mr. markey: thank you, madam president. madam president, i ask unanimous consent that three letters and a news article related to allegations against judge kavanaugh be entered into the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. markey: thank you, madam president. madam president, i rise to speak in opposition to the nomination of judge brett kavanaugh to serve as an associate justice on the united states supreme court. the vacancy that judge kavanaugh seeks to fill is not an ordinary one. the retirement of supreme court justice anthony kennedy created one of the most consequential vacancies on the high court that this country has ever seen. there is a reason why scholars and pundits refer to the supreme court of the last 30 years as the kennedy court. his influence on so many important cases can not be overstated. throughout his three decades on the supreme court, justice kennedy was often the swing vote in decisions decided 5-4 on a divided bench. after john roberts became chief justice in 2005, justice kennedy

mr. markey. mr. mccon on he winelconnell. mr. menendez. mr. merkley. mr. moran. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. nelson. mr. paul. mr. perdue. mr. peters. mr. portman. mr. reed. mr. rish. mr. roberts. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders. mr. sasse. mr. scoh hch ochl schotts. mr. schumer. mr. scott. mrs. shaheen. mr. shelby. ms. smith. ms. st ms. st mr. thune. mr. tester. mr. tillis. mr. toomey. mr. uhe ddall. mr. van hollen. mr. warner. ms. warren. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. widen. mr. young. >> with my friend the senator from montana, senator daines who is walking his daughter down the aisle this afternoon, if he were present and voting, he would have voted aye. i have voted no. the pair will not change the outcome of the vote. i therefore withdraw my vote. >> the senator has that right. >> senators voting in the affirmative, alexander, barrasso, blunt, bozeman, burr, cassidy, collins, corker, cornyn, cotton, crepo, cruz, enzi, ernst, fisher, flake, gardner, graham, grassley, hatch, heller, hoeven, hyde smith, inhofe, isaac son, johnson, kennedy, kyle, langford, lee

mr. markey: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i am here to convey my strong support for the water resources development act which passed earlier today. with americans working to improve the quality of their drinking water and seeking to be more competitive in the global economy. this package will provide welcomed relief and support for critical infrastructure i've long focused on providing the resources needed to improve the maritime linchpin of the state's economy, boston harbor, but we need direct federal funding to fire on all sill enders, especially as we transfer to a new ship supershipping sizaa. two years ago the panama canal allows bigger vessels called post panamax ships. these ships, which are the length of airveght carriers and carry -- length of aircraft carriers are too large to dock at boston harbor sood. that's -- today. that's why in the new wrda bill, i looked to fund $213 million which will deepen the harbor to accommodate the new ships. i'm pleased my provision dedicated an additional $16 million tow

mr. markey. >> no. >>> mrs. mccaskill. mr. mcconnell. >> aye. mr. menendez. >> no. >>> mr. merkley. >> no. >>> moran. >> aye. >>> ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. >> no. >>> mr. nelson. >> mr. paul. >> aye. >>> mr. perdue. >> aye. >>> mr. peters. >> no. >>> mr. portman. >> aye. >>> mr. reed. >> no. >>> mr. risch. >> aye. >>> mr. roberts. >> aye. >>> mr. rounds. >> aye. >>> mr. rubio. >> aye. >>> mr. sanders. >> no. >>> mr. sasse. >> aye. >>> mr. schatz. mr. schumer. >> no. >>> mr. scott. >> aye. mrs. shaheen. >> no. >>> mr. shelby. >> aye. >>> ms. smith. >> no. >>> ms. stabenow. >> no. >>> mr. sullivan. >> aye. >>> mr. tester. >> no. >>> mr. thune. >> aye. >>> mr. tillis. >> aye. >>> mr. toomey. >> aye. >>> mr. udall. >> no. >>> mr. van hollen. >> no. >>> mr. warner. ms. warren. >> no. >>> mr. whitehouse. >> no. >>> mr. wicker. >> aye. >>> mr. wyden. >> no summ. >>> mr. young. >> aye. >>> with my friend the senator from montana, senator daines, who is walking his daughter down the aisle this afternoon, if he were present and voting, he would have voted aye. i have vo

mr. markey. >> no. >> mrs. mccaskill. >> [ indiscernible ] >> mr. mcconnell. >> a aye. >> mr. menendez. >> no. >> mr. murkly. >> no. >> mr. moran. >> [ indiscernible ] >> ms. murkowski. >> [ indiscernible ] >> mr. murphy. mrs. murray. >> [ indiscernible ] >> mr. nelson. mr. paul. >> aye. >> mr. purdue. >> aye. >> mr. peters. >> no. >> mr. portman. >> aye. >> mr. reid. >> no. >> mr. risch. >> aye. >> mr. roberts. >> aye. >> mr. rounds. >> aye. >> mr. rubio. >> aye. >> mr. sanders. >> no. >> mr. sass. >> aye. >> mr. shots. [ indiscernible ] mr. schumer. >> [ indiscernible ] >> mr. scott. >> aye. >> mrs. shaheen. >> no. >> mr. shelby. >> aye. >> ms. smith. [ indiscernible ] >> ms. stabenow. >> [ indiscernible ] >> mr. sullivan. >> aye. >> mr. tester. [ indiscernible ] >> mr. thune. >> aye. >> mr. till liss. > tillis.>> aye. >> mr. toomey. >> aye. >> mr. udall. >> [ indiscernible ] >> mr. van hollen. >> no. >> mr. warner. >> [ indiscernible ] >> ms. warren. >> no. >> mr. whitehouse. >> no. >> mr. wicker. >> aye. >> mr. wyden. >> no. >> mr. young. >> aye. >> >> with my friend the s

mr. markey. ms. mccaskill. mr. mcconnell. mr. menendez. mr. merkley. >> no. >> mr. moran. ms. murkowski. r. murphy. ms. murray. mr. nelson. r. paul. mr. perdue. >> aye. >> mr. peters. >> no. > mr. portman. mr. reid. mr. rich -- mr. reisch. mr. roberts. mr. rounds. >> aye. >> mr. rubio. mr. sanders. mr. shotts. mr. schumer. mr. scott. >> aye. >> ms. shaheen. mr. shelby. ms. smith. ms. stabenow. mr. sullivan. >> aye. >> mr. tester. mr. thune. mr. tillis. >> aye. >> mr. toomey. >> aye. >> mr. udall. r. van hollen. mr. warner. ms. warren. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. >> aye. >> mr. wyden. >> no. >> mr. young. >> aye. >> affirmative, alexander, barrasso, blunt, boozman, burr, capito, cassidy, collins, rker, cornyn, cotton, crapo, ruz, daines, insee, ernst, fisher, flake, gardner, graham, grassley, hatch, heller, even, heitsmith, inhofe, isakson, kennedy, kyl, lankford, mcconnell, moran, ul, perdue, portman, reisch, berts, rounds, rubio, staff, cott, shelby, sullivan, thune, tillis, toomey, wicker, and young. >> mr. manchin, aye. >> senators voting in the negative -- baldwin, bennett

clerk may continue mr markey we've been watching live pictures here from the u.s.senate this as a final vote is about to take place on the confirmation of supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh and of course it started with a roll call vote on cavanagh's nomination to the supreme court vote itself set to take place very shortly what you want of this alongside us political analyst bill schneider and bill we've been watching these remarkable scenes a very bitter political i'm public divisions playing out right that inside the senate says vice president might pence repeatedly tries to restore order but this vote is being delayed in interrupted by the cries and pleas of protest is that's right there's a huge protest hundreds of protesters showed up in the senate office building that probably had the effect of encouraging supporters of the nominee brett kavanaugh who and the base of the republican party who are just outraged by the shows of intimidation and protest it brings them right back to the nine hundred sixty s. when a lot of this began a lot of these divisions be

mr. markey: mr. president, two weeks ago i stood here to commend this body for developing and passing much-needed legislation to help families and communities respond to the opioid overdose crisis. it claimed an estimated 49,000 lives just last year. it is one that knows no political territorial or demographical boundaries. soon the senate will consider a bipartisan, bicameral consensus opioid package which overwhelmingly passed the house of representatives last week. contained within the conference bill are several of my provisions from the senate-passed legislation, including opioid milestones, a bipartisan bill i introduced with senators murkowski and hassan to create a score card to measure our nation's response to the opioid crisis. in other words, as we spend more money, how do we now give a grade to each one of the programs that we're funding so that in two, three, four years it's best practices across the whole country so that we're ensuring that we learned the lessons of what is in fact occu

markey: do you agree, mr. mactaggart? mr. mactaggart: yes, i just think it is thornier than it works. sen. markey: thank you, mr. chairman. >> senator wicker? sen. wicker: under eu policy, your board could have chosen the regulation route or the directive row. regulation places a binding legal force throughout the continent. a directive simply would have each country tried to implement according to their own national laws. gdpr went the regulation route. the goal was and is to have one set of privacy rules interpreted in a uniform way throughout the continent. why did you do that and why was it important to have one data privacy policy instead of each member country having their own? dr. jelinek: thanks, senator, for this question. the eu already had a data protection directive from 1995 on. these data protection directives had to be set into the national laws of the 28 member states. so we had diversified laws even if they had the same fundament. and during the last 20 years, the eu considered it would be much more better to

markey. thank you, mr. chairman. should companies be able to tell consumers that if they don't agree to share nonessential data they cannot receive the service of the product? >> no, no, they shouldn't build a tell consumers that. that really gets back to the idea, the question of what constitutes choice. as i've said before, i think not enough. we still need restrictions as well. a choice has to be a real choice. the system name the gdpr does well. when a company says acceptor practices with your data or don't use the service, that's not a free choice. >> should companies be allowed to offer financial incentives in exchange for personal information? >> you know, i supported skepticism towards financial incentives for certain data practices because i do recognize while there may be of value that consumers enjoy in exchange for their data as mr. mctaggart just mentioned, the financial incentives they offer or the financial penalties they levy against consumers who declined to give consent are not truly -- are not trul

mr. chairman. >> senator markey. sen. markey: you mentioned the investedch has a loan over $500 million to implement ptc, supported by $27 million in direct federal investment and nearly $400 million in federal loans. after implementation they may have to spend tens of millions more to maintain this technology for decades to come. while i am proud to help secure $20 million of federal investment to help the mbta implement the technologies, i'm concerned our commuter rails may not have the resources or the tools to continue operating and maintaining the system. is there airman, role for continuing federal assistance, investment for technical assistance for ptc technologies to ensure were operating and maintaining these technologies effectively? mr. administrator? >> thank you, senator. that is a question that does not have an answer yet. it is going to be answered primarily by the individual railroads installing ptc as far as the maintenance and testing going forward. with any capital investment, there is a cost that follo

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator duckworth. senator markey. >> thank you, mr. chairman, very much. you are right, it's a lifesaving technology, but it's not free. you mentioned the mbta in massachusetts which has alone invested over $500 million to implement ptc supported by $27 million of direct federal investment and nearly $400 million in federal loans. and after implementation, the mbta may have to spend tens of millions more to operate and maintain this technology for decades to come. so while i'm proud that i have recently helped secure $20 million of federal investment to help the mbta implement ptc technologies, i am concerned that our commuter rails may not have the resources or the tools to continue operating in maintaining that system. so, mr. chairman, is there a role for continuing federal assistance investment for technical assistance for ptc technologies to ensure we are operating and maintaining these technologies effectively? mr. administrator. >> thank you, senator. that is a question that doesn't have an answer yet, and it's going to be answered primarily by each

mr. manchin, aye. senators voting in the negative. baldwin, bennett, booker, brown, cantwell, carden, casey, coons, duckworth, cortez masto, feinstein, gillibrand, harris, hinrich, kaine, klobuchar, leahy, markey, murkley, murphy, murray, nelson, peters, schatz, smith, stabenow, tester, u doll, warren, whitehouse, and wyden. mr. sanders, no. mr. lee, aye. ms. hassan, no. >> mr. jones. no. mr. johnson, aye. mr. schumer, no. mr. donnelly, no. ms. heitkamp, no. mrs. mccaskill, no. mr. menendez, no. >> mr. reed, no. mr. king, no. mr. van hollen, no. ms. hirono, no. mr. blumenthal, no. >> mrs. shaheen, no. >> we're waiting for the official announcement from the senate floor. it looks like this procedural vote, a very critically important procedural vote, will pass narrowly, will pass. susan collins, the republican senator from maine, votes yes. jeff flake, the republican senator from arizona, votes yes to allow this confirmation process to move forward for judge kavanaugh. joe manchin, the democratic senator from west virginia, votes yes. lisa murkowski, the republican senator from alaska, votes no. there are 51 republicans, 49 democrats, with manchin now voting yes to move this legislation forward

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator blumenthal. senator markey? >> thank you, chairman. the reason we're here is that europe has now passed a privacy law, and that california has passed a privacy law. at the end of the day, the companies which are represented here today and all across the country are ultimately going to want california law preempted, and they're going to want other states' laws preempted. they're going to ask this panel to do that. so our goal has to be to ensure that any law which we pass out of this committee is a strong law. we don't need to pass weak laws in washington that override strong laws in california or massachusetts or other states. so that's why we're here, because finally europe, finally states are beginning to move in the absence of a federal policy, but that federal policy is going to have to be strong. the bill which i've introduced for years, which is essentially the consent act, basically says, one, people should have a right to knowledge that information is being gathered about them, two, notice that that information might be reused

king, clover chart, markey, mendez, merkley, mary, nelson, peters, reeve, sanders, shots, schumer, shaheen, smith, tester, you‘d all, van holland, warner, warren, white house, waiting. mr heard a list of those in the affirmative, those who are voting forjudge kavanaugh to be the next us supreme court judge, kavanaugh to be the next us supreme courtjudge, and kavanaugh to be the next us supreme court judge, and then kavanaugh to be the next us supreme courtjudge, and then we have heard a list in the negative, we are hearing on reuters that the majority have voted in the support of the supreme court nominee, but we will get confirmation of that as soon as we can. barbara, can you explain the process here? what have we been hearing and what might happen next? the vote has finished, it is 50—48. so, judge kavanaugh has been confirmed. the reason it is 48 is because the senator from montana was not able to be present as he had to attend his daughter‘s wedding. the one republican senator who voted no voted present for him. this evened the balance, which is why you have 50-48. this the balance, which is why you have 50—48. this is a minor side story to the fact that the vote

mr. mctaggart. soon, ranking member -- chairman thune, ranking member markey, distinguished members. it's an honor and privilege. i come to you as chairman of californians for consumer privacy, the group that sponsored a ballot measure which were gold -- resulted in a passage of a california consumer privacy act. i also come to you as a father of three children. concerned about the world they are growing up in. a world in which potentially every step and test they take and every decision they make will be tracked and sold to thousands of companies they've never heard of. finally i come to you as a business person. i want to touch on this because this is the senate commerce committee and you heard from represented present as a giant corporations that the sky will fall if you leave ccpa intact. it was rusting badly drafted they said. -- it was rushed and badly drafted they said. i just want to say that i feel commerce is one of the most potent forces for good in this country. i make my living in northern california where many of these tech giants are headquartered and let me assure you

mr mansion, aye. senators voting in the negative. baldwin, bennett. brown, cantwell, carden, casey, kunz, cortes, duckworth, durbin, finds time, julie brand, harris, heinrich, kane, leahy, markeyson, no. mr jones, mrjones, no. mr johnson, mrjohnson, aye. mr mr johnson, aye. mr schumer, mrjohnson, aye. mr schumer, no. mr donnelly, no. miss high camp, no. mrs mccaskill, no. mr menendez, no. mr reid, no. mr king are no. mr van holland, mr king are no. mrvan holland, no. miss serono, no. mr blumenthal, no. so, that voting under way. quite tense on the senate floor. the professor of us politics at richmond university, what is your reading of the voting we had so far? it is incredible. not many times that a live vote has been broadcast on the bbc with such interest in the result. some interesting voting patterns. we have seenjoe mansion, the democrat has voted aye. also the senator of alaska voting against, so a trade there. also interesting that fla ke a trade there. also interesting that flake and collins, who had toyed with a opposing have gone aye. it is certainly very tense and a stampede of no votes going in. one would imagine, looking at where we are, those are democrats addi

mr. alexander: authority for the f.d.a. to require manufacturers to sell smaller doses of opioids. extending treatment for medicaid patients from 15 to 30 days and covering all substances. the treat act, senator markey, senator paul worked hard on this. i want to especially thank senator mcconnell and senator schumer for creating the environment so that we could put together the work of five different committees in the senate and eight different committees in the house of representatives. that rarely happens. it takes a good deal of restraint and goodwill. and the reason for it is because of this bipartisan urgency to deal with this problem. this is not a moonshot from washington. it is everything we can think of to do, more than 70 different proposals to support patients and support communities as they continue to fight our number one public health epidemic. i thank the president and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the question is on the motion to concur. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. there is. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: the presiding officer: is there any senator in the chamber winnerring -- wishing to vote or change their vot

mr. markey: thank you, mr. president. will be, it is congress' obstruction of justice to protect us buses. regrettably, congress has failed to fulfill that obligation with the f.a.a. reauthorization bill. with this bill, congress has missed an historic, months-in-a-generation opportunity to stop gargantuan airlines from gouging americans with exorbitant fees. last year senator roger wicker, a republican from mississippi, and i secured a provision in the senate f.a.a. reauthorization bill that would protect passengers from ridiculous, sky-high airline fees. our fair fees provision directed the department of transportation to, one, assess whether change and cancellation and baggage and other fees are reasonable and proportional to the costs of the services which are being provided and, secondly, to ensure that change and cancellation fees are reasonable. airline fees would be fair and reasonable. that's all that the provision did. and the reason why we need that is simple. in a truly competitive industry, an airline would b