quorum call: mr. sasse: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mr. sasse: i ask unanimous consent to suspend the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sasse: mr. president, mr. president, the consideration of federal judges with lifetime appointments is perhaps the most important and long lasting work this body will do between now and the end of the year. every senator, republican and democrat, took an oath to perform this duty. nobody nobody took an oath to outsource this duty to any outside organization. unfortunately, some of my colleagues on the senate judiciary committee are apparently willing to hand over their voting cards to the american bar association based on the claim that the a.b.a. is an unbiased, indifferent umpire that just calls balls and strikes. the american bar association is not neutral. the a.b.a. is a liberal organization that has publicly and consistently advocated for left-of-center positions for more than two decades now. the a.b.a. has no right to special treatment by members of this body. it's pretty si

mr. sasse: less than 5%? can you distinguish between page -- fake and automated? because wouldn't there be accounts that real people would run but you could imagine business cycle purposes where you have accounts that are automated but not fake? mr. edgett: great. thank you for letting me distinguish that. we look at whether or not spam or automated whether we think there is a human behind it or not. we can't calculate in some instances whether someone is pretending to be someone they're not. we have a pseudononymous policy that allows you to come on and create your own name. it doesn't have to be the one that you have. in that instance we can't trust those metrics. mr. sasse: in political twitter it looks like there are a whole bunch of issues they're following 5,000 and they've got 5,000. they're following 5,000. they have 5,000 followers. it looks like many of these accounts that are the sort of most laughably fake are self-referntial. they're retweeting back and forth at each other. when yo

sasse: thank you. i ran past my time but i'll follow up with your team. >> thanks, mr. chairman. thanks to all on the panel. last night, 19 major civil rights organizations sent a letter to facebook which explained their, quote, deep concern regarding ads, pages and hateful content on your platform used to divide our country and in particular to promote anti-muslim, anti-black, anti-lgbtq animus. senator durbin: they had a russian facebook account that, quote, not only promoted anti-immigrant messaging online but also managed to organize an in-person anti-refugee rally in twin falls, idaho, in 2016. the letter also detailed a situation where facebook offered its expertise to a bigoted advocacy group by creating a case study testing different video formats. advising how to reach the anti-refugee camp campaign in the swing states in the final weeks of the 2016 election. is it true facebook assisted in an anti-muslim effort? mr. stretch: thank you, senator, for the question. let me start by saying that the content that we produced to this committee and that was run by these fake acc

, i hereby appoint the honorable ben sasse, a senator from the state of nebraska, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: orrin g.hatch, president pro tempore. mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: tax reform represents our best chance today to get the economy living up to its true potential, and its once-in-a generation opportunity. the last time major tax reform happened was more than 30 years ago. in the years since, our country, our economy, and the global marketplace have changed in profound ways. moreover, the lingering economic challenges of the last decade only compound the urgency to get this done. jobs went overseas, wages didn't grow like they should have, hardworking families worried if they'd be able to send their kids to college or save for retirement. it's clear that families and small businesses had a rough go of it during the obama economy. they deserve relief. they deserve the chance for something better. tax reform is an important way to help get the economy, jobs, and opportunity moving again in a serious way. listen to this small business owner and franchisee from lexington

mr. sessions: i'm able to accept as accurate news reports that have come out on that. rep. johnson: testifying before the senate judiciary committee, senator sass asked you if the department had taken adequate action to prevent election meddling in the future. you stated there was no review underway of the cyber security vulnerabilities. have you requested a review of what laws need to be up dated in order to protect our elections from foreign influence? mr. sessions: we have discussed those matters, but no completion has been done. rep. johnson: are you completing a review at this time? mr. sessions: yes. our team is looking at that. the fbi has real skills in that area. we are not anywhere near where i would like is to be yet. rep. johnson: what individual in your department is leading that inquiry mr. sessions: we would be working with voting rights section, criminal section, ,ational security section probably is the most knowledgeable in the hacking area as well as the expertise in the fbi. rep. johnson: thank you. mr. attorney general, first of all, i want to thank you for all your efforts to restore the rule of law. nothing could be more

mr. sasse: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise on the floor today with a simple message -- we should completely dispel with the fiction that the american bar association is a fair and impartial arbiter of facts. this is a sad reality, but it is the reality. let's back up. we in this body have taken an oath to uphold and defend the constitution of the united states. considering judicial nominees who have lifetime appointments is the most important thing that this senate will do over the weeks ahead. it demands the full attention of every single member, republican, democrat, and independent. this ought to be an opportunity for this body to pause and stand back from the frenzy of day-to-day media cycles and cable news shouting and recommit ourselves to basic american civics and to some very basic american ideas. the idea that our three branches of government have three separate roles. the idea that we in the article 1 branch, the lawmakers, make the laws because we stand before the people and can be hired and fired.