mr. merkley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: mr. president, we - the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. merkley: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: mr. president, it seems like every time we turn around we have a situation where some individual of the african-american community is shot while in the custody of police. and many in america, certainly myself included, are mourning the death of alton sterling and philando castile, individuals who were shot in minneapolis and in baton rouge. the ubiquity of video cameras today has shown the rest of the country what african-americans have always known: that with shocking and horrifying regularity, african-american men and boys are the victims of police, the very people charged with keeping all of us safe. i don't know what it's like to be fearful for my life during a traffic stop by law enforcement. unacceptably, however, t

mr. merkley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: reserving the right to object, the issue before this body is whether there is going to be an opportunity for amendments to be considered and voted upon. we've heard today that we have three republican amendments, three republican amendments that address a prohibition on federal labeling, that address criminal penalties, that address salmon. we also have three democratic amendments that we would luke to have votes on. now once upon a time, it is now starts to seem like a fairy tale, this senate was known has a great deliberative body. well, great deliberative body entertains ideas, discusses them, and votes on them. and so in support and honoring the tradition of the senate to put amendments forward and have them debated and voted, we are offering an alternative. i would ask the majority leader to modify his motion and to do so in the following fashion: to ask for unanimous consent that the following amendments be the only amendments in order to the motion to concur with respec

mr. merkley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: we have had a lively debate over this bill. i've argued today that it is deeply flawed in several key ways. this was emphasized in the editorial in "the new york times" this morning. it said "the biggest problem with the senate bill is that instd of requiring a simple label it would allow food companies to put information in electronic codes that consumers would have to scafnlt the only reason to do this would to make the information more inaccessible. the bill might not cover some kinds of genetic engineering. including foods made from oil might not need to be g.m.o. labeled. we have an amendment to fix these things. if one really believes in a mandatory g.m.o. labeling bill, these amendments would be allowed to come up and be debated. we offered two, and they agreed to every republican amendment filed to be debated and voted on. we asked simply for three amendments that the democratic side, in balance to all the republican amendments be considered, and that was objected to b

mr. merkley: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to address the bill that is before us, a bill that presents itself as a labeling bill but which is deeply defective with three major loopholes that mean that this labeling bill will not label g.m.o. products. i'm going to lay out those challenges. but first i want to be clear that this is about american citizens right to know what's in their food. we have all kinds of consumer laws about right to know, but maybe there is nothing as personal as what you put in your mouth or what you feed to your family. that is why emotions run so deep. citizens have a right to make up their own mind. now we talk a lot about the vision of our country being a "we the people" democracy, and certainly it's jefferson who said the mother principle of our republic is that we can call ourselves a republic only to the degree the decisions reflect the will of the people and that will only happen if the people have an equal voice. well, in this case we have a powerful enterprise, a company named mon

mr. merkley: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: i rise to ask if we are in a quorum call? the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. kaine: i would ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. kaine: mr. president, i rise briefly to offer a tale of two cities. my comments are in a deep and disturbed reaction to the police shootings of alton sterling in louisiana and ferlando cast teal in minnesota. these shootings, one an african-american father of five selling c.d.'s at a convenience store and one of a beloved african-american school cafeteria supervisor are shocking. all people of goodwill have to ask in the words that president obama uttered an hour or so ago, what if something like this happened to somebody in your family? the first city is the world of american police officers. our law enforcement officers are heroes. while we are told in scripture that the great

mr. merkley: mr. president, would the senator yield for a question? mr. roberts: i do not have the time. the senator from delaware has yielded to me. i will finish my statement in just a minute if i can. and so here we are with the jul, and here we are with the vermont labeling law becoming in effect the national law. and i know there are some for that, but there was one senator from the other side of the aisle who went to work, and that was the senator from delaware to get a reasonable bill. this is a well-crafted compromise, and if it is a well-crafted compromise between the ranking member and the chairman with appropriate people like the senator himself working hard to get support for that, we should go ahead and get this done. and i just appreciate the willingness of the gentleman to work in a bipartisan fashion, and i thank him again. mr. carper: reclaiming my time. boy, i'm glad i yielded. thank you so much for those words. and for the opportunity to participate in this process. i want to change gears, mr. president, if i may to talk about another b

mr. merkley: madam president, i've risen on several occasions to bring attention to the challenges confronting our we the people republic. our system of government which president abraham lincoln so eloquently described all those years ago as one of the people by the people and for the people. i've talked about the powerful special interests working to corrupt the nature of our republic thanks to the unchecked wealth flowing into our political system because of the supreme court's series of misguided decisions. in buckley v. valeo, in citizens united and speech now.org. today i am honored to join my colleagues from minnesota and new hampshire and connecticut organized about i my colleague from rhode island who will be speaking in a moment to show how these same special interests are using their vast wealth and resources to sway national policies and public debate to benefit their interests at the expense of the american people and to turn in our government into one of, by and for a powerful special interest. there is no better example of what i mean than the debate surrounding one of the most

mr. president, i want to thank my colleagues, senators leahy and sanders, as well as senator tester and others who have championed this cause. most importantly, senator merkley, who has helped to lead this effort. i believe that the concerns we have expressed are urgent and immediate. and even at this late hour, i urge my colleagues to reject this measure as it has been drafted now and adopt these commonsense amendments that will improve it. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. manchin: mr. president, i've been coming to the floor every week for quite some time talking about an epidemic that we have to fight through and that's an epidemic of opiates drug abuse. this is prescription drug abuse. we've come to a crisis in our country. i think we realize that, both democrats and republicans. it doesn't pick side, whether you're rich or poor, what race you may be. what religion you practice. it basically attacks everybody. in 2014, 18,893 people died to prescription opiate overdoses. that's an average of 51 people every day. we're talking about legal prescription drugs. t

mr. merkley: thank you. mr. president, i ask the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: i ask unanimous consent my intern olivia woods be granted privileges to the floor for the balance of the day. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: thank you. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from north carolina. a senator: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. tillis: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. tillis: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of calendar number 529, senate resolution 506. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 529, s. res. 506, resolution expressing