mr. gardner: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. gardner: thank you, mr. president. on september 10, just a few months ago, loren brui brunner,a veteran of 1941 passed away. mr. brunner wasn't just any veteran, he was a veteran who served on the u.s.s. arizona during the attack that morning. on saturday, december 7, millions of americans across the country will pay tribute to the attack at pearl harbor memorial to commemorate what happened that morning that brought the united states fully into the second world war. aboard the u.s.s. arizona were 1,512 officers, sailors, marines. the attack that day december 7 killed 1,177 of them. 335 brave people survived that morning. but loren brunner who passed away september 10 was one of four who survive today that were on that ship that december morning in 1941. loren brunner passed away at the age of 98. and on this saturday his ashes will be interred at the u.s.s. arizona to join his ship mates, those who were lost that morning and others who have joined their fellow sailors, marines, and of

mr. gardner: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. gardner: thank you, mr. president. i come to the floor to recognize a milestone in the colorado community. the colorado farm bureau is celebrating 100 years of representing farmers, ranchers, rural communities and every aspect of agriculture in colorado. i grew up in the eastern plains. the county i grew up in one of the largest corn producing counties in the country and one of the top economic agricultural economically speaking communities in the state. our livelihood, our neighbors, everything depends on agriculture. when there's a downturn in agriculture, it's not just the next day that our community feels that. it's that next hour the community feels the impact. the same with a good agricultural economy. it's not just tomorrow that we'll feel the impact but immediately we'll feel the impact. i grew up working in a family farm equipment dealership where you got to know everybody in the community, not because of the kind of operation that they had but because of the ciensdz of -- the

mr. gardner: today i rise to give thanks to the brave men and women of law enforcement in colorado and across this country. every holiday season i am reminded of the sacrifice that these brave officers make in order to make sure that everybody's holiday season is enjoyed safely and that every day is enjoyed safely and securely. across the united states this year, 115 law enforcement officers have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty. in colorado, we honor those who lost their lives this year. master trooper william modane, killed earlier this year when he was struck by a vehicle as he was investigating a crash. he served with the colorado state patrol for 12 years. corporal daniel groves was also killed by a passing vehicle while assisting another drivers during the blizzard last year. corporal groves also served the state patrol for 12 years. unfortunately, i also come to the the floor to honor three other brave men and women seen here who have given their lives just this past month. sergeant joshua voth of the colorado department of corrections. he was killed this month when an i

mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the gardner substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to, the bill as amended be considered read a third time and passed and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. 3147 introduced earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 3147, a bill to require the secretary of veterans' affairs to submit to congress reports on patient safety, and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that the committee on veterans' affairs be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 2385 and the senate proceed to its immediate cons

gardner, bbc news. nada: as we heard, u.s. intelligence agencies have concluded that the crown prince ordered mr. khashoggi'killing.ri budh has denied that. david ignatius is a "washington post" columnist who was friends with mr. khashoggi for more than 15 years. the bbc with him earlier. david: trumpimself seems to have decided to give mohammad bin salman a pass and not to press him on this. other parts of the government intelligence ancies, the state department itself, has been arabia show in somthatthat saudi there is accountability. military and intelligence g service have a lot rid the stability of the kingdom and want more answers that they have got. in a sense, what the saudi prosecut has done is a poke in the eye of these agencies in the u.s., which the saudis know very well have been demanding some accountability and action be taken. nada: david ignatius speaking to the bbc the chief executive of boeing has been fired less thane a weekfterlane maker said it would mporarily halt production of the 737 max airliner. the company has struled to recover after 346 people died in two crashes inv

mr. imhoff and dr. russell in up on what senator gardner was talking about. technology that we're talking about is a game changer. my first question, how unitsible is it to the and affordability for utilities. are we still in the beginning stages of testing it? ing this forn test years. legislature ine texas. from 2012 to 2016, we ran a with sevenroject utilities replacing this technology there to determine it would be. it works. it's available. this is no longer something laboratory. this has been available now for several years. it was rolled out softly so we determine how to best integrate it in the utility industry. to $10 a customer typical circuit for three-year payout, can install one box not much and iton one circuit taking care of it. >> thank you. add to that. diego, falling power lines. de-energize in 1.3 seconds. san diego gas and electric is major inventory vendor to that. they begun stalling on a small fraction of circuits that are highest risk circuits. eeiow that i went to the wildfire conference in san diego in october. utilities in washingto

mr. khashoggi's form employer, has described the sentencing as a shameful travesty of justice. our security correspondent frank gardner has more frank: the last public sighting of jamal khashoggi, seen here walking into the saudi consulate in istanbul in october last year. he never camout alive. turkish cctv footage shows a hit team of 15 saudi government agents arriving istanbul to intercept khashoggi. inside the consulate, they overpowered him, injected him,d ffocated him. his body as never been found. 11 men were eventual put on trial. today the preliminary ces were announced. >> the criminal court in riyadh has delivered the following preliminary sentences for 11 of the accused, sentencing five of them to death in retribution. they are the ones directly implicated in the devih of the im. may god rest his soul.th frank: atime of the crime, saudi arabia initially denied responsibility. but turkey leaked details of what really happened. in november 2018, the cia said the killing was probably ordered by the saudi crown prince. in june this year, a u.n. report said the was credible evidence of saudi state involvement.

mr. ginsburg i am writing as an homeowner the house bordering john mic chairren park. in support of the gardnershe talks about the observations about kaetlyn. she said i am greatly impressed with her work and dedication from the park i regularly see her out and about taking care of our vast park here. with that, that concludes the president's report. >> any public comment? public comment is closed. item 3. general manager's report. >> good morning, commissioners. on behalf of the department i want to express how thankful we are to all of you for your continued leadership and support over the past year. whether it is increasing park access or approving permits for improved park am menties and community events, your vision and commitment are a blessing to our department and staff. in the spirit of the holiday season we want to say thank you. i want to take a moment to acknowledge a couple recent incidents involving the front line staff. an incident on november 9th involving a gardiner and public trainee and one of the park rangers left two of the three with minor injuries they are recuperating fr

mr. i am who have, if i could hear from you. also in the gardner cantwell legislation we gave more tools, digital mapping and at one of the agencies using these, what can we be successfully doing if we were and the obvious issue of our national labs trying to develop this prediction model, which i'm all for, because i feel like a lot of this is a changing climate and drier conditions, which also just ignites a higher propensity for these events to happen. and i'm interested in what you think -- i think when it comes to water and fire, neither one of them recognize national boundaries and my colleague and i are having a meeting later today on the columbia river treaty issues and pushing ahead. on the fire side, it's also just as important, we're seeing in the pacific northwest so much impact from canada. so how can we manage this if we're not in partnership with canada and what they're doing to help us manage it? because it's -- so, i don't know what we can do to get cooperation, p and l on on a mapping system. if you can comment on those mr. corwin

gardner? >> thank you to the chairman and the witnesses for being here today. mr. johnson, talking about the impact that you have seen in california, we have municipal owned cooperatives, investor utilities that face the same problems. service area is designated a high fire threat area. could you remind me again the federal footprint in that part of your service area? we cover about 70,000 square miles in northern california, half of that in higher fire threat districts. lines in third of our that designation are in federal land. >> so that gets into the issue of climate change and land management practices because land management practices have a significant impact on that threat that you face that could fuel,rom dryer fuel, more and management practices matter, or the lack of management practices matter to your company's infrastructure. you would agree with that? >> it makes a big difference. >> as you listen to the testimony, you have spent 3.8 billion dollars since when? >> in the last decade. >> and that is on forest management in your own right-of-way? >> cor

mr khashoggi, a well—known critic of the saudi government, was murdered in the saudi consulate in turkey last year. our security correspondent frank gardner has this come out of the blue? yes, it has. it was not preannounced. the trial has been taking place in secret for the last 11 months. ithink taking place in secret for the last 11 months. i think the saudi authorities hope this will draw a line under the whole grisly business. i don't think it will. there has already been a reaction. foreign secretary dominic raab has issued a typically cautious foreign office statement but saying, if you read between the lines, he calls on saudi arabia to bring to account all those responsible. agnes cala ma has gone further, the un special envoy into this murder, and she has said this makes a mockery ofjustice because the five hit men have been sentenced to death but she says those ultimately responsible further up those ultimately responsible further up the chain are walking free. so i think the cloud of suspicion that has been hanging over saudi arabia ever since this grisly murder in 2018 will not be fully dispelled by these verdicts. frank gard

so i think that's probably quite a powerful sign from barry gardner that he expects the conversation to be quite robust about mrre that his departure and the moment of his departure ensures that someone like him, someone who believes in what he believes in, can hold on. and the tussle will then take place between the real critics of his leadership, the emily thornbury or keir starmer types, and the figures who are clearly successes to jeremy corbyn, who come up in politics because of him, people like rebecca long bailey, for example —— successors. but the argument has to be about why they lost. and what was so important about that the swindon result, a dramatic loss to labour, not in the north—east, couldn't be blamed on being on the wrong side of the leave argument, per se, in which who was gaining in swindon north? the greens were significantly gaining. so the significant view that this was all about white working—class men in the north of england who feel labour have let them down on the issue of brexit, that isn't going to wash. thank you very much nick robinson in islington. just a quick note as some more

mr. gardner: i have eight requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the permission of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. gardner: i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the nomination for a vote. the clerk: the judiciary, john l. sinatra jr. of new york to be united states district judge for the western district of new york. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there -- anyone in the chamber wishing to change their vote or to vote in if not, the yeas are 75. the nays are 18. the nomination is confirmed. the clerk will report the next nomination. the clerk: the judiciary, sarah e. pitlyk of missouri to be united states district judge for the eastern district of missouri. the presiding officer: the question is on the nomination. the senator from nebraska. mrs. fischer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the remaining votes in this series be ten minutes in length

mr. gardner: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from drovment colorado. mr. gardner: i have eight requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the permission of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. gardner: i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the nomination for a vote. the clerk: the judiciary, john l. sinatra jr. of new york to be united states district judge for the western district of new york. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

mr. gardner: mr. president, i yield to our tremendous colleague from georgia, senator isakson. thank you. mr. president, i want to agree with me colleague from alabama, senator jones. he hasn't been here as long as some of my other colleagues have been. but i think it's fair to say that when senator jones and i have a colleague who is departing or the presiding officer has a colleague who is departing, there is one day of farewell, maybe there's an hour window where we can come to the floor or reception in the mansfield room to say thank you. i think it's fair to say i've been in line for a long time to get to this day to say thank you to johnny isakson as has my colleague, senator jones. these tributes started when you first announced that you would be retiring from the senate and it is very fitting that they continue through this day because of the work that you have pursued, the accomplishments that you have made, but also the humanity that rests in your heart. all of us are better off because of your work knowing you and i hope that a little bit of johnny isakson rubs off o