mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from -- mr. durbin: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: mr. president, every member of the senate stands in the well of the senate when they are elected, takes an oath of office. that oath of office required by the constitution is our statement to not only the people we represent but to the nation that we will uphold and defend the constitution of the united states. article 2, section 2, of that constitution empowers the president and those powers include the president's power to fill vacancies on the supreme court. it's not permissive language. the word "shall" can be found in this paragraph. and it basically says that the president of the united states shall nominate and by and with advice and consent of the senate shall appoint judges of the supreme court. for the first time in the history of the united states of america, the senate republicans are prepared to defy this clear statement of the united states constitution

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant democratic leader. mr. durbin: mr.resident, what happened in flint, michigan, is incredible. in the 21st century, in the most developed country on earth, to think that 100,000 people were exposed to contaminated water, to think that 9,000 or 10,000 children were exposed to lead poisoning. it was not a natural disaster, but the results are disastrous. it was a disaster created by those who were in charge of managing the city of flint. the governmental agencies and those who work for them made what they considered to be the right budgetary decisions, but they certainly made the wrong decisions when it came to the health and the well-being of the poor people who were victimized by their wrongdoing. every time i hear the story, the same question comes to my mind. who's going to jail for poisoning 9,000 children? think about the circumstances here. a knowing decision by a city manager to switch to a water supply which was contaminated and endangered the health of thousands of children, tens of thousands of citizens. if that

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: i ask consent that the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: mr. president, on february 13, the nation was shaken by the news in the supreme court antonin scalia had passed away. justice scalia served on the nation's highest court for 29 years, and he was a major figure on the american legal landscape. justice scalia was described by judge richard pozner of the seventh circuit as "the most influential justice of the last quarter century." over the years i've come to know justice sc scalia. we certainly disagreed on many fundamental issues, but even those who disagreed with justice scalia on legal matters still admired him as a person. justice ruth bader ginsburg, no ideological ally of justice scalia, wrote after his death, "we were best buddies." she described him as "a jurist of captivate being wit with the talent to make even the most sober jurist laugh. we were different in our interpretation of text but they were one for the instit

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant democratic leader. mr. durbin: mr. president, i want to thank my colleague from iowa. i had hoped to get a chance to speak to him personally about another matter, but i will call him from the floor afterwards. we'll get in touch. and i'll just -- now that senator hatch is here, i don't want to delay the proceedings of the senate but i would like an opportunity to respond on this issue that was raised by senator grassley. senator grassley of iowa is my friend. politicians say that sometimes and mean it, say it sometimes and don't mean it. i mean it. we have become friends as neighboring states and sharing a lot of plane rides together, serving on the same committee, serving in the same body for a number of years. and i respect him very much. we have different points of view on many things, but we found common agreement on many other things. so i do respect him and i say that at the outset as i respond to his remarks. what is this about? this is about the passing of justice scalia and whether his seat on the supreme cour

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant democratic leader. mr. durbin: mr. president, i'd like to address an issue of vital importance to america's national security. it's the issue of reliable rocket launches, launches which the department of defense and the national intelligence agencies count on on a regular basis to launch satellites to keep america safe. there's a separate area of launches involving the civilian side with nasa, but this morning i want to focus primarily on the department of defense rocket launches. we made a decision about ten years ago that was wrong. two companies that were competing at that time, boeing and lockheed, came forward to the federal government and said we have a plan. instead of our companies competing, we will join together. we will become one company, boeing and lockheed, for this purpose under the term united launch alliance. they argued, convincingly at the time, that this was the blest way to come up with affordable, reliable launches. well, they were true -- that was true for half of the projection. they were reliab

mr. durbin and mr. whitehouse. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. mr. franken: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to discuss the widespread and harmful impact of forced arbitration, mandatory arbitration. last november "the new york times" published a three-part investigative series on the pervasive use of forced arbitration, or mandatory arbitration, which i would recommend to every member. mandatory arbitration is a privatized system of justice that corporations rely on when their customers or workers seek justice for being cheated or injured or mistreated. this series in "the new york times" while shocking, illustrated something that i've been saying for a long time, that mandatory arbitration agreements, forced arbitration agreements which are often buried in the fine print of employment and service contracts severely restrict americans' access to justice by stripping consumers and workers of their legal rights and insulating corporations from liability. from nu

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: i ask consent that the quorum call be success spengded. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin:man, the senate is cengtszly considering a bipartisan energy bill that could lead america on a pathway to rebuilding our nation's economy in this century. it has been nine years since we passed an energy bill and a lot of things have changed. the bill we're considering contains important provisions to build domestic clean energy sources. strengthen energy efficiency measures, modernize our electric grid. it represents a compliment to basic science research at the department of energy. i believe we can do more than what the bill proposes. we need more for research, the kind of research that costs too much and takes too long for any individual company to undertake. we need to invest in medical and basic science research. the investment will pay off for generations to come. i cochair the senate national lab caucus and i know if we invest in research in our national labs it

durbin? >> thanks very much, mr. chairman. let me ask a question related to saving money and spending money when i was on the simpson-bowles commission, i asked the department of defense, how many contractors does the department of defense pay for. they couldn't tell me. they just didn't know the numbers. well, it turns out since 200, we've asked each of the branches of the military to report to us at contractors. anticipate the reason it's important is that a contractor employee, we've shown here, costs about three times as much as a civilian employee. when the budget request cuts more than 700 civil i can't be jobs and increases contractors 2,300, it seems we're going in the wrong direction. shouldn't we continue with civilian employees at 1/3 the cost of contract employees? >> senator durbin, real quick, isle give you the answer. we have 146,000 contractors right now. so the army team itself, as you know, is 1.4 million people. about 1,015,000 soldiers. that's total force. about 246,000 civilians, and i would agree with you

mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the following fellows in senator durbin's office be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the 114th congress: jeremy ward, elizabeth lawrence, carla hagan, craig crawford, who's with the judiciary committee. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. heitkamp: thank you,mr. president. again, i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the prethe presiding officer: te clerk should call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mr. sasse: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sasse: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session for the consideration of calendar number 465, that the nomination be confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, that no further motions be in order, that any statements related to the nomination be printed in the record, the president be immediately notified of the senate's act

relations committee, senator durbin are to be commended for their leadership in this issue and i look forward to pass legislation today that will put teeth in american diplomacy. mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. a senator: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. hoeven: i rise in support of pending legislation to sanction the regime of north korea for its belligerent behavior towards the united states and its neighbors. today the senate takes up a bill to increase sanctions on north korea. most americans would be surprised, i think, to learn that it's still possible to increase and strengthen sanctions on north korea. in fact, while we've had certain sanctions on north korea in place for many years, these sanctions have never been as strong as they could be and should be. that's what we're about here today. we're now dealing with the third generation of dictators in kim jong-un, who is proving to be as disastrous as his infamous father and grandfather. kim-il song, the founder of the ki

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: i call up amendment number 3095 and ask that it be reported by number. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the number of the amendment. the clerk: the senator from illinois, mr. durbin, proposes an amendment number 3095 to amendment number 2953. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, this bipartisan amendment which i'm offering with senator alexander would increase funding levels for the department of energy office of science to a rate of 5% annual real growth for five years. the office of science is an incredible operation. 24,000 scientists, 10 national labs, research at 300 colleges and universities in all 50 states. it was their work which led to the development of the m.r.i. and they are currently working on imaging systems to identify alzheimer's in its earliest stages. it's an incredible operation. this commitment will pay us back many times over. and i yield