quorum call: mr. thune: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: madam president, is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes, we are. mr. thune: i would ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed toll executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, international bank for reconstruction and development, jennifer d. nordquist of virginia to be united states executive director. the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: madam president, it was a good august. while i head back to south dakota almost every weekend, august gives me the chance to spend multiple uninterrupted weeks back home visiting with south dakotans and traveling to the far corners of the state. august is also fair season in south dakota. and there is nothing better, madam president,

quorum call: mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: mr. president, is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: it is. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, the past two weeks have provided a kind of microcosm of the democrat party since the 2016 election. a combination of unhinged partisanship and a radical shift to the far left. for the past two weeks we've seen democrats call for not one but two impeachments, justice kavanaugh's and the president's, and introduced another socialist inspired government approach to health care, this time on the issue of prescription drugs. first, there were the calls to impeach justice kavanaugh based on yet another vague rumor. it quickly became glaringly obvious there was no substance to the rumor. the alleged victim apparently has zero memory of the alleged behavior, but that didn't give democrats any pause. it was right on to the next rushed impeachment proposal. on tuesday the speaker

mcconnell, mr. thune, senators, will meet as well. we're back in. we are going to talk about the entire agenda. usmca. how we deal with the aprops bills, gun legislation, make sure the horrific things that take place will never happen again. i watched the president take action on this before. i was with the president when we went to las vegas. i watched a bump stock had been ok'd through the last administration, i watched what this president did. he took a bump stock away. i watched the president sign a bill when it came to the nics fix. this president looks at the problem and wants to find a solution. this president has sat down, trying to find what is the best way to make sure these are never duplicated again. i think that's what he'll discuss today as one of the ideas, getting all the facts before us. where can we produce legislation that makes sure it doesn't happen? not for the sake of legislation that still allows something to go forward, but what is the problem here and why can't we solve it? we watched in the parkland shooting, not once but

quorum call: quorum call: mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. thune: mr. president, is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate will resume legislative session. s.j. res. 54 is discharged and the senate will proceed to the consideration of the joint resolution which rp p the clerk will report. the clerk: senate joint resolution 54 relating to a national emergency declared by the president. the presiding officer: the senator is recognized. mr. thune: thank you. readers of forbes might have seen an article earlier this month entitled russian navy to be the first to field cruise missiles on submarines. articles like this are a timely reminder of the ever-present need to invest in our military. it can be easy to take u.s. military superiority for granted, but our military preeminence did not come out of nowhere. our military is strong as a result of senior senator -- as a result of sustained investment in commit

mr. harris. >> thank you, senator thune and senator schatz. everything you said, it's sad to me because it's not happening by accident but by design because the business model is to keep people engaged. which in other words, this hearing is about persuasive technology. persuasion is about an invisible asymmetry of power. when i was a kid, i was a magician. magic teaches you that you can have asymmetric power without the other person realizing it. you can masquerade having it while looking like you have an equal relationship. pick a card, any card and you know how to get them to pick the card you want. what we're experiencing is an increasing asymmetry of power that's been masquerading itself as an equal and contractual relationship where the responsibility is on us. let's walk through why that's happening. in the race for attention, companies have to get more of it by being more and more aggressive. i call it the race to the bottom of the brain stem. so it starts like poulter refresh. that operates like a slot machine, has the same kind of add

thune. >> thank you, mr. chairman. last year thanks to the hard work of this committee the congress passed the reauthorization act of 2018 which included the tsa modernization act reauthorizing the agency for first time since 2001 when it was founded in response to the tragic attacks that occurred on this day. and the bill included deploying more screening technologies and protections for unsecured portions of the airport and minimizing security line wait times all to benefit the experience of the traveling public while keeping our airports and skies safe from harm. building on improvements made by the faa extension safety and security act of 2016, the bill also required tsa to increase the accessibility of the precheck program. this included a provision requiring the agency to enter into an agreement with the private sector entities to expand enrollment options to secure online or mobile enrollment capabilities. increasing the enrollment options is important in states like south dakota where enrollment is limited to t

mr. chairman. in june, senator thune held a subcommittee hearing on persuasive design. as we mentioned, facebook, youtube and twitter are engineered to capture, track and keep our a attention, whether through predictions of the next video to keep us watching or what content to push to the top of our newsfeeds. platformsl media failed to block extremist content online, this content doesn't just slip through the cracks. it is amplified, and amplified to a wider audience. we saw that during the christchurch shooting. terrorist'sand's facebook live broadcast was up for one hour. that was confirmed by the wall street journal, before it was removed. it gained thousands of views during that timeframe. ms. bickert, how do you concentrate on the increased risk from how your algorithms boost content while gaps still exist in getting dangerous content off of the platform? you touched on that a little bit in your response to senator wicker, but how are you targeting solutions to address that specific tension that we see? ms. bickert: senator, thank you for the question. it is a rea

mr. trump had one of his own. >> sat around chuck grassley was there, joni ernst. john thune.ike pounds, a whole group of great people. >> reporter: the white house said that the president minute to refer to senator mike rounds. and then taking a dim view on energy efficient light bulbs because of how they make him look. >> the bulb that we're being forced to use, most importantly, the light's no good, i always look orange. and so do you. the light is the worst. but number two, it's many times more expensive than that old incandescent bulb that worked very well. >> reporter: in his own speech, the gop poked fun at mike pence, too. >> he said i'm the vice president of the united states. let me be clear, i am the vice president of the united states. >> reporter: and pence pounced on beto o'rourke. >> talking about higher taxes, they were talking about gun control. not just gun control, you had leading candidates for the highest office in the land talking about taking firearms away from law-a biding citizens. >> reporter: that was in reference to this -- >> hell yes, we're going

thuned stes congress is about to begin impeachment hearings over president trump's controversial telephone call with ukraine's president. mrlion in aid to ukraine when he pressed the country's leader to open an investigation into the biden family. the president will release the full transcript of that call today, and the whistle-blower who first brought the call to light wants to testify before congress. nancy cordes has the view from capitol hill. >> i'm announcing the house of representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. >> reporter: after holding out on impeachment for months, house speaker nancy pelosi said president trump had violated his oath of office by -- >> calling upon a foreign power to intervene in his election. this is a breach of his constitutional responsibilities. >> reporter: her change of heart came after a cascade of more than 30 house democrats announced they are now open to impeachment too. >> the future of our democracy is at stake. >> this is the president basically saying yes, i colluded what are you going to do about it? >> i think we have no other choice. >> reporter: minn

mr. trump had one of his own. >> sat around and chuck grassley there was and joni ernst and john thune and mike pounds -- just a whole group of great people. >> reporter: the white house later said the president meant to refer to senator mike browns and the president mocked environmentalist taking a dim view on energy efficient light bulbs because of how they make him look. >> the bulb that we're being forced to use, number one, to me, most importantly, the lights no good. i always look orange. and so do you. the light is the worst. but number two, it's many times more expensive than that old incandescent bulb that worked very well. >> reporter: in his own speech to gop lawmakers mike pence poked fun too. >> i'm the vice president of the united states. let me be clear. i'm the vice president of the united states. >> reporter: pence then pounced on former texas congressman beto o'rourke. >> when they were talking about hire taxes, they were talking about gun control. and not just gun control, you had leading candidates for the highest office in the land talking about taking firearms away from law-abiding citizen

quorum call: quorum call: mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. thune: is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: it is. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, defense funding is always an imperative. there are always going to be bad actors who threaten our country, whether they are major powers like china and russia or terrorist organizations like isis or al qaeda. and we have to be prepared to counter those threats. in the united states, we're used to having the most outstanding military in the world. in fact, we've come to rely on it. we assume our military will always be the best because it has been the best for as long as we can remember, but we can't forget that our military preeminence is a result of sustained investment. while our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines constitute the most advanced and proficient fighting force in the world, they can't do their jobs or maintain our military superiority without adequate resources. and that in

mr. thune: mr. president, is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: it is. mr. thune: i would ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: madam president, last week the senate confirmed president trump's 150th judge. that's a milestone. again, and again, democrats have used the time-consuming cloture vote process to delay confirmation of president trump's nomination. even nominees that they ultimately chose to vote for. by this point in president obama's first term, republicans had required cloture votes on just three of president obama's judicial nominees -- three. compare that to today. as of september the 12th, democrats had required cloture votes on a staggering 71.7% of president trump's picks for the bench. 71%. basically two out of every three -- more than two out of every three judges, madam president, the democrats are requiring cloture votes. and by that, it simply means they're filibustering that particular nominee. the way that you end a filibuster is you have to invoke cloture. when repub

mr. thune: madam president. the presiding officer: majority whip. mr. thune: madam president, is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: it is. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. is. mr. thune: madam president, in just a few days we will mark the one-year anniversary of the president concluding negotiations on the united states-mexico-canada free trade agreement. it's time for congress to ratify this agreement now. the united states-mexico-canada agreement will benefit pretty much every sector of the u.s. economy. the automobile industry, textiles, digital trade, and e-commerce, services, manufacturing, and yes of course, agriculture. madam president, as the represent of -- representative of a state whose lifeblood is agriculture farmers and ranchers are always at the top of my mind, and a huge focus is helping the struggling economy. low commodity, livestock prices, protracted trade disputes have meant a toug

mr. thune: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. thune: mr. president, as i begin this morning, i need to mention the tornado that tore through my hometown of sue falls last night. thankfully there appears to be fatalities but there was a lot of structural damage. i'm grateful to all the emergency responders, the electric crews, and all those who worked through the night to keep residents safe. my thoughts are with sioux falls today and with all those who are dealing with the tornadoes after -- tornado's aftermath. i had the opportunity this morning to speak with mayor paul tenheadachen of sioux falls who was up throughout the night with his team and just expressed our support tom, to his team and community as they begin the process of cleanup and recovery from what was a very, very damaging storm. also talked with my wife and older daughter who lives in sioux falls, both of whom were in their basements last night as most i think residents were but glad to hear that people took the necessary steps to keep themselves and their families safe. as

mr. thune: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: madam president, i spent a lot of time talking to south dakota farmers over the august break. this is one thing on farmers' minds now. it is trade, it is markets, it is having place to sell the things we raise and sell. farmers and ranchers have had a few rough years, low livestock prices, natural disasters and protracted trade disputes have left our agricultural economy trailing behind our economy as a whole. as farmers emphasized to me during august, one of the biggest things we can do help our agricultural economy is to implement trade agreements that benefit american farmers and ranchers. the united states is currently involved in trade negotiations on multiple fronts, with the european union, with china, with japan, other asian pacific countries. like many farmers and ranchers, i support the president's goal of addressing trade imbalances and securing more favoritable conditions for american products abroad. but we need to conclude these agreements as long as possible. the