mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, the year was 1936. president franklin roosevelt had just been re-elected with an overwhelming majority. he decided he had had enough of the u.s. supreme court. they had been striking down some of the key pieces of legislation in his new deal package, and so he came up with a bold plan in february of 1937. that bold plan was to add new justices to the supreme court, enough new justices to tip the balance his way. he presented this plan to change the supreme court for his political purposes to a democratic congress and a democratic united states senate. believing with his big re-election majority and the fact that most of the members of congress had supported his new deal agenda, that they would stand by him when it came to changing the supreme court so that it would start ruling his way. he was wrong. what happened then was that members of the united states senate decided to stand up to their president and to stand up for the constitution. a little-known senator from arizona

mr. durbin: thank you. mr. president, on friday, the department of education released its latest proposals for new regulations on borrower relief when a school engages in unfair, deceptive or abusive conduct. the proposals will be debated this week at the third negotiated rule making session as part of a former rule making process. i want to speak about one of the issues addressed in the latest proposal from the department of education, the use of mandatory arbitration in enrollment contracts by institutions of higher education. these clauses, which for-profit colleges and universities often bury in fine print, prevent students from bringing suit against the school in court as an individual and often is part of a class action. it means, for example, that if a student applying to a school is deceived and misled by that school as to the degree they will receive or the job that they will qualify for, they can't bring a legal action against the school. instead, the student is forced into a secret proceeding where t

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, i'm happy to follow my friend and colleague from tennessee. senator alexander has spelled out an exciting possibility, and i know that it won't be easy. it's a heavy political lift. but what he's talking about is coming up with a dramatic commitment of funds for medical research for the next eight, nine or ten years over and above the ordinary budget of the national institutes of health. we've sat down and talked about this several times, and i wholeheartedly endorse not only his concept but also when he gets down to specifics. some of the things that he wants to focus on, the moonshot at cancer, for example, is one that of course the president, the vice president, the vast majority of americans would endorse that because there isn't a single one of us who hasn't been touched by the threat or the actual disease of cancer among our families and friends. i won't go through the entire list, but whether we're dealing with issues involving the brain, alzheimer's, parkinson's, ne

mr. durbin: mr.resident? the presiding officer: the assistant democratic leader. mr. durbin: mr. president, before i speak on a separate issue, i'd like to address the issue raised by the senator from maine. your experience in maine is exactly the same as my experience in illinois. there is no town too small, no suburb too wealthy not to have been touched by heroin overdoses and deaths. it's interesting, yu may be encouraged to know that in one small town in down state illinois when they were desperate, when two or three teenagers died in one speek in a small town -- in one week in a small town they heard about a program in gloucester, massachusetts, where the chief of police realized we can't keep arresting addicts. it's not working. he announced if someone was addicted and came into the sheriff's office or the police department and reported their addiction, they wouldn't arrest them. they would take them to a treatment center immediately. 27 -- 27 teenagers showed up in the next few days in this sm

mr. durbin: i do remember that. mr. leahy: thank you. i appreciate that. mr. durbin: mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. grassley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i come to the floor this morning because of the important subject that's before us, the bill that deals with the opioid epidemic, follow-on heroin problem, a bill that was reported out of committee unanimously, a very important piece of legislation. but right now we have an fortunate political gamesmanship that has overtaken some of my democratic colleagues at the very same time that everybody on the judiciary committee knows that we need to pass the comprehensive addiction and recovery act. that goes by the acronym, c c-a-r-a, cara, for short. it happens that the epidemic is not a political game. it's a real problem out there, a massive hearing that we had in committee that demonstrates that. i'm very proud that the senate has taken the cara bill up. after this public health crisis festered for so long while the senate was controlled by the democrats. tragically, for

mr. durbin: i ask the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: mr. president, several weeks ago, the untimely passing of supreme court justice antonin scalia created a vacancy on the supreme court, which now has only eight justices, and it called into question the constitutional responsibility of the president of the united states when such a vacancy exists and the constitutional responsibility of this senate. well, this morning in "the washington post," there was speculation about six possible nominees the president could send to the senate. it was speculation in the paper, and we don't know if any one of those would actually be the nominee suggested by the president, but it's very obvious and having spoken to the president personally on this issue, i know that he is carefully weighing the options. why will the president move forward on this nomination? because the constitution requires it. the constitution requires it. in article 2, section 2, it says the president shall appoint a nominee to fill a vacancy on the u.s. supreme court. shal

mr. durbin: mr.nt, yesterday the senior senator from arizona took to the floor to criticize the work of the defense appropriations subcommittee. i'm honored to be on that subcommittee, the vice chairman working with senator cochran, the republican from mississippi. but the senior senator from arizona argued that the support for republican presidential candidate donald trump is somehow connected to the work of the defense appropriations subcommittee. now i've heard some pretty outlandish claims by mr. trump on the campaign trail, but the fact that he would capture the hearts and minds of the defense appropriations subcommittee with his rhetoric is beyond me. senator cochran has been a member of the senate for many years. he's respected. he has worked his way up to be chairman of the full committee, and i've worked with him and found him an excellent partner, bipartisan in trying to make sure we protect our nation's national defense. i've never found him to be in the thrawl of donald trump -- in the th

mr. durbin: i thank my colleague from indiana. the bill before us is the comprehensive addiction and recovery act. it's one of the few bills that you'll find so much bipartisanship on. it really is an issue that all of us understand back home is april major problem, wherever home may be. in my state of illinois, there is no town too small and no suburb too wealthy to avoid the challenge of this heroin crisis. here is what's happened. over the last 10 years, we have seen the pharmaceutical industry dramatically increase the number of painkiller pills for sale. one classification of those, opioids, includes oxycontin, hydrocodone and other names that are pretty familiar to us. and it turns out that there have been so many of these pills produced that they have now created an industry of their o own, an illicit industry where people are buying and selling them to get high. and when they reach the point where they can't find these pills or they're too expensive, they switch in the same category of narcotics to heroin. and, of course,

mr. hill. >> thanks richard durbin. thank you, mr. secretary for being here.let me add my comments on previous questions submitted. as a former treasury employee you are making me look bad. i submitted questions to you on june 17, 2015 and i hope you will surely that you will get prompt answers to my questions. .. that are set up to appropriately deal with it. >> derivative issue of the subject of management and data centers was a big part of it. financial services are not included. >> i think you mean tpp. >> tpp. i have heard concern it is problematic. our financial services companies are not being treated like non- financial services. >> data localization, we generally oppose that. i put ai put a considerable amount of effort into making sure that it was not required where it was really no more than a nontariff barrier. the issue is our own regulators feel that they need guaranteed access to timely and appropriate information, and there has been experience when i was cut off. we are trying to reconcile legitimate interest of the financial institution not to

mr. mcconnell: further at 5:30 monday, march 7, the senate vote in relation to the durbin amendment 3329 and johnson amendment 3336, that there be no second-degree amendments in order to these amendments prior to the votes. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. reid: reserving the right to object, mr. president, i don't like to admit this publicly, if i've earned anything from the republican leader and one of the things that i have learned is that it's not right to have the majority pick the votes of the minority. so i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. mcconnell: so, mr. president, i send a -- i send a cloture motion to the desk for the grassley substitute amendment number 3378. the presiding officer: clerk will report the motion. invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on senate amendment number 3378, the substitute amendment, to s. 524, a bill to authorize the attorney general to award grants to address

durbin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i served on this committee for 18 years. i consider the senate judicial committee to be one of the major committees of the senate. it plays, has played, will continue to play an important role in the history of the country. we are faced with a historic decision and i hope we get it right. i will say to my friend, and he is my friend, acknowledging senator feinstein's observation, a person i respect, i to say if we make a mistake today we will make it again in the future, doesn't give any comfort at all. if there is one thing our pollsters have a lot of money for on both sides of the political equation will tell us it is the disappointment and enter people feel about us, about congress. maybe we do two points better as democrats than republicans but i don't take any comfort in that, nor should we. the question is what we will do to either confirm those suspicions and hatreds or change some. we have a chance right here and now. let me say at the outset, my neighbor, senator grassley, has been incensed by fellow traveler for 30

senator durbin: thank you very much, mr. chairman. i have served on this committee for 18 years. i consider the senate judiciary committee to be one of the major committees of the senate. and it has played an important role in history of our country. we are now faced with an historic decision and i hope we get it right. i would say to my friend acknowledging the feinstein observation -- i would include senator graham as one of my friends and personally i respect on this -- to say that if we make a mistake today, we will make it again in the future, doesn't give me any comfort at all. if there's one thing that our pollsters that we pay a lot of money for on both sides of the money for on both sides of the political equation will tell us, it's the disappointment and anger people feel about us, about congress. maybe we do two points better as democrats than republicans, but i don't take any comfort in that nor should we. the question is what we will do to either confirm those suspicions and hatred or to change them. and we have a chance right here and now. let me say at the outset t