mr. portman: mr.president, i understand we're in a quorum call. i'd ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. portman: i'm here on the floor today to talk again about the need for congress to act, to pass a covid-19 bill that helps the people we represent. i'm told this is the 20th time i've come to the floor to make this plea, meaning i haven't been all that queening, i guess. but the reality is that there's hope in the air. there is a bipartisan group that's working on a package. i'm part of that group, as is the presiding officer. it's bipartisan. about five democrats, about five republicans. maybe more significantly, today the white house apparently made an offer to speaker pelosi to reengage in conversation to try to get to a package that meets the needs of everyone and the package that was presented was actually very similar. -- similar to the package that this bipartisan group has been working on over the past few weeks. so there's hop

portman: do you have the authority to do that, require that? mr. overacker: i do not believe we have the authority to do that, but i believe, through -- i believe that is a voluntary process. sen. portman: mr. cintron, can you join us? we cannot hear you. you may be on butte -- mute. mr. cintron: can you hear me now? i apologize for the technical difficulties. obviously, we do not have the authority. we would again be asking the state -- sen. portman: senator carper. sen. carper: thank you, mr. chairman. i was trying to ask a question when my time expired earlier in the hearing to mr. cintron and mr. overacker. sen. carper: the question i did not get too, for both of you, is given the large number of packages that are projected to arrive without aed each day, starting in january, what can you tell postal customers about livery delays that they should expect -- delivery delays that they should expect? mr. overacker? mr. cintron? mr. cintron: i will try to answer that question. from a communication perspective, our global teams ,re in constant communi

chairman portman: mr. luskin, thank you very much a thanks to all the witnesses for their helpful testimony. we will now go to questions. i will be here until the bitter end and enjoying every minute of it except when i have to run out for votes. i am going to invest my questions later because some colleagues on the line and they will have to run. we have a vote scheduled for 11:00. vote, but somed of your going to have to take the gavel so we can be continuous. i don't want to stop this hearing. the order we have is based on when colleagues showed up for the call. -- start off up with senator brown and then senator grassley, senator bennet, lankford, casey, courts casey, senator young and senator whitehouse. let's start with you, senator brown. brown: if chuck wants to go first, i'm fine with that. chuck, wouldman: you like to go first? senator brown: i think he is on mute. chairman portman: senator grassley, we would love to hear from you first. anator grassley: there are couple short things i want to an

mr. portman: i ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum be waived. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: clotu motion, we, accordance with the provisions of rule 22, do hereby brg to a close debate on the nomination maryland, to be judge of the united states court of federal claims, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of kathryn c. davis, of maryland, to be a judge of the united states court of federal claims shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vot vote: vote: s the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or to change their vote? if not, the yeas are 51, the nays are 44, and the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: of cloture motion, we, the undersned senators, in accordance

mr. chairman. >> before a cookie of the question can remind senator portman i don't have a clock in front of me so when i use my time you'll have to tell me. mr. stevenson, you note both the opportunity and the means to save are needed in what you call the beginning planning stage of savings. i agree with you that both are essential. question come in your opinion, how important is automatic enrollment in this equation? >> yeah, i think it's very important and i would add another one of the provisions in the bill is around the savers credit. i think that's an important provision. we need both the means and opportunity. auto enroll and as click reach the opportunity, and if we can expand the tax savers credit especially the part that allows the refund to go right into the account for retirement savings and not spent i think is critical. >> okay. i guess i tie for one more question. so to mr. barr. in your testimony you cite data for said 37% of the businesses .2 the cost as the main reason for not starting a retirement plan. the current small start up business credit seems to do freight som

mr. centron, we will now hear from you. good morning, chairman portman and ranking member carver. thank you for the opportunity to discuss the success keeping opioids out of the mail and highlight challenges as we implement the stop act. my name is robert centron, the vice president of logistic logie united states postal service. the operation including international logistics -- in 2017 and 2018 i testified about customs advance electronic data, aed. the data are provided to the postal service by foreign postal operators, fpl and include information such as names, addresses and descriptions of content. once received, a is passed for the screening efforts. before i joined to aed, i want to describe the dramatic decline in the seizures of opioids and international mail. according to the postal inspection service using fiscal year 2018 as a baseline, we saw 71% drop in international seizures in 2019. the drop was 93% in 2020. unfortunately, this international decline has counterbalanced by an increase in domestic seizures. now, over 97% of seizures are dostic in areas near the south

senator portman, are you available by webex? >> i am, mr. chairman, i've been moving around the capital as we had to vote, but i was at the hearing earlier and i appreciate the witnesses and all of the information we have received, and you know, as i look at the issue and even watch some of the back and between our colleagues, it seems to me that pulling this out of politics a little bit and having a bipartisan group, there is more independent look at the issue is a good idea. in part because most of us don't believe that this ought to be something that the government usurps from the states may in fact, we believe that the constitution has got it right and generally speaking it is better to have the states handle this, but there are obviously many disparities between how the states do it. so out of the carter baker commission, i would ask you, mr. starr, is it time for us to establish commission, i have had some that work and some that don't work, but they can be quite effective as you take the partisan issue and address it in a very straigh

mr. krebs: not an expert on the system. seems reasonable to me. senator portman: would anyone else like to comment on that? >> this is representative frank ryan. goodl tell you that is a system and that would alleviate a significant number of the curbs i had in my election. majorld indicate we saw problems in 2001, which led to is the basis of my testimony today. in 2008 and 2009, we had the crisis with the banking industry. happenedope that what in the 2000 elections and the , they would be similar legislation they could help us restore the confidence people have that there is some degree of uniform perspective about the requirements that each of the states needs to comply with. what ohio is doing would have alleviated many of the concerns i had. --if i may say just a word and i think what senator portman, you have identified is a best practice. it certainly qualifies as one of besthings -- we have can the entire 50 states and here are the best practices, the recommendations could be based on experiences as opposed to theoretical constructs. let's see what has w

thursday ohio senator rob portman spoke about the covid relief bill that he and a bipartisan group of senators have worked on. >> mr. president, i'm here on the floor again today to talk about the need for us to pass a legislative package that i would call an emergency package to deal with our covid-19 crisis that we have in this country. as we talk today on the floor of the senate, there are negotiators working busily in a room nearby to try to come up with that package and that's a good thing. i know they've run into some road blocks, at least so i've been told. we need to work through those road blocks. they're relatively small compared to the overall importance of the small businesses, helping those hospitals, helping those families who find themselves without a paycheck through no-fault of their own, and my open is that we can get there. the legislation that is being looked at today, which may be part of a larger package that we'll vote on either tomorrow or the next day, is, as i understand it, informed by work that a bipartisan group of us did over the past several weeks and i appreciate my colleagues so muc

mr. chairman if i may say just a word, i think what senator portman you've identified as a best practice and it certainly qualifies as a commission, we have canvassed the entire 50 states and here are the best practices, the recommendations can be based on experiences opposed to theoretical constructs, let's just say what is worked in the various states with reputations for honesty t and integrity. >> your honor that would be the objective, thank you for your notice. >> thank you very much, on behalf of the chairman i'm going to recognize myself, thank you to the witnesses for being here. i just want to say how important it is that were having today's hearing. let me just give you an example. yesterday i am from the state of missouri, yesterday i was talking with the constituents back at home a group of 30 people, every single one of them told me that they felt they had been disenfranchised, that their votes did not matter that the election had been rigged, these are normal reasonable people, these are notfr crazy people, these are reasonable people and by the way involved in politics th

portman, are you on webex? senator hawley, are you on w webex? i'll try cinema. then i'll pick up the slack. mr. banal, i want to explore further what access you didn't have to the information you requested to verify this. again, i value the paper backups, i value the controls, but they're only as good as they're actually used, and they only provide confidence to the extent that it's a transparent process. so just speak a little bit to what you had access to, what you did not have access to, what you were denied. go ahead. >> thank you, mr. chairman. the very sad fact is that we were denied access to almost anything meaningful that would allow us to verify -- >> can you be specific? >> absolutely, senator. let's talk about the paper back-ups on the electronic machines. we were denied nyaany access to those except for one machine in the entire state of nevada. we were denied that access. i wish i could have quoted mr. krebs when we were fighting our discovery fights in nevada, saying how important it was to get access to these. we couldn't see any paper back-ups, and on top of that, the printers

mr. jordan for his support for this bill at the committee's markup and i would be remiss if i did not recognize our partners in the senate, senators portman and widen, for their leadership -- wyden, for their leadership and commitment to thevert. finally, i send -- to this effort. finally, i and he a thank you to doug collins, the co-lead on this bill, and i want to thank him for his partnership for making the federal court record system freely accessible to all americans. i would also like to thank perry applebom with the judiciary committee, jamie simpson and matt robinson of my subcommittee. john pharaoh, with congressman collins' -- farrow, with congressman collins' office, and i'd like to give a special thanks to keith for all ofs i effort -- all of his efforts to help us be on the floor today with this bill. without everyone's persistence, dedication and countless hours of hard work, -- hard work behind the scenes, we would not be here today. mr. speaker, wealth should not act as a barrier to access our courts. whether it's a journalist reporting on the court's activities or a citizen petitioning the court for redress, access to the

mr. portman: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: mr. president, ask unanimous consent that the quorum cl being vitiated. officer without objection, so ordered. mr. portman: i ask ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding therovisions of rule 22, the postcloture time on the hauptman nomination expire at 11:45 a.m. tomorrow and the senate vote on confirmation of the nomination. further, if cloture is up voked on the one hand the davis nomination, the senate vet on the motion up to voke cloture on the waller nomination. i further ask that the postcloture time with rpect to -- understand that the confirmation vote with respect to the waller nomination occ at a time to be determined by the majority leader on thursday, december 3. if any of the nominations can confirmed, the motions to and laid upon the table, and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. portman: thank you, mr. president. i'm here on the floor today to once again talk about the need for this senate and this c

mr. portman: mr. president, first, i am delighted that we are finally at the point where we're passing legislation to deal with the covid-19 crisis that has gripped my state and our country. we have a health care pandemic. we have an economic crisis. and i'm pleased to say that on a bipartisan basis we're now coming together, as we did nine months ago with the cares act. it shouldn't have been nine months, but we now have a target bill that focuses on providing a bridge between now and the time at which the vaccines will be widely available, and we need the help. the economy is faltering, as was just said. but also the health care crisis in my home state and so many other places has gotten worse. so it's time -- past time. now i'm told i've given 21 speeches on the floor about the bipartisan nature of this. i was proud to be part of the bipartisan group that put together our own package over the last month. i think that encouraged leaders on both sides to see that there was a lot of common ground, the

mr. portman: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: madam president, to my colleague from vermont, my understanding is in a room somewhere near here right now those negotiations are ongoing and there certainly better be unemployment insurance. that was part of the bipartisan framework i worked with the presiding officer on. there should be not just federal assistance for self-employed workers, gig economy workers and those benefiting from the 13-week extension, but also additional funding. it is my understanding that direct payments are also in the mix. i wish they would get their work done. you know, it's been nine months since the cares act was done and i hope we can figure out a way to get through the hurdles that remain. i spent much of the day, as my colleagues i'm sure, talking to colleagues trying to figure out how to you -- do you fix the last couple of issues that are out there. my hope is that even if it's not a perfect bill for me, and it won't be. i know it won't be. we spent three or four weeks that is bipartisan t

mr. portman: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to legislative session and be in a period of morning business be senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. portman: mr. president, i'm here on the floor today to talk again about the need for us to pass a legislative package which would i will call an emergency package to deal with our covid-19 crisis we have in this country. as we talk today on the floor of the senate, there are negotiators working busily in a room nearby to try to come up with that package. that's a good thing. i know they've run into some roadblocks, at least so i've been told. we need to work through those roadblocks. they're relatively small compared to the importance of the overall mission of helping the people we represent, helping those small businesses, helping those hospitals, helping those families who find themselves without a paycheck through no fault of their own, and my hope is tha

mr. portman: i'm on the floor today to pay tribute to friends and colleagues who will be leaving the senateat the start of this new congress. i consider lamar alexander, who spoke yesterday, to be a friend and a mentor. he is an institution around here. he is what i would consider and old-school senator in the best way. he not only takes the time to learn the issues, but he also understands how to explain the importance of the policies that we work on up here to the people back home. by embodying the principles of collegiality and bipartisanship, he has accomplished a lot for the people of tennessee and all americans. in the senate, you need 59 other senators to say, that's a good idea and to get anything accomplished. and it's critical then to get to know your colleagues, learn thousand -- learn how to work with them to get anything done. we've accomplished a lot under his leadership on a number of issues. i am going to mention two recent examples. first his 21st century cures act that passed in 2016. it provided needed authorization for investments in the national institutes of health and