mr. merkley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that my intern, whitney wag never, have -- magg -- wagner have privileges of the floor. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: the most important are words of the constitution are the first three, we the people. it is the mission statement of our country, a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people as president lincoln so eloquently stated, not a nation by, for, and of the powerful and the privileged. and critical to that vision of we the people is a strong, independent judiciary, and particularly a strong and independent supreme court. since all the decisions from the lower courts can be appealed right on up to the very top. today, mr. president, there is a vacancy on the supreme court with anthony kennedy's announced retirement. on monday night president trump announced his nominee to fill that seat, judge brett kavanaugh. a single vote can make all the difference in the world on the supreme court in protecting the fre

mr. merkley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i ask that my indiana tern careen in a velazquez be granted privileges of the greer for the balance of the day. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: the nomination of ryan wesley bounds is just the latest of attacks based on a strategy of converting the united states from a nation that is based and organized and fights for the principle of we the people to one that bows to the powerful and the privileged. his nomination has already strained and degraded the senate's blue slip tradition as our colleagues rush to pack our colleagues with extremist judges to advance that division, not of judges who call balls and strikes but of judicial activists who want to rewrite the constitution, rewrite it to put down workers, to put down health care rights, to lay out and tear down consumer rights, women's rights, so many opportunities and empowerments diminished in the favor of the privileged and the powerful

mr. merkley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator for oregon. mr. merkley: as ranking member of the agriculture subcommittee, i rise today to discuss the agriculture appropriations bill. this is a good bill that was drafted in a bipartisan manner and passed out of committee unanimously. a big thanks to chairman hoeven for his hard work on the bill as well as to members of his team who worked very closely with members of my team throughout this process and considered requests and concerns from senators on both sides of the aisle. in his budget request, president trump proposed more than a 25% cut to usda's funding. he also zeroed out a number of important programs including programs that benefit rural america, along with research programs and domestic and international nutrition programs. the bill that came out of the appropriations committee rejects those devastating cuts that were presented in the president's budget request. this bill which is within the subcommittee's discretionary allocation of $23.2 billion, makes smart, targeted investments in p

mr. president, to mention that it's the senior democrats for essentially two decades, whether it be mark hatfield or gordon smith, two very thoughtful republicans, and now our colleague jeff merkley, we have always, always tried to be deferential in trying to find common ground in recognizing what party was in the white house, what party controlled the senate. so i'm not asking mr. bounds to transform himself into thurgood marshall. it's completely reasonable to expect an admission that comparing the promotion of diversity to nazi rallies was wrong. i can only imagine, mr. president, what my late parents, both of whom fled the nazis at a very young age, and all they wanted to do was serve in our military, wear the uniform of the united states. my dad writing propaganda pamphlets that were dropped on the nazis. i can only imagine what my parents would say to mr. bounds' ideas comparing diversity to nazi rallies, dismissing the value of diversity is wrong and insisting that it's not worth protecting the victims of sexual assault because it's impossible to guarantee safety from rape ists. but instead, mr. bounds hid these writings rather than recant, take back their content. the com

mr. chairman. >> thank you. we'll next turned to senator merkley. >> thank you very much, mr. chas hearing.and under what authority to each of you you that we are currently in syria taking on isis? judge napolitano? >> well, i don't think we are in by any constitutional authority because like your colleague, senator sanders, i don't believe that either of the aumfs were constitution because they didn't adequately articulate a target and they didn't put in an endpoint. presidents of both parties have used sort of the vague principles that they believe are emanating from the aumfs to justify the type of incursion you are asking about. >> mr. turley? >> i i see no authority even unr the aumfs, that under the constitution. what it is unfortunately a noble lie, there's been the specificity of the targets which was there for public consumption. this proposed legislation is that same technique. it give some specific references while having provisions that list can be expanded almost at will by the president subject to a retroactive some post hoc action by congress. >> use any constitutional author

merkley. >> thank you. thank you, mr. secretary. so in response to senator's question of new start, i wanted to follow up a little bit. both united states and russia came into compliance in february 2018. met the deadline on deployed nuclear warheads and but my impression from your dialogue was that u.s. does not yet have a position on whether to work to extend the new start agreement past 2021. >> that's correct. we're very hopeful to achieve -- we view them -- they are individual agreements as a legal matter and they can be worked on independently but the deterrence model, the underpinnings, the frame work of these nuclear agreements are connected whether they be things covered by new start, things covered by the inf treaty, other provisions and trying to do in it a holistic way. >> thank you. i can anticipate it's something you and your team working on in the year aheadseting the groundwork for understanding the options there. thank you. so russia oil tankers reportedly supplied fuel to north korea via sea transfer for several ti

merkley. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you, mr. secretary. in response to the question on new starts, i wanted to follow up a little bit. both the united states and russia came into compliance in february, 2018, met the deadline on deployed nuclear warheads, but my impression from your dialogue was the u.s. does not have a position whether to work to extend a new start agreement past 2021. >> that's correct. we're very hopeful that we can achieve -- we view them -- they are individual agreements a legal matter and they can be worked on independently, but the deterrence model, the underpinnings, the framework of these nuclear agreements, they are connected, whether they be things covered by new starts, by the inf treaty, other provisions. they are of a part and it is the case as we begin to evaluate how we approach that, we're trying to do that in a holistic way. >> i think i can anticipate this will be something you and your team will be working on in the year ahead, setting groundwork forunderstanding options there. thank you. so russia oil

merkley: thank you. >> mr. secretary, thank you. i appreciate your stamina. you've been here for quite a while. i want to let you know how much i appreciate your leadership, as you fit in, filled this role during this tumultuous period in international relations. since you've taken the position the interaction our office has had with members of the department of state and you individually has really markedly improved so i'm appreciative of that. one of the axioms of diplomatic or military strategy is that you want to unite your allies and divide your enemies, and as i see it, this is one of the things that vladimir putin has been succeeding in doing. he seeks to divide and weaken nato, for example. he wants to divide the american people, and the more we make russia's meddling in our own elections a partisan issue, i think the more we play into putin's hands. the intelligence community has been clear and consistent, russia did, indeed, meddle in our elections. so i think we need to stand together as americans, not as republicans or democrats, with respect to t

now i have the pleasure to work with senator merkley and the bipartisan efforts that we have had produce this selection process, and mr. bounds misrepresented, in my view really lied as he covered up disturbing, intolerant writings from his past. among many hateful matters he wrote about, he defended homophobic vandals who damaged a gay pride monument. he argued against efforts to protect the survivors of sexual assault on college campuses because he wrote that he just didn't think that would guarantee absolute safety. and, madam president, as i indicated here earlier, what really outraged me and shocked me was his comparison of organizations that promote multiculturalism and tolerance here in america to nazi rallies. i am the child of jewish parents who fled nazi terror in germany. not all of our family got out. my great uncle max was among the last to be gassed at auschwitz. for mr. bounds to compare groups that lift up minorities in america to nazis is an extraordinary and dark stain on his character. for him to have concealed these writings from oregon's bipartisan selection committee is disqualifying. he never ac

mr. bounds did not have the approval of either of his home state senators. the nominee himself admitted that oregon's two democratic senators, his home state senators, ron wyden and jeff merkley, played no role in his selection. the judiciary committee ignored the traditional blue-slip process which has been basically adhered to for over 100 years by holding a hearing on mr. bounds' nomination, even though neither of his home state senators returned their blue slips. the congressional research service could not find a single instance where a judicial nominee without at least one blue slip returned by a home state senator had a hearing or was confirmed by the senate, but nonetheless, mr. bounds' nomination proceeds apace. and writings that were not disclosed to the oregon selection committee that reviewed his application, mr. bounds published a number of very offensive articles on race and gender while he was an undergraduate, and while these writings were brought to life by a third-party organization, mr. bounds should have disclosed them to the committee himself. his articles took disparaging positions on topics including race relations, opposition to multiculturalism, lgbtq

mr. merkley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i strongly object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. mr. daines: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. daines: mr. president, i live in a state, state of montana, that has a northern border. i.c.e. agents keep our border secure and i want to thank them for the very important work they are doing. far too many people are coming into our country illegally and putting the safety and security of american citizens at risk. in fact, in montana, the effects of unsecure borders are very personal. all across our state, communities this moment are torn apart by the meth and opioids that are trafficked through the southern border. in fact, just last year, i.c.e. seized nearly 50 tons of narcotics, nearly a million pounds of heroin, fentanyl, and other deadly drugs that criminals and cartels are smuggling into our country. at a time when america is suffering from a drug epidemic, how many more lives will be lost if i.c.e. agents were not protectin