mr. schumer: mr. president? the presiding officer: senator from new york. mr. schumer: mr. president, i is rise this afternoon to talk about the pace of judicial confirmations with my friends, the senators from hawaii and the senator from massachusetts, who have been real leaders on this issue. wcialtion we have only one -- well, we have only one more day of legislative session before congress breaks until september. it is an appropriate time to take stock of how the majority has handled their job of scheduling and confirming judges. more than a year into this congress, the republican leadership has allowed only 22 judges to be confirmed, only 22. in the last two years of the bush administration with a democratic majority, the mirror situation of what we're in today, 68 -- so that's 68 versus 22. the republican majority is confirming judges at the slowest rate in more than 60 years, and this has real consequences across america. vacancies have risen from 43 to 83 since republicans took over the majority. 29 have been judicial emergencies. i know in my city of buffalo in wes

mr. schumer: mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: ms. klobuchar: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i come to the floor today to speak in support of the comprehensive addiction and recovery act. this bill represents an important step in tackling the growing crisis of prescription drug and heroin addiction in this country. i thank my colleagues, especially my, the original sponsors of this bill, myself and senator whitehouse, senator portman, senator ayotte. and we have worked together on this for a number of years. drug overdoses from opiates now claim more lives than car accidents every year. that's a pretty shocking statistic that i don't think most americans would expect. the crisis is ripping apart families from all different background and with deaths increasing nearly sixfold since the year 20

mr. schumer: thank you, mr. president. on roll call 122, i voted no. it was my intention to vote aye. therefore, i ask unanimous consent that i be permitted to change my vote since it will not affect the outcome. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate be in a period of morning business for senators to speak therein for up to ten minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the appointment at the desk appear separately in the record as if made by the chair. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i understand there is a bill at the desk. could we have order in the senate? the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i understand there is a bill at the desk. i ask its first reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the bill for the first time. the clerk: h.r. 1270, an act to amend the internal revenue code of 1986

mr. schumer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mr. schumer: i want to thank my colleague from florida for his leadership on this issue and the great questions from the senator from nevada and illinois elucidating. i will just sum up here in a minute. if the republican leader wanted to get something done, instead of putting this bill on the floor again, he would go over to the house and tell them to vote for the bipartisan bill that he voted for and we all voted for, $1.1 billion. and i'd say something else to my friend from kentucky. when he was in the minority, he kept saying to us leadership means working together. well, he's in charge now and we have a crisis, and instead of working together, he's putting a bill on the floor that had no input from our side, that doesn't do the job and is loaded with poison pills. is that leadership? does that save -- does that show that the senate is working again? he's back to the old ways, when we have a crisis. again, if the majority leader of this body wanted to get something done about zika, he

mr. schumer: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mr. schumer: thank you, madam president. i'm here to speak on the koch brothers. but first i just wanted to say briefly to my good friend from alaska, instead of playing political games if he wants to pass a defense bill, we all know it has to be done in a bipartisan way. you don't just take a bill, throw it down and say take it or leave it. that's what happened last year. we worked in a bipartisan way p. defense spending got an increase. so let's stop all the rhetoric and politicizing this issue. let's work together and get it done. now i want to talk about the issue before us here, and that is the ammazing influence of the koch brothers, two people on what's going on in this country and particularly when it comes to climate change. i want to thank both senator kaine who spoke before me and particularly senator whitehouse who has not only organized our speeches but has been the leader in our caucus on focusing on this issue, and it's getting good resonance with the american people. now, w

schumer and lily tomlin. and stars kit harrington and last year's winner peter h kyle chandler for blood line and mr. robot and better call saul and matthew reece, and kevin spacey house of cards and best actress, claire dans homeland and viola davis how to get away with murder and taraji p. henson and robin wright house of cards. we'll see who takes home the emmys right here on nbc. >>> more to come on "action news" at 5:00, another check of the forecast for you. live outside a steamy day the accuweather forecast you'll have to put up with, we are live along penn's landing, cecily tynan has all the details from accuweather. >>> time for a check of accuweather at the "action news" big board. cecily tynan has the latest on temperatures, it's still hot but today is the worst. dew points are dropping a little bit tomorrow. rick are you live -- listening to the forecast. this is a beautiful shot from easton, pennsylvania, seeing a good amount of sunshine, hazy sunshine out there, it's a great day to be inside of air conditioning, you look out and say it looks beautiful but doesn't feel that way. wind gus

schumer: i am with you and would like to help build back up that workforce. >> thank you mr. chairman. last week the supreme court affirmed the decision by the court of appeals for the fifth circuit, or pulling a nationwide preliminary injunction halting the implementation of the obama administration's top a program. dapaministration's ad program. the administration argued that the scope of the preliminary injunction should be narrowly confined texas. alternatively they argued even if it should not be narrowly confined to texas, it should at a minimum be narrowly confined to the total of 26 states, including texas, that part of the lawsuit. the fifth circuit significantly rejected that position. the fifth circuit held that partial implementation of dapa would detract from the scheme organized by congress. a substantial likelihood that a geographic injunction would be ineffective. dapa beneficiaries would be free to move across states." even the fact that the fifth circuit rejected this argument, or that holding that injection has been upheld, what is your anytion on whether d

mr. president, i ask consent that the grassley-schumer substitute amendment be agreed to, the bill as amended be read a third time. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: mr. president, i know of no further debate on the measure. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, all in favor say aye. all those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill as amended is passed. ms. murkowski: mr. president, i ask consent that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. 3283 introduced earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 3283, a bill to designate the community based outpatient clinic of the department of veterans affairs in pueblo, colorado, as the p.f.c. james dunn v.a. clinic. the presiding officer: without objection the senate will proceed to the measure. ms. murkowski: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the bill be