mr. lankford: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: i ask unanimous consent to viscerate the quorum. the presiding officer: the senate not in a quorum call. mr. lankford: mr. president, i want to get a chance to address an ongoing conversation that's going on in washington, d.c., right now and will be over the next 36 hours. as unusual as this may sound with all the drama that's happening here, just outside this building there are tens of thousands ofeople, most of them students, that are gathering in washington, d.c., preparing for something called the march for life. this has happened for decades now. for students and adults that come from all over the country to be able to come to washington, d.c., to quietly speak for those who cannot speak for themselves -- children still in the womb, to be able to speak out for the protection of life. it is an interesting conversation that has a tremendous amount of science and a tremendous amount of faith and a tremendous

mr. lankford: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: i ask unanimous consent for the quorum call to be eviscerated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lankford: i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule 22 all postcloture time on the house message to accompany s. 139 to expire at 1:59 p.m. on january 13. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent to speak for approximately 15 minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: i rise now for the 193rd time to wake up speech, and as i do so we are coming up on president trump's anniversary in office. unfortunately, this occasion does not offer the american people much to celebrate. behind the persistent tweets and the dog whistles, the trump presidency has been a spectacle of special interest self dealing. billionaire donors have endless access installing their operatives and pursuing their special interest goals throughout the executi

mr. lankford: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: senator tillis and i have come to the floor today because we have some incredible frustration and want to bring some facts out to the conversation. i absolutely agree for the federal -- grieve for the federal workers in my state and there are some phenomenal people that do an amazing job that most people won't know about where they get up every day to serve the people. there are folks in the military who every day serve the american people. there are civilians around them, though not listed as federal employees, are connected to what we're doing with the federal task for people. they are trying to figure out this afternoon what will happen to them this weekend and next week. they are frantically getting together in offices all over oklahoma and all over america trying to piece together the now what's of a government shut down distracting them from doing the things that need to be done that they were backlogged on, for what? this focus on let's do a government shut down over n

mr. lankford: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: senator tillis and i have come to the floor today because we have some incredible frustration and want to bring some facts out to the conversation. i absolutely agree for the federal -- grieve for the federal workers in my state and there are some phenomenal people that do an amazing job that most people won't know about where they get up every day to serve the people. there are folks in the military who every day serve the american people. there are civilians around them, though not listed as federal employees, are connected to what we're doing with the federal task for people. they are trying to figure out this afternoon what will happen to them this weekend and next week. they are frantically getting together in offices all over oklahoma and all over america trying to piece together the now what's of a government shut down distracting them from doing the things that need to be done that they were backlogged on, for what? this focus on let's do a government shut down over n

mr. lankford: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: mr. president, a few days ago our nation stopped and remembered dr.dr. martin lur king jr. it's entirely appropriate for us to do. it is a holiday set aside to be able no not only remember but to reflect and to try to figure out where are we now? this year is especially significant. 50 years ago this year dr. king was assassinated, in april of 1968. a lot of things have changed in that time period. quite frankly, as a nation we've learned a lot about race. we no longer as a nation talk about three-fifths of a man anymore, rightfully so, and we're appalled by our history. we no longer have separate water fan trains set up in restaurants or tell people because of their background, their family, their skin color, they can take food to go but they can't come in and sit down. we've come a long way in hiring. we've come to a long by that just our communities and our schools. work is not done. we still have a long way to go, quite frankly. martin luther king jr. was bold enough to be able to cha

mr. lankford: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: it's an interesting conversation we can finally have about immigration. this has been a topic that has been discussed for a while but not settled. 20 years this body has talked about solving some of the immigration issues. national security and immigration hasn't been a partisan issue until of late. suddenly when president trump brings it up, we have a bunch of people who used to be for border security who are now against border security because president trump wants to do border security. some of the exact same ideas that have been the gang of eight bills or previous investigators or even talked about with a secure wall or fence before. almost every democrat in this body voted for the secure fence act of 2006. it's interesting to me the number of people that contact us saying we do not want to build a wall, and i have said what about the 650 miles of wall that already exist that were put in place after 2006? that, by the way, president obama when he was then-senator obama wh

mr. chairman. >> senator lankford, your written testimony will be made part of the hearing record, as you know. you proceed as you wish. >> thank you, mr. chairman, ranking member. friends and colleagues, i anticipate this to be a dialogue. i don't think a single one of us thinks that things are going swimmingly. we're not engaging on the issues. we do consume a tremendous amount of time not in 30 hours of debate, but in 30 hours of silence on the senate floor with occasionally someone to step up and speak on something unrelated to the 30 hours of debate on the floor for that nominee. this is not so much a debate about be only we had 30 hours of debate, we would get so many facts out on so many individuals, because we're really not debating individuals. the work is done in the committees. the work is done in the back and forth with the administration. that's where it really occurs. the challenge is we have learned as a body that we are now either going to do nominees, or we're going to do legislation, but with we can't do both. because if the calendar is full for a week on three m nominat

before we turn to senator lankford, i would like to note that i'm glad we are having a hearing in this committee. i hope we will have more, mr. chairman, next year. and i also appreciate senator lankford's work with me on the state election infrastructure issue. something that's exciting developments there and will be a great topic for a hearing. just thought i'd put in that plug. with that thank you very much. >> senator lankford your written testimony will be made part of the hearing record as you know. you proceed as you wish. >> thank you, mr. chairman, ranking member. friends and colleagues, i anticipate this to be a dialogue. i don't think a single one of us thinks that things are going swimmingly. we're not engaging on the issues. we do consume a tremendous amount of time, not in 30 hours of debate, but in 30 hours of silence on the senate floor, with occasionally someone to step up and speak on something unrelated to the 30 hours of debate on the floor for that nominee. this is not so much a debate about if only we had 30 hours of debate we would get so many facts out on so many individuals because we're really not d

mr. attorney general, great to have you with us on "fox news @ night" ." stick around for stirewalt. standing by to break down what we've heard from the attorney general and senator lankford. who blinks first in a shutdown show down over immigration. senator lindsey graham has been a key conduit between the president and his critics on capitol hill. senator graham was in the room when something president trump said set off immigration firestorm. senator graham will be here in the studio with us just ahead. (whispering) with the capital one venture card, you'll earn unlimited double miles on every purchase, every day. not just airline purchases. think about all the double miles you could be earning. (yelling) holy moly, that's a lot of miles! shh-h-h-h! ( ♪ ) shh! what's in your wallet? man: shh-h-h! we went attorney general jeff sessions telling us the president's views on immigration have not changed. let's break it down with chris stirewalt. to analyze what we have just heard. let's play a little bit of what the attorney general said about the president. >> he favored the wall. he has fought for it all the way through the campaign and in congress and he never said he wa

mr. attorney general, great to have you with us on "fox news @ night" ." stick around for stirewalt. standing by to break down what we've heard from the attorney general and senator lankfordo blinks first in a shutdown show down over immigration. senator lindsey graham has been a key conduit between the president and his critics on capitol hill. senator graham was in the room when something president trump said set off immigration firestorm. senator graham will be here in the studio with us just ahead. i'm mark and i quit smoking with chantix. my friends and family never thought i'd be the one to quit smoking, i was such a heavy smoker. but i was able to do it with chantix. i did not know that chantix would reduce my urges so significantly. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. chantix reduced my urge to smoke. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. some people had changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, or suicidal thoughts or actions with chantix. serious side effects may include seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel pro

mr. lankford: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: one of the important things the senate is taking up right now, obviously the issues of immigration, budget, disaster relief. a lot of pertinent issues that need to be resolved. one of those things that was in the middle of the conversation came up today. and it's part of a conversation that quite frankly doesn't come up often in this body, but this seemed like a reasonable piece to be able to come up. it came up to the senate to open debate on it and failed to be able to get 60 votes to even support beginning to talk about what should be an easy conversation on a hard issue. this issue about children and life. in 1973 when roe v. wade passed, the supreme court at that time determined children that were viable -- and that's the definition they left out there -- children that were viable, there's a governmental interest in being able to engage with those children. viability in 1973 is very different than what it

mr. lankford: mr. president, once more i am coming to the floor to talk about the basic rules of the senate and how we actually get on legislation. we have spent all of this week on four district court judicial nominations. the entire week. no legislation. because we can't get on legislation. in 2013, we were in a similar situation to this. that was the minority party at that point being the republicans were slowing down the process in the senate on nominations to the democratic party, at that point, the majority, and so republicans and democrats sat down together and said this is a problem. we cannot get to legislation. and republicans and democrats together with 70-plus votes made a two-year rule change in the senate in the 113th congress. it was a simple rule change. two hours of debate for district court judge, eight hours of debate for just about everybody else, 30 hours of debate for circuit court, supreme court, and cabinet nominations. it was a bipartisan agreement that worked very well for tha