mr. moran: mr. president, i understand there is a quorum call in place. i would ask that it be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. moran: mr. president, i would ask unanimous consent to be able to speak in morning business for up to 15 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. moran: mr. president, thank you very much. i am a he grad to see you in the -- i'm grad to see you in the -- i'm glad to see you in the chair because i come to tuck about a topic -- to talk about a topic to and i share, the veterans of our nation and states. i first want to thank senator john mccain, the senator from arizona. many of my colleagues have spent much longer time in the united states senate than i have. and they had the opportunity to work side by side with senator mccain more often than i have. but i'm honored today to join him in legislation that we introduced earlier this week. it's senate bill 2184, the veterans community care and access act of 2017. i'm honored to have the oppo

i would beg to differ with you, mr. moran. i think the design is arbitrary. it's two droughts combined. i don't think there's science behind that. in 2009, the state adopted the co-equal goals of ensuring reliable water supply and protect the eco system. i think san francisco's a little behind on the second of those. i will give you credit. in the upper tuolome stakeholder group meeting on friday, it's people from state and federal agencies and ngos talking about biology. it's a great, constructive collaborative process and we need something like that for the lower tuolome and there was a climate change study. i don't think any of that was reflected in the design drought. if the concern is climate change, why don't we look at the science. it will affect things in positive and negative ways. the first 2400css belongs to the irrigation district and between april and june the climate study said more precipitation will fall as rain and not snow and the snow will melt earlier shifting to the season when it benefits the fpuc. the last year was the second wettest ye

mr. moran: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. moran: mr. president, thank you very much for the recognition. i come to the floor today to speak about business that is important to kansas and important to country, but especially important to the providers of health care for children and the children and their families who receive that coverage and care, and that's the medicaid chip program. it was established back in 1997. i want to call to the attention of my colleagues the importance of us acting here in the next several days in regard to reauthorization extension of that chip program. it has helped provide coverage to children of low-income families in my state, and those are individuals who would otherwise be left without any insurance, and most likely in every case the funds necessary to cover health care costs for the well-being of those young men and women. this program is funded through a multi-year authorization that requires congress to take action each time the program reach

thank you mr president terry moran with a.b.c. news first in the united states investigations by congress the department of justice and the media have uncovered a very large number of contacts between russian citizens associated with your government and high officials of the trump campaign and some of those officials are now being prosecuted for a line about those contacts all this is not normal and many americans are saying where there's that much smoke there must be fire how would you explain to americans the sheer number of contacts between the trump campaign and your government and second if i may it's almost been a year since downall trump has been elected president you praised donald trump during the campaign what is your assessment of donald trump as president after one year especially. the which of. the second parts. it's not up to me to assess. what trump has been doing it's up to the those who have elected him it's up to the american people and there's been some major achievements even in this short span of time look at

mr. president. terry moran with abc news.irst in the united states, investigations by congress, the department of justice, an the media have uncovered a very large number of contacts between russian citizens associated with your government and high officials of the trump campaign. some of those officials are now being prosecuted for lying about these contacts. all this is not normal and many americans are saying, where there's that much smoke there must be fire. how would you explain to americans the sheer number of contacts between the trump campaign and your government? and second, if i may, it's almost been a year since donald trump han elected president. you praised donald trump during the campaign. what is your assessment of donald trump as president after one year? pres. putin: i'll start with the second part. it's not up to me to assess what trump has been doing. it's up to those who have elected him. it's up to the american people. and there have been some major achievements even in this short span of time. look at th

mr. moran: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate be in a period of morning business for debate only and with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. sasse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mr. sasse: thank you, mr. president. today the judiciary committee had the opportunity to advance the nomination of steve gras, one of the foremost appellate attorneys in the state of nebraska. the judiciary committee has now heard and soon the full senate will be hearing about the impeccable credentials of mr. grasz. steve has served with distinction for nearly a dozen years. during that time hedonned -- he defend our state's laws with human military and deanscy. whether he was litigating before the u.s. supreme court, steve's professionalism earned the respect of republicans and democrats aligning members of the committee became familiar with steve and in particular his recom