mr. lankford: elections are state responsibilities. most of the states in the united states have auditable election systems. the concern that we have is some states that have chosen not to have auditable election systems, to help incentivize them. it's not our desire to fully fund the elections within individual states. that is a state responsibility. if there are incentives we can put in place to help spur them, the people of those states going to their state leaders and saying, we want our election to be secure and to be able to take care of it in their own state. that will be the primary piece. there's not enough funding that we could provide nor should provide to every county, every state in america to be able to oversee all their election equipment. some election equipment, as senator harris mentioned, is very old. but it's still very reliable. and very consistent. and fully auditable. just the age of equipment, just saying we want to update our stuff is not appropriate. we need to find the balance on what cannot be audited and he

mr. lankford: madam president, i was in college. i remember watching a state of the union speech from president reagan where he took a 43-pound stack of papers and set them on the podium as he was giving his state of the union address, and said this is the budget bill that has been given to me. 43 pounds of it, all stacked up, and it was a famous moment when the president said do not send this to me again. republicans and democrats alike stood and cheered and said that's a terrible way to do government, and for five of the next six years, there were no more omnibus appropriation bills. but that did not last. since 1998, there have been -- i'm sorry. since 1986, there have been 22 omnibus appropriation bills. now, people may ask what is that? well, by law, congress is to do 12 appropriation bills. each part of that has a section of the budget. you pass each one of those stand alone. they go through committees, they go through first subcommittee, then committee, then to the full floor, and then they pass. but 17 times since 1998 and 2

mr. lankford: mr. president, let me tell you about farmer state bank of allen, oklahoma. i know exactly where allen, oklahoma is, but i bet a bunch of folks here do not. small town, small bank, $43 million in total assets. that's pretty small as banks go. there's about 900 oklahomans, there are farmers, ranchers, folks that some people in this room fly over. there are good families that live in that great town. many have great credit scores and have and pay the bank back. i've been a long-time customer of this bank and in many instances the bank employees and the people in the bank have grown-up together. they know each other, but they also understand seasonal income. when you're a farmer or rancher that doesn't come in with a w-2 every single week or every month, it comes in seasonally, so they understand the credit risks there. a banker there named debbie wrote me this. between the ability to repay the global cash flow analysis, particularly a bank of these size, they are taking time away on what needs to be done, caring for our customers. we have 12 employees. we're tr

mr. lankford: i do object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. rubio: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator if florida. mr. rubio: mr. president, since the tragedy three weeks ago tomorrow in parkland, florida, we all as a nation had a conversation about how did this happen, why did it happen, and what can we do to make sure something like this never happens again. and as part of that conversation, we spent a significant amount of time talking to all sorts of different groups and individuals from students and teachers impacted by this to experts across the can unto other communities who have put in place policies to address this. and we have learned a lot about not just this particular incident but some of the dangers around the country. it's interesting. just in the last couple of weeks since it happened, we've seen a significant increase in the number of potential shooters that have been reported to law enforcement. people have been arrested. i think one of the lessons from this terrible tragedy is that we live in a day and age when someone is out there

mr. lankford: mr. president, i want to talk a little bit about election security, but on a day like today, i have to at least mention where we are on the giant omnibus bill that got dropped on us at 8:30 last night. it's legislative text to deal with all of discretionary spending. if people don't know what an omnibus is, we're supposed to pass 12 individual bills dealing with 12 different topics of our spending. an omnibus is when you take all 12 and do it at once. it's supposed to be the exception to the rule, but for the last 17 years we have done some version of an omnibus. today's vote will be 18. 2,300 pages, less than 24 hours to be able to go through it. technical legislative language. there's no way to discover what all is in it. it's another historic event that happened this past week that i think connection to this omnibus. last friday the treasury department announced that we just crossed over $21 trillion in total debt -- $21 trillion. i've had some folks that have caught me that have said,

mr. chairman. >> senator lankford. >> general, thank you. thank you for your service in the past and i appreciate you stepping up into this role. the nomination process is not a fun process. it's not something someone wakes up and goes, gosh, i'd like to go through senate confirmation. because of the length of the investigation and the information you've already put out and the questioning time. i appreciate you doing it and stepping up to work through the long and difficult process. help me understand the role of collaboration between nsa and commercial entities and their networks, critical infrastructure and their networks. just the communication and trying to be able to determine real threats that there there that we may face domestically or internationally. >> senator, in terms of collaboration, so nsa for many, many years has been at the forefront, obviously, of understanding advanced of our adversaries. that reporting, that communication with other elements of our government, whether or not it's the federal bureau of investigation or i

lankford for the first round of questions. >> thank you all for being here and the time you've dedicated to this already. let me ask mr. condos, about the recommendations that this committee has made on trying to make changes for cyber security whether that be systems that can be audited, whether that be -- obviously being separate from the internet during voting times, attentive when there are updates for software, even when you're not connected to the internet for those machines, having a way to be able to risk limiting audits, security clearances for individuals when they -- so we have a point of contact with dhs so they can do rapid communication. are any of those concerns to you or to your organization? >> let me speak on behalf of personally, not in the state -- not nas on this because we have actually not taken a formal position, because we just barely got the recommendations. >> sure. >> but let me just say that we have long believed that having paper ballots, having an audit, we've been completing audits since 2006, and to date, we've not had any anomalies from those audits. in fact, we do the audit that we do

lankford for the first round of questions. >> thank you all for being here and the time you've dedicated to this already. let me ask just, mr. condos, about the recommendations that this committee has made on trying to make changes for cyber security, whether that be systems that can be audited, whether that be -- obviously being separate from the internet during voting times, attentive when there are updates for software, even when you're not connected to the internet for those machines, having a way to be able to risk limiting audits, security clearances for individuals when they -- so we have a point of contact with dhs so they can do rapid communication. are any of those concerns to you or to your organization? >> let me speak on behalf of personally, not in the state -- not nas on this because we have actually not taken a formal position, because we just barely got the recommendations. >> sure. >> but let me just say that we have long believed that having paper ballots, having an audit, we've been completing audits since 2006, and to date, we've not had any anomalies from those audits. in fact, we do the audit that we

mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that the lankford amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to, the committee reported substitute amendment as amended be agreed to, that the bill as amended be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i know of no further debate on the bill. the presiding officer: is there any further debate? if not, the question is on passage of the bill as amended. all in favor say aye. those opposed nay. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the the bill as amended is passed. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 342, s. 292. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 342, s. 292, a bill to maximize discovery and accelerate development and availability of promising childhood cancer treatments and for other purposes. the presiding of