this safely. we know how to social distance. we know how to wash our hands, not touch our face. those are the responsibilities each of us bear to one another not to spread this virus. but if there is such a thing as essential and nonessential workers -- and i don't think that distinction is one we should, we should discuss because 26 million americans are not nonessential workers. they're absolutely essential to our economy and to our way of life. but make no mistake, self-government is essential under any construction, any definition of that word. our system was not made to run on auto pilot. so it's appropriate that we show up and we do our