mr. grassley: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i ask to speak two minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: some elected officials are proposing radical changes to our health care system. these proposals include medicare for all, medicare buy-in, medicaid for all, and expansion of the affordable care act. all of these are virgins of government-run health care -- all of these are versions of government-run health care. these are of course better campaign slogans than serious solutions to the problems facing americans. on the personal level, i have found most people would rather have control of their own health care rather than have the government make those decisions for them. a single-payer care system would be devastating for our seniors, people with disabilities, and people with preexisting conditions. i yield the floor. mr. mcconnell: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: today the senate will vote to confirm the president's choice t

mr. chairman. sen. grassley: senator warner. senator casey was ahead of you. i told senator warner he could go next. you'll be next, then senator casey. sen. warner: thank you, mr. chairman, thank you, senator casey. sen. grassley: i hate to referee among the other party. starting time over. sen. warner: i commend you being off to a good start in this tax filing season. i do want to go back to the line of questioning briefly that the ranking member asked. i personally believe that 6103 is clear that this is a provision that gives the chairman, the finance committee and the chairman of ways and means the ability to examine the president's tax returns without any involvement of the treasury or white house or others. i would simply point out, and just want to get your view on this, secretary mnuchin appeared before the ways and means committee in the house and the statement he made was he thought in terms of 6103, this would not be something he would sign off on, it would be something the i.r.s. commissioner would sign off on. i want to make clear for the record,

mr. grassley who have come out and said that there need to be investigations because what happened in theollusion story was so egregious in so many ways that we have to investigate to stop it from happening in the future but you would advice him to table that for the immediate future at least up until 2020? >> i understand the victims of this. i understand how the president and the administration feel. i understand and i appreciate their desire to prevent this from happening again, but you ask me a polling question, a public opinion question, and the american people want that border secured, they want to stop illegal immigration from flooding across. they want lower prescription drug prices. they want health care. they want everything but these subpoenas they want everything but. this ridiculous culture, in washington, they would be wise to listen to the american people david: very quickly, frank, on the issue of socialism you saw biden call it out by name yesterday. i'm wondering if the american people do react viscerally to socialism in a negative way. what do you think? >> i think that

grassley: isn't it possible, mr. kopel, that some of the red-flag laws that have already been passed by state legislatures could be held to be unconstitutional because they don't have enough due process protections in place? mr. kopel: certainly. that would depend on state laws, but for example, some states say the right of cross-examination in all cases, not just criminal cases, is an essential part of civil rights and due process and common law. sen. grassley: this would be your opportunity to give some suggestions. what due process ue process protections would you recommend for red flag laws? mr. kopel: in addition to the strict controls on ex parte proceedings, only having those when there is a necessity, not making them a matter of default, providing counsel for all the accused, or the respondents, and i think having a robust civil remedy for people who are falsely accused. we know from indiana and connecticut that about 30% of these are wrongly issued. some of those may be a matter of good faith mistakes, but o

mr. miller is not effective. here is chuck grassleyoday. >> i don't see a lot of accomplishments that an adviser in the white house has accomplished for the president on immigration. >> here is one of trump's most fervent. calling him out as a failure. >> as long as stephen miller is in charge of immigration on the hill, we're going nowhere. >> it may apply to some of his work. he was removed from the process of writing a travel ban because of the way it went down when he was in charge. one of only a few trump aides who pushed to fire james comey. he was a key voice pushing for the government shutdown that back fired on trump and did not win wall funding. >> we're going to do whatever is necessary to build the border wall, to stop this ongoing crisis of illegal immigration. this is a very, if it comes to -- absolutely. >> even after all those problems, trump is giving miller plenty of chances telling a room full of people. you're in charge. and he's still pushing for what they say will be a total border shutdown and trying to get trump

mr. president, i don't know your rationale. chuck grassleyyou're running out of the department the people who are trying to help you. what is the mood in the president's own party on capitol hill? >> i think it's important here, whether the president was totally looped in on what is being shopped around, or not. we have seen senior republicans raise alarm publicly, and in the past, recently, when they've kind of done that with the health care, he, the president backs off a little bit. and so maybe that's kind of what we're seeing here today, too. but, yeah, senior republicans, cornyn even yesterday called what's happening at dhs a mess, which is -- you know, that's a pretty big deal coming from a senior member of senate leadership, who is an ally of the president, who is on the ballot next year. you know, they're not willing -- i mean, they're willing to criticize him a little bit here. you know, in a kind of a roundabout way. >> the president's argument is, i wasn't on the ballot last year. i will be next year. this is all good. but a lot of

mrs. jenkins for their great work. in addition, i'm pleased chairman grassley introduced the companion bill in the senate. mr. speaker, i would like to congratulate all of the house members and senators who have bills and ideas that are included in this bill. r. chairman, as you well know, and as i know and other members of the committee, this is a good bill. it is a necessary bill to do what is right and what is fair. in particular, i would like to thank our staff, caren, michelle, susan, lindsay, jason, lloyd who worked so hard on this important bill. and i have faith at this time, we will cross the finish line. we have been trying for years, three years, three times this bill passed the house. these individuals worked so hard on this important bill. and i have faith at this time we will do more than just cross the finish line. for many years, the oversight subcommittee worked in a bipartisan manner to improve the i.r.s. this bill is the result of many hearings, thoughtful oversight and help from stakeholders. in speaker, we took our time and we did it right. yes, democratic and republican members to provid

mr. grassley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: for one minute i would speak to some history of the united states senate. i call to the senate's attention this fact. when the senate first convened in 1789 at federal hawpe in -- hall in new york city, one of the senate's first order of business was to appoint a committee to recommend a candidate for chaplain. on april 25, 1789, the senate elected the wright reverend samuel provhost, episcopal bishop of new york as its first chaplain. that means 220 years this week the senate elected its first chaplain and since then the senate has had 62 people serve in the position of the chaplain of the united states senate. additionally, for one minute i'd like to speak to the issue of health care. some elected officials are proposing a radical changes to our health care system. these proposals include medicare for all, medicare buy-in, medicaid for all, and expansion of the affordable care act. all of these are versions of a completely government-run health care. americans don't support

mr. grassley: before i speak, i have been asked to ask for some consent. i ask consent that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table and that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action on calabria and altman nominations. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. grassley: i ask unanimous consent that the senate resume legislative session and be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: since i made that unanimous consent motion and i'm going to be speaking for longer than just ten minutes, i ask unanimous consent to speak for whatever time i might consume, which will probably be in the neighborhood of 20 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: yesterday, the ways and means committee sent a letter to the i.r.s. requesting the president's tax returns. last night, i had a chance to read that letter, and i have to say that if you take it at face value, it

mr. grassley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: today marks the 30th anniversary of a very important law, the whistleblower protection act. it's very important because people in government ought to listen to whistleblowers. they are very patriotic people. that law is a critical foundation for the whistleblower protections that we have in place today. the whistleblower protection act has helped to usher in a new era at our federal agencies. government employees who are aware of waste, fraud, and abuse can now step forward and do the right thing and they can do it with the law on their side. as one of the original cosponsors of the whistleblower protection act, i remember what things were like before that law was passed. i'll just give you some examples. and these examples aren't pretty. back in the 1980's, i used to say that whistleblower's only hope was like the desperate charge of the light brigade. there were rarely survivors. at the time the executive branch saw whistleblowers not as patriots but as threats. agencies wo

mr. grassley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senior senator from iowa. mr. grassley: first i would like to ask unanimous consent that charles pankaneir, a detailee on my senate finance committee staff be given floor privileges for the remainder of the 116th congress. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: and then for one minute before i speak for what i came for a longer period of time to speak, i want to address a trade issue. congress needs to pass the united states-mexico-canada agreement this year to give farmers and businesses the certainty that they need and the certainty they deserve. the past year has brought rising costs, lost markets, and uncertainty for the farmers and businesses. we need to focus on creating opportunities instead of erecting barriers. i'd like to see a resolution with canada and mexico on steel and aluminum tariffs, one that would acknowledge that we need our allies to help us deal with the source of the overcapacity problems, and that source of the problem is china. i urge president trump to lift the 232 tariffs

mr. grassley: i ask to speak to the senate for one minute as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: on tuesday i spoke about the clinton investigation, and i want to reiterate one very serious issue. the f.b.i. apparently had highly classified information potentially relevant to the clinton investigation in its possession. the f.b.i. drafted a memo in may of 2016 to get access to the information. that memo said review of the information was necessary to complete the investigation. now sadly, that memo was never sent. how could the f.b.i. finish the investigation of the clintons if they never got access to all the potential relevant information? congress needs to know what happened in that instance. i yield the floor. mr. mcconnell: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i understand there's a bill at the desk due a second reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the bill for the second time. the clerk: h.r. 1585, an act to reauthorize the violence against women act of