mr. donnelly: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. mr. donnelly: i want to thank my colleague from wisconsin for that's heartfelt and inspiring remarks. and it illustrates the problem, the problem that i was talking about my friend randy from for fort wayne who said my entire career i was promised what i would earn from my pension. these are people who every day got up in the dark, worked all day, and went home in the dark so they could take care of their families, so they could meet their obligations. all the businesses that many of these teamster drivers deliver to, they counted on those drivers to be there every day on time in order to keep their business going, and they always kept their word. the coal miners from my state were promised by harry truman that this pension was a sacred obligation that would be kept. and they counted on president truman's word and the word of everybody else after that, kept the lights on in our country, helped make sure we were able to win wa

mr. donnelly: mr. president, i would like to thank my colleague from texas for his inspiring words, for his devotion to texas veterans, and to american veterans across our country. as we approach member memorial -- as we approach memorial day, this is a time to honor our fallen soldiers and to reflect on theenormous sacrifice that the men and women have made for us. i rise today to recognize the service and ultimate sacrifice of four hoosier service members who gave their lives defending our country in the last year. the sacrifice of ryan lary, jonathan hunter, mark bonner and clayton cullen will not be forgotten. in july 2017, we lost navy corpsman ryan lary. he died with 15 other service members when a military refueling aircraft crashed in a soybean field in mississippi. he was 30 years old. born in anderson, ryan was described as selfless, impatient, and humble. he played football at shenandoah high school in middletown where he graduated in 2005. two years after graduation, ryan joined the navy an

donnelly: he is spending money there, jack. mr. ferguson: i promise you he is, as a matter of fact. >> i hope the parents are as well. joe donnelly but is a dear personal friend. he is someone of great principle and great character. he is someone who always stands for great things in the house and now in the senate, not an easy thing to do in the house or the senate, but he is somebody who really tries to make things work, and he made today work on his calendar. joe, thanks very much for being with us. we're delighted you're here. i turn it over now. >> thanks, mike. i just wanted to reiterate. i have said this many times before. if every member of congress had the integrity, and character, and principles that joe donnelly represents, that we probably wouldn't be having this conversation about how washington is broken, and how there is fights and controversy between the two political parties. joe is one of those people with incredible integrity. a classmate of mine when we came in in 2007, a former blue dog member, and someone who c

mr. donnelly: together we honor and remember the lives of the law enforcement officers we lost in the line of duty. these men and women put their lives on the line to protect our neighborhoods so that a hoosier senior can safely sit on his porch and watch his grandkids play on the front yard, or to ensure that working families can go to and from their jobs in peace. they are on the front lines battling the devastating opioid epidemic that has plagued our state. our police are the ones who work with our communities and local leaders to help stem violence and to help fight crime in our neighborhoods. they are the ones putting themselves in harm's way every single day. these officers are heroes to their families they're even more. they're moms and dads, sisters and brothers, wives and husbands. and their families pray that they come home safely at the end of every shift. sadly, as we know, that doesn't happen every time. when we lose an officer, that loss is felt deeply, particularly by their family and those who know him and love him. it is a grief that is also shared throughout the entire l

mr. chairman. >> senator donnelly. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank the witnesses for being here with us, and secretary spencer, i've had the privilege of having admiral richardson and general neller at naval surface workforce crane. i'm hopeful that you'll be able to come out as well and see the hard work of all those people. >> most definitely. it's on the list, senator. >> thank you very, very much. additionally admiral richardson and general neller, i appreciate all the work that you've done on addressing military suicide. you know that suicide risk often isn't tied to deployments or combat experiences. we can't be restricting our most rigorous mental health assessments just to the deployment cycle the. you've been incredibly helpful in all of that,and in implementing legislation. you told me last year that your services were on track for full implementation of the annual mental health assessment by october 2017. can you confirm that you've reached that milestone, and were there any difficulties, or are there any other things that

donnelly. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. secretary, for being here. in your testimony you mentioned the importance of quality of life to rural communities. that means a lot of things. high quality schools, good infrastructure, high speed broadband but also access to healthcare and increasingly access to prevention and treatment for addiction. i've been working on trying to address healthcare provider shortages in underserved areas and i partnered with a few members of this committee including chairman roberts on a trio of bills that will help direct several usda programs programs to ensure we're taking care of the ability to reach into rural areas and provide the resources they need. we made some progress on this front in the recent government funding bill. i want to thank you for your efforts to try to get these resources to our communities in a timely manner. i want to ask you for your continued commitment to addressing this issue. to work with us as we write a farm bill that ensures usda can continue to us auto the communities facilities program, t

donnelly. the president is off there. he will be speaking on mr. braun's behalf tonight. then there's this. >> mr. blankenship, he's said some positive things about you. he's not indicated that he's remotely willing to support mr. morrisey. so it begs a question, is he throwing his support behind you or you and he talked about it? >> no. we've had no conversations whatsoever. no. like i said, we've had our differences. but you cannot question the west virginia republican conservative roots. >> neil: that was my fault. sorry for the confusion. that was senator joe manchin yesterday talking about patrick morrisey, the man that will be challenging him. more to the point, talking about the guy that won't be challenging him. don blankenship, he spent a year in prison over the coal industry disaster in 2010 that killed 29 people and whether he violated safety rules and standards. long story short, mr. blankenship was not a big fan of the eventual republican nominee, mr. morrisey who we'll talk to and seemed to hint that he might throw his support by the incumbent democratic sen

mr. braun: you can count on me to be a true reinforcement and the guy that is going to retire joe donnellyank you. [applause] pres. trump: thank you, mike. we need mike braun in the senate , and that is going to happen. happen. that is going to happen. he is an incredible guy and he ran a really incredible race. if joe donnelly, slipping joe. and the democrats. get back into power, remember what i said, they will raise your taxes, they will destroy your jobs, and they are going to knock the hell out of your borders. that is already -- we have the worst immigration laws in the history of mankind, and we are slowly getting them changed, so give me reinforcements, please. ok? [applause] pres. trump: last week, as an example, the deputy chair of the democratic national committee, congressman keith ellison, do you know him? booing] pres. trump: marched in a t-shirt wearing a shirt that is very proud of it -- "i do not believe in borders." i am very proud of keith ellison, do you know why? when i announced in june 2016, he was being interviewed by george stephanopoulos on abc. and in the intervi

who will face off against senator joe donnelly, a democrat, and they are being asked >> and painted as insiders and swap creatures. they are both loving up trump, and mrisn't in the legislature but is a businessman is telling voters that he carries cardboard cutouts of members of congress and says, see, you can't tell them apart. his painting himself as the outsider, convincing the members to not pick one of the sitting members of congress. it will be interesting to see if the voters fall for that, but that is a running theme in most of the primaries. >> i have ohio, and there is a lot of political activity in ohio. there's like governor 's primary and a senate primary, and john kasich has terrible numbers in ohio, especially with the republicans running for both of these offices. interestingly enough, they are running towards trump, and the trump agenda, in a state that trump carried big. most polls say that mike dewine will be the republican standard-bearer for governor, and on the senate side, it's most likely jim wren i see -- jim wren ac. but there is a dog fight for the governor's race. and we will have to see what happens when the polls close.

mr. president, if you're watching right now, let me tell you, your tweet was huge. gerri: in indiana, gop voters chosen at ride over to sitting congressmen to face joe donnelly in the taking the what the u.s. stock index futures pared all about energy and oil is to look at the dow and the premarket. up 134. s&p and nasdaq up 27. you are watching "fbn:am." ♪ prepare for your demise, mr. billingsley! do your worst, doctor. i will. but first, a little presentation. hijacking earth's geothermal energy supply. phase 1. choosing the right drill bit. as long as evil villains reveal their plans, you can count on geico saving folks money. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. gerri: welcome back to the dow up 133, nasdaq up 26. at least nine people are dead after an attack on an ukrainian military base in syria. it was an israeli airstrike in the syrian air defense system shot down two missiles about 10 miles south of damascus. israel has not confirmed or denied the strikes. the mastermind behind the 9/11 attack to head the cia. according to "the new york times," collegiate mohammed at guantÁnamo bay to share information about gina hass op

donnelly. i will remind those remaining that our timer has -- . >> is there a reason you said that right before i spoke mr. chairman? thank you very much to the witnesses. i want to thank all of you for your implementation of the requirements regarding military suicide prevention of how hard you have worked on this printing of efforts that it can put in and how you have worked hard to reduce that. as you look at that what are the top priorities now for you when you look at this and you try to determine what else can we do to move the ball here? what do you think are some of the things that we can still accomplish? >> senator donnelly we had a brief conversation about that with the house appropriations committee yesterday and i think one of the more promising things who we have seen is this interdisciplinary model of mental health so that has had a big impact. we do have significant shortages of the right experts in the right places. we have a small population of uniformed experts and we rely on support in certain places where forces are and have certainly seen veterans getting the right care to the right