mr. merkley: thank you. i rise in recognition of senator sheldon whitehouse on this special occasion of his 250th speech in his time to wake up series, a series of speeches, as far as i know, unparalleled in the history of the senate addressing a national and world issue, the issue of carbon. if you're sitting at the desk here or on one of the benchs, that breath of air is different from when i was born. it contains 33% more carbon. this has never happened over the lifetime of any individual in the history of the human species on the planet. it means big changes because every molecule is graping -- grabbing heat and holding it. it means the snowpack that is smaller and melts earlier on average means less irrigation water for our farmers and ranchers and less healthy streams for the salmon and trout. it means that a lot of that is absorbed into the ocean and become carbonic acid and we need to buffer the sea water in order for baby oysters to survive. these changes are happening not just in my state, but all

mr. merkley: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i rise to recognize two members of my team who are leaving the senate after years of dedicated and important work. becka ward will be leaving on august 7 and meredith booker on friday, july 26. both of them joined my team as interns, and they have worked their way up into team merkley making tremendous contributions to my office and to our nation. i know they are both going to do extraordinary things in the next chapters of their lives, but first it's worth reflecting on their service here in the u.s. senate. becca ward has been an invaluable member of our team for six years. she started as an intern in my oregon office and worked her way up to be my lead advisor on climate chaos and energy policy. becca joined team merkley as a full-time staffer in 2013 as a staff assistant and over the years she rose to be legislative correspondent and then a legislative aide, crafting and sending responses to more than 225,000 oregonians concerned about climate and the environment. becca's

mr. john, ceo and owner of late well enlightened health. senators gardner and merkley, you may proceed. senator gardner: thank you, mr. chairman and ranking member brown and everyone on the panel for the opportunity to speak to today. this is a difficult hearing and topic. i know that. we were sent here to deal with difficult topics. i'm grateful for the opportunity to talk about this. it is the first hearing we have had on this issue as the federal government wakes up to the reality that the cannabis issue is not going to go away, and we must have action. there has been a dramatic shift in americans' views over cannabis. polling shows 55% of americans support legalization of marijuana. 93%, 93% of the american public medical marijuana. both parties support legalization. at a time when talk is about how divided we are, we are remarkably united on this issue. shouldhat support, it not be surprising the vast majority of states have changed their laws. 47 states now allow some form of cannabis. i recognize idaho, nebraska, and south dakota who have not. than 95% ofnts more the population li