mr. lankford: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: mr. president, in april of this year, border patrol agents in south texas, near mcallen, one of the most crossed areas for illegal traffic in the entire southern border, saw a group of individuals walking north that had already crossed the border and they broke and ran. they assumed these individuals were illegally present in the united states and they started moving to try to interdict them. they searched through a very large, very overgrown field. i can tell you that area's very, very rough terrain and it's very isolating and the brush is exceptionally heavy on a day even in april in south texas, it's extremely hot. as they searched through the field looking for individuals, they happened to hear a child crying in their search. they encountered a 3-year-old boy who had been abandoned by the human smugglers when they broke and ran. this young boy, 3 years old, had those shoes on, and on his shoes were written a name and a phone number across his shoes. that's the only identifying thing t

lankford on his retirement. mike has served as the president of the utility workers union of america since 2006 and been a major leader of that union for many decades. mr. levin: during his time at the uwua, mike has worked hard to bring about overdue reform that delivers safe, reliable, cost-effective and environmentally friendly utility services across this whole country. i share his commitment to a cleaner environment and more affordable services for working families. and, as a former union organizer, i thank mike for his outstanding dedication to american workers. indeed, i can personally attest to mike's stalwart leadership of all american workers as a member of the afflalo c.i.o. executive down -- afl-cio executive council. i want to point out that america's veterans have no better friend than mike lankford, who helped set up programs to train hundreds and thousands of them for careers in the utility industry. i ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating him on his retirement and in wishing him the very best for the next chapter of his life. thank you, madam speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman f

mr. lankford: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: mr. president, august is coming quickly and it's a time we have a gap in the legislative calendar. congress is in session 11 months of the year, as this body knows well. we have one month that we're not in washington, d.c. and it gives us the opportunity to be able to be home. quite frankly, catch up with family, be able to travel around our state, and to be able to see what's going on in the state and to talk to folks. i happen to live in an unbelievably beautiful state. in oklahoma in august it's crazy hot and humid but it's a great time to get a chance to be able to see people and see what's going on. just the few weeks around this time period, i've already been to ada and durant and i'll be heading quickly to chick shay, venita, miama, not miami, affton, grove, jay, chelsea, hennessey, enid, up to carl lake. of course all around the oklahoma city area, all around tulsa to spend as much time as i can with as many different people as i can to be able to find out what's going on in oklah

mr. lankford: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: i rise to be able to talk to this body again about health care, the cost of health care, an issue going on for a long while around this congress, an issue supposedly settled when the affordable care act was passed but oddly enough the democrats have joined republicans saying they want to repeal and replace the affordable care act. they're not using the term repeal and replace. they say they want do medicare for all and built into that is repealing the affordable care act and replacing it with something different. we're ironically on the same spot in some ways, that we both realize and have come to the same spot that the affordable care act didn't pass. actually did pass but it's not working. the challenge now is what to do with health care. we're trying to be able to break into pieces what we can do together to get this done beginning with the cost of prescription drugs. i continue to hear from oklahomans all over the state about how hard it is to be able to deal with the cos