mr. menendez: mr. president, i regret that i come to the floor to announce my opposition to one of president trump's political nominees, miss lynda blanchard. to be honest i cannot even believe that we are considering her nomination on the floor of the united states senate. u.s. ambassadors are supposed to represent the best of america to nations around the world. and i challenge my colleagues, republicans and democrats alike, to look at this nominee's record and tell me with a straight face that lynda blanchard should represent the united states anywhere. look, i've made a good-faith effort to work with this administration to confirm a number of well-qualified individuals to state department positions that are vital to advancing america's interests around the world. i don't think anyone can deny that. but there are some nominees who just raise too many red flags. and i raise this to secretary of state mike pompeo in a letter i sent in june of 2018 shortly after his confirmation. i explained that a num

mr. menendez: one final comment to my colleague. the 7,000 have been killed by maduro's secret police is reflective of the fact that those who are here are some of the earliest opponents of maduro. those who tried to create change but fled, they have a heightened reason why in fact going back, in addition to the chaos, in addition to the danger, they are particularly threatened at the end of the day. they are the ones who are trying to create change and then found a situation in which the threat of their life was at risk, so they came to the united states. getting protected status, if there was ever a moment in which temporary protected status was envisioned, is for this situation. with that, madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. thune: madam president. the presiding officer: majority whip. mr. thune: is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. thune: i would ask unanimous consent the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objec

mr. menendez: mr. president, i rise today to urge my colleagues tajine me in voting to override the president's vietnam of three resolutions of disapproval on arms sales to saudi arabia and the united arab emirates. as we all know, several weeks ago the secretary of state attempted to bypass this body and the entire congress on 22 separate arms sales to saudi arabia and the united arab emirates, all on the pretext of an urgent physical threat in iran that was best ill-defined and, at worst, completely false. let me be clear, iran has and will continue to pose a threat to the u.s. interests and allies in the region, and i have and will continue to approve arms sales to partners and allies that address legitimate security threats and advance american interests. but from the start this administration has failed to demonstrate what kind of national security threat or, quote-unquote, emergency from warranted -- from iran warranted fast-tracking this sale of arms. the may 24 justification for the sales lacke

mr. menendez: i'm pleased to speak about the tax conventions between the united states and spain, switzerland, japan, and luxembourg. i have long been a strong supporter and proponent of these tax protocols and worked to advance them across multiple congresses. in the senate foreign relations committee, i voted to advance the japan and spain protocols three times and voted four times to advance the protocols with luxembourg and the swiss confederation. i am pleased that after too many years of waiting, the majority leader has finally decided to take up these protocols. i am a strong believer this the benefits these treaties provide our country. they provide a critical role in relieving united states citizens and companies of double taxation, encouraging foreign investment in the united states, and in enforcing u.s. tax law on those who seek to evade it. there are no down sides to these treaties. as i conveyed directly to secretary mnuchin, the treasury department's initial inaction on these treaties without consulting the foreign relations committee was completely inadequate. this botched eff

menendez: thank you. sen. crapo: senator toomey. sen. toomey: tank you, mr. chairman. -- thank you, mr. chairman. od to see you here. i just want to follow up on a point senator menendez was making. i followed parts of your testimony before the house financial services committee yesterday, and noted that you are asked whether you intend to serve out the entirety of your term, and you said that you definitely are intending to do that. i for 1 am glad to hear that that is your conclusion, in part because i think it is important the fed remain insulated from political pressure, but i also want to say or the record that i think you've done an outstanding job. i would remind my colleagues on the date you were sworn in, the fed funds rate was still on a real basis very close to zero. we had an enormous balance sheet. we had not yet exited the extremely abnormal monetary policy we had pursued for about a decade. i think that was a very dangerous experiment, and the unwind of that had no roadmap. there was no precedent. we had never experienced this before. the central banks in other parts of the world we

mr. chairman. >> thank you. senator menendez. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, chairman powell for your service. during her testimony in front of the house financial services committee, you stated that any problems that could emerge through labor would quote arise to system important levels just because of the mirror size of facebook -- libre -- is facebook too big to build its own digital currency? >> i think it's early to say that i think with the beginning of assessing that but i think the size of the network does focus your attention on the very likely systemic importance of this currency and that doesn't mean they shouldn't do it. but it means at a minimum it means that the standards the need to be applied to it will be the highest. >> as such and then if libra moves forward, is it possible that our concerns rise, that will have another too big to fail institution tethered to use economy? >> i certainly hope not, senator. again, we are at the very beginning of assessing all this. i don't know that they. >> itself, i mean, libra is actually 28 com

mr. chairman. >> all right. now senator menendez. >> thank you, mr. chairman. facebook's ceo mark zuckerberg was his mot oh was move fast and break things. we have referred to process. i have not nearlily enough time to list all the things facebook has broken. i've highlighted some behind me. the underlying theme,s in a company not thinking through the consequences of its actions. and with nearly 2.4 billion active users, when facebook breaks something it has serious consequences. i've been listening in and out between the meetings in my office to some of your testimony. and basically the theme of your response to many colleagues particularly on data privacy is trust us. trust is something you earn. and facebook ernl hasn't earned it. so it's not enough to say that you are will keep the calibra data separate. i'd like to know how exactly will you keep libra data separate from your social media data? >> senator, thank you for -- for your question. i want to also say that in the case of libra we're most definitely not moving fast. and i want to reiterate my commi

menendez. excuse me, you're right. senator jones. >> thank you. mr. marcus, i want to talk about quickly back to some of the money laundering issues that i've got real concerns about. i understand that calibra is committed to verify users and those kind of things, but for money laundering purposes if you've got a worldwide issue and you've got partners all over the world, how are you going to get your partners to verify these third-party products and how are we going to prevent this money laundering? i think that that's a major concern. how would you -- how are you going to deal with your partners? >> senator, first i want to commit that we will not launch until we've satisfied those concerns with treasury and other regulators around the world in how the network is configured and it operates, but more practically the way that the network is going to operate is that all the on and off ramps will be regulated and will have proper kyc and aml. as a result activities such as money laundering, terrorism funding, will have an opportunity to be monitored and

mr. chairman good to see you here i just want to follow up a little bit on a point that senator menendezing. i, too, observed parts of your testimony before the house financial services committee yesterday and i noted that you were asked whether you intend to serve out the entirety of your term and you said you definitely are intending to do that i, for one, am grlad to hear that's your conclusion i think it's important that the fed remain insulated from political pressure i also want to say for the record that i think you have done an outstanding job. wie remind my colleagues, the day you were sworn in the fed funds rate was close to zero we had an enormous balance sheet. we had not exited the extremely abnormal policy that we had pursued for about a decade and i think that was a very dangerous experiment and the unwind of that had no roadmap. there was no precedent we had never experienced this before and the central banks and other parts of the world were not in the process of normalizing and so you had to figure out a way to do that because i think you believed that it was important

mr. president, we would like to work with the republicans but they have been intransigent. with donald trump, is not like the old days were senator menendezicans afraid to come together. with us, we are waiting for them to come together with us. we hope and pray they will. >> that whole group came together and accomplished nothing. which is why we are talking about this issue to begin with. what does he not get? >> the story is infuriating. okay? the democrats want to this crisis. the democrats denied this crisis, they lied about this crisis they manipulated the american people about the crisis.they have done absolutely zero. nothing to solve the crisis. it must be wonderful. it must be absolutely terrific to be a democrat on capitol hill. you get to go up there, screaming for the cameras about a problem, you did nothing to solve! you actually are on tape telling people the crisis you now claim exists, doesn't exist. they managed to blame a president is doing everything can. there are tangible solutions right now. fixing chain migration, a border wall, reforming asylum rules. where are the democrats on it? nowhere! this is a party full of

mr. menendez: madam president, the senate is not in order. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. the senate will be in order. please take your conversations off the floor. the senator from new jersey. mr. menendez: madam president, i rise in opposition to the nomination of miss kelly craft to serve as the next u.s. ambassador to the united nations. as a firm believer in the strength and power of u.s. diplomacy, there are three main reasons i oppose ambassador craft's nomination. first and foremost, she lacks the experience necessary to stand up for american values and promote our national security on the global stage. second, during her brief diplomatic tenure in canada, she posted so many absences that i cannot describe it as anything less than a dereliction of duty. ambassador craft has also been unable or unwilling to convince the senate that she will fully separate her professional obligations from her family's business interests. we cannot have an ambassador to the united nations who risks using this incredibly influential

mr. menendez: mr. president, i rise today to oppose the nomination of peter wright as assistant administrator for the environmental protection agency office of land and emergency management. this is of enormous consequence to the people of new jersey and i refuse to stay silent as the trump administration stacks the agency that affects our health and environmental safety with industry insiders. mr. wright is a former chemical industry lawyer. if confirmed, he will be charged with overseeing the cleanup of the most toxic waste sites in america through what is known as the superfund program. new jersey is home to more superfund sites than any other state in the nation. for many years a lack of strong environmental protections and oversight left our communities vulnerable to unsafe, unchecked, unregulated pollution. i'm talking about the days before we had an environmental protection agency, before we ambassador landmark varmintal law -- environmental laws. before we had regulations to protect public heal

mr. chairman? >> thank you senator. senator menendez. >> thank you, mr. chairman. madam ambassador, let me just say for the record, i supported your nomination. i don't support everybody that comes before this committee. i supported expediting your nomination for a business committee meeting, and i supported your nomination on the floor of the united states senate. so even though you're a political appointee meant nothing to me. so i hold no ill will. but my job as a ranking member is vet every candidate that comes before us. in that spirit, let me just take my line of questioning a little further. you know, there's an old adage that as lawyers you have the facts on your side, you argue the facts. if you have the law on your side, you argue the law. and if you have either the facts nor the law, you bang on the table and create a diversion. senator cruz is a very good lawyer. the problem with his line of questioning is the state department told us the 300 days i have questioned you about was reported as 300 days outside of canada. it did not include travel inside of