mr. merkley: mr. president, i ask the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: thank you. i ask unanimous consent that my intern r.f. hassan be granted privileges to the floor for the balance of the day. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: thank you very much. mr. president, the first three words of our constitution, we the people, this is the mission statement of the united states of america. our government was set up not to create government by and for the powerful and the privileged, but by and for the people of the united states. as jefferson put it, that the government would reflect the will of the people. quite a different concept from many of the european governments which operated directly for the benefit of the best off, for the wealthy and the well connected. but we have seen a corruption of the american constitution. we've seen it turned on its head with government implemented by and for the rich and powerful time after time over this last year. what did we see in 2017? to destroy health care for 22 million to 30 millio

mr. merkley: reserving the right to object. i cannot in good faith support a nominee who has a lengthy track record of tweets attacking prominent democratic and prominent republican nominations. since his nomination, these tweets have continued showing complete disregard for the process and for the position he is nominated. the importance of the threat that russia poses to u.s.' democracy and we need ambassadors that can work with our european allies and partners now more than ever to reinforce the using to we have -- institution we have build and to defend this country. with that, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. casey: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: thank you, mr. president, i ask consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. casey: mr. president, i rise this afternoon to talk about an issue we've talked about a lot in washington but, frankly, haven't done enough about, and that's gun violence. we're going to b

mr. merkley: mr. president, america is very involved in a war in yemen, and it's time that we have the debate as envisioned under our constitution. our constitution did not lay out the power of deciding when to go to war with the executive branch. it places it very clearly here with article 1, congress to act. but we have participated very directly in partnership with saudi arabia and the assault on yemen, on the houthis, and the result is a dramatic, dramatic humanitarian crisis. and so we should absolutely hold that debate on this floor as envisioned in our constitution. article 1, section 8 states unequivocally that congress shall have power to declare war. it's only congress that is given this power under our constitution. if anyone has any doubts, then let's pay attention to the other words of our founders. james madison himself. in -- i quote if him. in no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found than in the clause which confides the question of war and peace to the legislature and no

mr. merkley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: mr. president, i thank my colleague from minnesota for laying out the case so clearly on the challenge. i'd like to call it taking on climate chaos. my wife mary comes from minnesota. i know they value the land of 10,000 lakes. every time i have said that before, i always say the land of a thousand lakes. senator klobuchar corrects me. i just can't quite envision 10,000, but a land with incredible wildlife, a land that certainly has seen the impacts of climate chaos, as is my home state. so thank you so much for your remarks and for being here to help celebrate our colleague, our friend, our senator from rhode island, senator whitehouse who is -- was speaking tonight just a few minutes ago for his 200th time to say wake up, wake up, america. we have a significant challenge, the sort of challenge that you may not notice from one day to the next. we may wake up tomorrow and not realize that the damage being done to our planet is greater than the day before. we may not be able to wake up a w

mr. chairman, thank you for giving me this priority. >> thank you, senator inhofe. senator merkley. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to start mr. james by asking you about the tribal villages along the columbia river that we have had a chance to talk about before. these their villages that were flooded by building dams on the columbia river. we rebuilt the city that served the caucasian population but didn't fulfill our commitment to the native american tribes to rebuild their villages. i think you have indicated some interest in this and some support for this. just want to check in and see if you are prepared to help champion getting this long overdue commitment done. >> yes, sir. i do think that is the right thing for this country to do. the tribes that were moved out of their homeland areas have been promised housing in other places and we should do that as a nation. there's no question about that. i look forward to working with you in the future, and we'll help with your efforts in doing that. >> thank you very much. sure appreciate that. secretary chao, i want to ask you abo

mr. chairman, thank you for giving me this priority. >> thank you. senator merkley? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i wanted to start, mr. james, by asking you about the tribal villages along the columbia river that we've had a chance to talk about before. these were the villages that is right flooding by building dams on the columbian river. we didn't fulfill or commitment to the native northwestern tribes toe rebuild their villages. i think you've indicated some interest and supports in this ill just wanted to check in and see if you're prepared to help champion getting this long overdue commitment done. >> yes, sir, i do think that's the right think for this country to do. the tribes that were moved out of their homeland areas have been promised housing in other places. we should do that as a nation, there's no question about that. i look forward to working with will help future and with your efforts and doing that. >> touch. -- thank you very much. sure appreciate that. and secretary cho, i wanted to ask you about the -- cho, i wanted to ask you about the question of buy american. ste

mr. merkley: mr. president, i've come to the floor tonight to discuss america's role in the crisis in yemen. i have here a picture of the fractured remains of buildings, people fleeing through those buildings, a small child probably in her father's arms. this represents the challenge of the bombing that's going on in that nation. i'm here to discuss america's role in that bombing and the fact that we need to debate here in the chamber how it is we've come to the point to be supporting this bombing when the warp powers act clearly says we should not be. what our founding -- when our founding fathers wrote our constitution, they designated the president, the commander in chief. but they gave congress, the house and the senate the sole power to declare war. article 1, section 8 states unequivocally that the congress shall have the power to declare war. it is only congress that can take our nation from peace to war. if one has any doubt about that, consider the words of jay madison himself, the father of