mr. manchin: yes, i will. mr. durbin: first i want to thank him for this issue. i know it is personal for you and the presiding officer. in my state i think the death rate for heroin i think is 12 per 100,000. you have twice the problem we have in statistical terms. in new hampshire, for some reason, three times. and you have been outspoken on this issue. i'm glad you have because it is not just local to you. it's a national problem. the one thing that came up yesterday when we had the acting administrator for the drug enforcement agency come before the judiciary committee, and most people are not aware. i have know you and the presiding officer are aware of e classified as narcotic pain reliever pills without the approval of the drug enforcement agency. and i'm sure the senator from west virginia is aware of the fact that when they've set the annual productions, quotas for opioids by united states pharmaceutical companies, there has been a dramaticnd 2015, 22-r period of time, oxycodone production jumped 40 times, from 3.5 tons to over 150 tons of oxycodone appr

mr. manchin: i want to thank the senator for answering the questions we've had an. mr. murphy: i know the gentleman from maryland is on the floor. mr. blumenthal: i want to pursue some of the questions, the excellence inquiries posed by our colleague from west virginia, and just say some folks out in america who may be listening or watching or may hear afterward about this debate may say to themselves somebody who's been put on that watch list erroneously, someone who is precluded from boarding a plane or traveling in the united states regardless of whether they can buy a gun or not, aren't they entitled to the due process right to correct that list? and the answer in my view is very simply yes. as a matter of constitutional right and due process, as a matter of equal protection, as a matter of the right to travel freely in the united states of america, if someone is on that list erroneously, he or she deserves the right to have that record corrected. and i'm going to pose that question to my colleague from connecticut now but also a second question, also probably on th

mr. manchin: we've approached the amendment, the bill of rights, that we've taken people's rights away? mr. murphy: nobody believes that. mr. manchin: i haven't lad that in west virginia. they say err on the side of caution. we're not taking any people's rights but if a person basically over a period of time has shown they haven't, haven't really engaged and haven't been involved to come back, and i think we've all said that makes sense to us, we can do that. and i think -- i think that senator feinstein has a five-year provision in there for that which is reasonable, when is really reasonable. and i can't find out -- i can't go back home this weekend and explain to the people in west virginia why we haven't moved forward on this. and there could have been another orlando in god forbid in one of our states. mr. murphy: i thank the gentleman for joining us on the floor today. i think that's really what this is about is about not being able to in our heart of hearts to go back to our states, especially those that have been touched by these crimes and tell them that we wasted another week,

mr. manchin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. manchin: yes, let me just say i want to thank my colleague from west virginia and yourself and my colleague from west virginia, all of us. this is truly a bipartisan bill. as we stand before you, my colleague and i both were born and raised in west virginia. we come from different political parties, but we've been friends all of our lives. the most important thing is, before we'd become a democrat and republican, we'd been west virginians, first. sometimes we lose sight of that. this is a time when we have to come together and do the right thing. these are people that we've asked to do the heavy lifting all of their lives and all we're asking for is a vote on a commonsense piece of legislation that gives them and protects them and gives them the promises they made. they worked for this. they paid for this. their pension funds were solid. no act of their own caused this. we're not actin asking for a ba. we think there is a pay-for and it should be done. i want to recognize my colleague

mr. manchin: i want to thank the senator for answering the questions we've had the floor to senator booker. mr. booker: senator murphy, i want to thank you very much for what i think has been one of the more remarkable exhibitions of grit and toughness. you have not only been on your feet, not only have not left the floor to use the facilities, but you have stood in the saddle and have been for this entire time, as your colleagues have flowed through this chamber, you have been answering question after question after question after question on a topic that you are passionate about, on a topic that you feel deeply and personally. and i just want to thank you for your leadership because it's captured the attention of our nation. this filibuster right here -- i know a little bit about social media. this filibuster right here has been the focus, trending on twitter, the focus of facebook. it has created a media attention on a problem because in a sense you're giving hope. your very intention of coming here has met the need, the urgent need that the public has seen that this body here, this aus

mr. manchin: mr.president -- mr. mccain: i think i have precedence, mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: i want to say again there are various accounts in the appropriations process that are directly related to the issues that have now been inserted in the department of defense authorization bill. that is what this is all about. and that's all it's all about. and we can talk about all of the compelling needs and the terrible stories of people who have been afflicted by these various injuries and challenges to their health. but the fact is it's coming from the wrong place, and that's what this is all about. mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. manchin: mr. president, i want to say in listening to both of my colleagues who are passionate about this issue, they're both right. they're both right. if we had a tax plan that was a competitive tax plan that took care of our priorities based

mr. manchin: i would like to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. manchin: first of all, i want to thank my colleague, senator capito. we come from the same state and we've known each other a long time. we basically represent the same group of people who have given so much to this country. i want to thank her. this is truly bipartisan. that's what it should be in this body. when you have something in your people and your state or the country is hurting, you don't worry about the politics, whether it be democratic or republican. he reach across the aisle and dot right thing. i want to thank her so much. she's been right up front about this and i thank her so much. this goes clear back to 1946 under president harry truman. at that time john l. lewis was going on strike for the mwa. every miner in the country back in the 1940's was belonging to the united mine workers. this is the miners protection act that basically fulfills the promise that a president of the united states had an executive order. what we've asked for now is let's fix this. we have a p

mr. manchin: first, i want to thank senator reed, all my cool -- senator reid, all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and the outpouring of love they have given to our state and have expressed that to me. i want to thank senator reid also and my democratic colleagues for their commitment to the miners protection act. also to senator capito, my colleague, counterpart in the senate. she's committed working on that. there's a promise that was made and basically the miners kept their promise. they've kept the country supplied with energy that's been needed by their hard work. this is mostly the widows who are depending on these pensions. they're modest pensions but basically their health care which they'll get a 90-day notice july 15 if we do nothing. we just can't do that. we just can't do that to any part of this great country, and especially those who have worked so hard and given so much. i thank him for that commitment and i hope my colleagues, all of my colleagues, my republican and democrat colleagues will help me keep this commitment and this promise to our miners. with that be

mr. chairman. we have dains and fisher and manchin. >> thank you, mr. chairman, in places like montana, technology really removed geography as a constraint. this extends not only to businesses and schools but of course to first responders as well. it's especially important in states like montana and colorado where we have significant rural areas first responders can be 50 miles or more away from an accident, so the goal here is to provide coverage in 99% of the country. as we have seen with mobile wireless coverage, the remaining 1% of the country often includes places like montana. mr. poth, tell me about the future plans if any to eventually cover that 1% of the country. >> we hope to expect 100% coverage is probably a very steep mountain to climb, no pun intended. with the coverage that's required we're really expecting industry to come back and technology to evolve toward deployables and satellite technology and will enable publ safety, especially in remote areas, to still maintain connectivity. the goal of getting to, you know, 100% coverage throug

mr. chairman. >> thank you. we now -- we have daines, fischer and then manchin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. in places like montana, technology really removed geography as a constraint. this extends not only to our businesses and schools, but of course, to first responders as well. it's especially important in states like montana and states like cory in colorado, where we have significant rural areas, first responders can be 50 miles or more away from an accident. so, the goal here, i understand, is to provide coverage in 99% of the country. as we've seen with mobile wireless coverage, the remaining 1% of the country often includes places like montana. mr. poth, tell me about the future plans, if any, to eventually cover that 1% of the country. >> we hope to -- to expect 100% coverage is probably a very steep mountain to climb, no pun intended. with the coverage that's required, we're really expecting industry to come back and the technology to evolve to where deployables, satellite technology and those types of things will enable public safety, especially in remote areas, to still maintain

mr. murphy: i thank the senator for that question. i talked with senator manchin about this earlier today. much of the concern i hear from individuals is that it is somehow a slippery slope that eventually leads to the government confiscating weapons, and that is a mythology that has been created out of whole cloth by individuals that have something to gain from selling a story of perpetual fear of the government. and of course there's no evidence over the history of the national criminal assistant background check system that that is the case. and so i think that the root of people's opposition is in a fear about a hidden agenda from the government, which as you and i know is simply not the truth. all the criminal background check system is there to do is to protect the public by keeping guns out of the hands of violent criminals. i yield for another question. mr. bennet: i appreciate the answer to that question. i come to the floor today to share some of the experience in colorado and ask the senator from connecticut a question or two. i want to say first how so

manchin. >>> the supreme court strikes down texas' abortion access rules. >> we're here today as members of the pro-life movement saying we will not give up. mr. brady, we've been expecting you. will you be needing anything else? no. not a thing. beautyrest black. get your beautyrest. >>> a fox news alert. standard and poors, the rating agency, stripping the united kingdom of a top credit grade just moments ago, saying the nation's triple a grading is no longer justifiable and warning it could cut it further. the dow in the united states is currently down just about 280 points. >>> a homicide bombing in lebanon killing at least five people and wounding dozens more today. this happened in a predominantly christian village near the syrian border. no one has claimed responsibility for that attack. >>> and the u.s. navy officially confirming the blue angels will resume performances on july 2nd in michigan. they've been on an operational pause following the death of a pilot who crashed while practicing for an air show just outside of nashville. >>> and if you're headed out of town for the july 4th weekend, you're not alone. triple a estimates a rec

mr. president, it's past time to act on this. as i said, senator manchin and i have been pushing this for two and a half years. in that time, another 1,150 school employees have been arrested for sexual misconduct with the kids they are supposed to be taking care of. clearly, we're not doing enough. we really need to ask ourselves how much bigger does that number have to get? how many more children have to have their childhood ruined? how many families need to be torn apart before we are willing to take this measure? i would argue we've seen more than enough. the children of america have seen more than enough, and the children of the men and women who wear the uniform of this country, who make the sacrifice to defend and protect all of us absolutely deserve this protection. so i hope we will pass this defense authorization bill with this language intact, and i once again want to express my appreciation to the chairman for putting it into the base text, and i yield the floor. mr. toomey: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. m

the and senator manchin, senator coons were among the original cosponsor to recognize we had a great opportunity before us and want to thank them all. mr president, they say in order to get things done in washington you need a good, strong chairman. and chairman inhofe fits that description. i want to thank chairman inhofe and especially his staff, ryan jackson and dmitri. chairman and also key was instrumental in moving things forward and worked with me to ensure we build the broadest possible support.ttee. they knew with broad support you could do better than get it out of committee.ro we could get it across the finish line. there are days when we all feeln discouraged by gridlock in washington, chairman inhofe and senator vitter rose above the. they saw the value in working together across party and across house and senate. senators booker, merkley and white house all understood we could work together. i want to thank them for sticking with this bill. working through differences. as a result of their efforts the bill gives states stronger protection and it helps reduce unnecessary testing on animals. and it includes a number of othe

mr. murphy: i thank the senator for his passionate words and his advocacy on this issue. and i refer him to a conversation senator manchin and i had earlier today in which we talked about the gun culture of west virginia and how senator manchin hasn't run into anyone who is passionate about gun ownership that believes that people on the terrorist watch list should be able to buy guns, that believes that criminals should be able to buy guns. he argued passionately for this notion that you proffer, that there is no choice to be made between upholding the second amendment and protecting our citizens from attack. and justice scalia himself said in a very controversial decision that not everyone agrees with that the second amendment is not absolute, that the second amendment, even in the minds of those that hold it as a private right of gun ownership inherent in it, that denies terrorists from getting guns, keeping assault weapons off the street, recognizing there is no place in society for 100-round drums of ammunition. all those are wholly in keeping with the second amendment. with that, i yield to the senator from new hamp

mrs. feinstein: thank you. we tried to renew the ban on assault weapons. that failed. we tried to expand the background checks, even through a compromise offered by senator manchin. that effort failed. i remember when the vote on the background checks failed, the new york daily news put the photos of the newtown victims on the front cover. there were 20 young children age 6 and 7 and their educators and the headline read right across it "for shame." so it's time for us to stand up. it's time to force elected representatives to take action. we must expand background checks. we must make sure the government can stop a gun from being sold to a known or suspected terrorist. and that's not too much to ask. i thank you, madam president. i appreciate it. i yield the floor. mr. cornyn: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: madam president, the two main amendments that we will hear tonight regarding the no-fly list or the watch list known and suspected terrorist list, in both instances we agree, terrorists should not have guns. terrorists should not have guns. the only difference between the senator from california's amendment and min