mr. lankford: i ask that the quorum call be eviscerated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lankford: i ask unanimous consent that the senate go into recess until 2:15 p.m. the presiding officer: without objection. the senate stands in recess

mr. lankford: mr. president, senator mccaskill and i rise to have the opportunity to be able to pass a bill, for the senate to be able to do some work. on a bill that has been around for several years and is yet to get over the finish line. we would like to see that get finished today. it's a bipartisan bill. it's a very straightforward concept. right now, if any agency head or any sub cabinet official or any individual within the government wants to be able to see what another agency is doing, they would have to go to the office of management and budget to do a study to be able to get it back to them to find out if the program they're doing already exists somewhere else. if any member of this body or of the house who wants to find out agencies and some very straightforward things like how many employees they have, what programs that they're doing, if they measure those programs, how are those programs measured. if we want to find out those very basic things, we have to go to the g.a.o. office, make a

mr. lankford: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: let me do a quick history lesson with this body. 1773, as colonies, we were getting more and more frustrated with king george, and we had a lot of issues that we had to raise with him, things that were arbitrary that were coming down. then it boiled it a head. in december of 1773, a group of american colonists went out to boston infuriated with the tariff policy over tea. the british east india company had special access that no one else had. they had no taxes and everyone else had a tax -- a tariff. and it pushed out all of the other companies except for the british east india company. and a group of american colonists went out to one of the ships, grabbed out the tea in the harbor, threw in overboard, creating the legendary boston tea party. there is an argument about tariffs. there is an argument about international trade. it was an argument about can american companies trade fairly? and we still talk about it today. it's interesting to note that in our letter that thomas

mr. lankford: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: mr. president, i rise to be able to talk with this body about the nasa administrator. later today we're going to have a vote which is extremely important for the future of nasa and the future of space exploration. what we're going to do with our satellites, what we're going to do on climate issues and weather, all related to nasa. jim bridenstine who is a friend, oklahoman, oklahoman's first district is the president -- is the person the president has tapped to be the next nasa administrator. he's months and months gone through process, gone through committee hearings, gone through all kinds of support. the committees he served in in the house of representatives in a bipartisan letter with wide majorities to the senate saying we've worked with jim bridenstine. he's exceptionally knowledgeable about issues on space. he's a great choice and they sent that letter over from the house to the senate. multiple individuals have written letters in support of jim bridenstine, including sean o'keefe

mr. chairman. >> senator lankford. >> general, thank you. thank you for your service in the past and appreciate you stepping up into this role. the nomination process is not a fun process, it's not something anyone wakes up and says, gosh, i'd like to go through senate confirmation because of the length of investigation, the information you've already put out and the questioning time. so i just want to tell you i appreciate you doing it. stepping up to the work through a long difficult process. how do you understand the role of collaboration between nsa and commercial entities and their networks, critical infrastructure and their networks, just the communication in trying to be able to determine real threats that are 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 advances of our adversaries. that reporting, that communication with other elements of our government, whether or not it's the federal bureau of investiga

distraction of the senate as a consensusbuilding -- i don't know why we don't do the lankford proposal again. >> thanks, mr. chairman. most of us remember in history that moment when abraham lincoln contacted general mcclellan and said if you are not going to use your army, can i use it to wage the civil war? because there was a suggestion in our caucus that we consider leasing out the senate chamber for events, wedding sinceions, and the like, we're not using it much. i would say lamar alexander is correct. we can reach a standoff in a hurry on this question of filling vacancies. how many traditional nominees got through the last two years of brocarak obama. wery the mayor garland, and go one after the other, and at the end of the day we are at a standstill in the situation. here for a few years and some of you have been as well, and it is hard to expect to newer members of the senate what the 70's to be like, her we used the floor of the senate for debate. it was a regular occurrence, and it was exciting. there were tough boats there, and some you thought would kill you in the next election, they didn't,

senator lankford: thank you, mr. chairman. i am one of those skeptical individuals that has not evolved on this issue of marijuana. i have a hard time believing if only more of our parents smoked more marijuana our kids and families would be so much better, employment would be so much better. i have a hard time believing that. several billion dollars the appropriations committee has allocated to them to study pain medications that are nonaddictive to address that. we haven't opioid epidemic. i would rather not swap and opioid epidemic with addiction to marijuana and say we solved the problem. we did not solve the problem long-term. i would love to be able to maintain this. there are ways to manage other different kinds of thing to manage pain. my preference would be that our nation does not become more and more addicted to marijuana to solve our opioid addiction. let me mention a couple things. budget-related -- you made recommendations moving things around specifically with atf. ,i would like to get a chance to talk to you ab

lankford. >> thank you, mr. chairman. let me add to that kfrngs a little bit before i jump into questions. i'm one of the skeptical individuals that so far has not evolved on this issue of marijuana. i have a hard time believing if only more of our parents smoked more marijuana our kids and families would be so much better and employment would be so much better if more of our employees smoked more marijuana. i have a hard time believing that. as far as med inial issues this is issue this nih has done work on. it has several billions dollars that appropriations has allocated to them to be able to study pain medication that is are nona tick tive to try to address that. was entirely appropriate to do. we have an opioid epidemic. i've not stwap an opioid epidemic switch to marijuana hand say we solved the problem. we didn't solve the problem long-term. so i would love to continue to maintain this. there are ways to manage other different kinds of thing to manage pain. but our preference would be our nation doesn't become more addicted to marijuana to solve our opioid addiction. with that let m

i like the lankford proposal because it does what we did before and i don't know why we don't do it again. >> thank you, senator alexander. senator durbin. thank you, mr. chairman. most of us remember when contacted general mcclellan and said if you're not going to use your army, can i use it to reach the civil war? i thought about that because there is a suggestion in our caucus that we consider leasing out the senate chamber for events, wedding receptions in the lake since we are not using it that much and there's a lot of free time on the floor by senator alexander has noted with the photographs that he brought. i would say that lamar alexander is correct. we can reach a standoff in a hurry on this question of filling vacancies. alternatively with how many judicial nominees got through the last two years of barack obama. you'll come back to us with agreements about current matter. i'll bring up merrick garland. we'll go one after the other at the end of the day we are at a standstill of the situation. i've been here a few years and some of you have, too. it is hard to explain to newer members of the senate what they used to be like her views before

mr. lankford: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator for oklahoma. mr. lankford: is the senate currently in a quorum call? the presiding officer: the senate is not in a quorum call. mr. lankford: mr. president, earlier -- the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. lankford: mr. president, i would ask the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lankford: mr. president, earlier today, the minority leader came to the floor to talk about multiple issues. during that conversation, he called me out by name and a rules proposal that i have in front of the rules committee this week saying he verimently -- vehemently disagrees with the rules proposal and mentioned even that he knows i came here in 2014 and i should study the history of the senate a little bit more before i bring up a rules proposal. well, i would only tell you i have studied the history a little bit and would like to get a little bit of context around those comments. the rules proposal t