mr. vitter: mr. president, if any quorum call is ongoing, i would ask unanimous consent that it be ended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. vitter: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, last month we all learned with great sadness of justice antonin scalia's passing after nearly 30 years on the court. he would have turned 80 years old on friday, march 11. in recent weeks foremost on people's minds as they reflect on justice scalia's legacy and his life is his dedication to the letter of the law, his respect for constitutional and statutory tests, his view that the u.s. constitution is a sacred document which must be read and adhered to. his decisions and opinions were aimed to follow the constitution wherever it took him, even if it may not have been to a place where he would agree politically. justice scalia not only understood the importance of not legislating from the bench, but he also cared deeply about the lesson being taught by the work of the court, and through his writings, hi

mr. vitter: thank you, madam president. i ask unanimous consent to end the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. vitter: madam president, i rise today with enormous pride but also real sadness to honor one of my longest serving and most talented staff members, zack bay, as he departs the senate later this week to start an exciting new career. zack has worked his way up our ranks in my office, starting on the house side, and in the process has filled almost every role in sight, starting with chief bottle washer and going up from there. he actually started in 2001, shortly after i was elected to the u.s. house as an intern back in louisiana, in hammond, louisiana. he did a great job there. in 2002, he was an intern up here in d.c. he showed even enormous, greater progress and promise. and then he came on full-time as a legislative correspondent at the end of 2002. in 2004 i ran for the united states senate, big undertaking, enormous challenge, statewide campaign. and zak moved on to the campaign side and was in charge of the grass roots effort which wa

mr. chairman. thank you, senator vitter. as i indicated before, new orleans has indicated that will provide us information. certainly the issues you raised about a court order or issues of public safety to implicate i.c.e. concerns and would allow us to undertake our i.c.e. responsibility to remove those individuals. >> thank you. madam attorney general, the similarities between the mischief of the tobacco industry pretending that the science of tobacco dangers was unsettled, and the fossil fuel industry pretending that the science of carbon emissions dangers is unsettled has been remarked on widely, particularly by those who study the climate denial apparatus, that the fossil fuel industry has erected a. under president clinton veterans have brought in 18 civil action against the tobacco industry for its fraud. under president obama the department of justice has done nothing so far about the climate denial scheme. a request for action by the department of justice has been referred by you to the fbi. my question to you is ot

senator vitter. >> thank you mr. chairman.dictions around the u.s. we've talked about this before. >> yes. >> often defenders of those policies couch it in terms of not wanting to dissuade il slles would wob witness or victims from reporting crime. however a lot of the policies also apply to not reporting illegals who are arrested or convicted of criminal offenses. in other words, they're on the criminal end of an event as we saw, of course, tragically in the murder in san francisco. do you thinkt it should be disallowed for a local jurisdiction to prohibit its police force from reporting illegal status of somebody who is arrested or convicted of a crime? >> thank you, senator. you certainly have raised a very important issue that affects the interaction with the local jurisdictions as you've noted with our federal policies for removal of dangerous aliens, particularly those who are coming out of federal custody. your reference, again, to the tragic murder in san francisco is one that is highlighted this issue. certainly with

mr. chairman. i would ask senator vitter if he would stay so that i can speak. >> you can certainly speak.i have to stay for quorum? >> we will give you unanimous consent to speak. >> i do have to go. of nine elected justices making laws on the bench, that is what we have seen . this is one of the most activist courts we have had. senator vitter has not been on , but, myittee goodness, how may times have i spoken to this? sotomayord the hearing, it was my fifth day in the senate. this is an activist court. irony ofd about the justice scalia. we had 100 votes on the voting rights act. a he said that -- will come the senators voted because it was named the voters -- voting rights act. remember that? >> he had a half hour of argument and he ignored hundreds of hours of debate that we had. isator franken: this insulting to hear that. it is just insulting. now, let me say a couple of things about some of the death i have been hearing. stuff i have been hearing. when chairman biden spoke, does anyone here know, that would be the chairman, do you know when he spoke? i am sorry. i apologize. it ha

mr. chairman. i ask senator vitter if he could stay so that i could speak. >> you can certainly speak. do i have to stay for a quorum? >> we will give you unanimous consent to speak even if he goes. >> i would like to address a couple things, you can hear them in the record or something like that. this idea of nine non elected justices making law from the bench is what we have seen with the roberts court. this is one of the most activist courts we have had. we had -- the senator has not -- senator vitter has not been on this committee until this congress. my goodness. how many times have i spoken to this? when we had the sotomayor hearing it was my fifth day in the senate. this is an activist court. he was talking about the irony, justice scalia, justice scalia, we had 100 votes on the voting rights act, unanimous vote by the united states senate, and what did justice scalia say? he said the senators voted for it because it was named the voting rights act. remember that? >> he had half an hour of argument and ignored the hundreds of hours hearings and debates we had. >> insulting. to h

mr. chairman. thank you, senator vitter. as i indicated before, new orleans has indicated they will provide us information certainly the issues that you've raised about a court order authorizing them to do so, issues of public safety implicate i.c.e. concerns and would allow us to undertake our i.c.e. responsibility to remove those individuals. >> thank you. >> madam attorney general the similarities between the mischief of the tobacco industry pretending that the science of toe tobacco's dangerous was unsettled and the fossil fuel industry pretending the carbon emissions is dangerous unsettled has been remarked on widely particularly those who study the climate denial anpparatus that the fossil fuel industry erepresented. under president clinton the department of justice brought and won a civil reco action against the tobacco industry under its fraud. under president obama the department justice has done nothing about the climate denial scheme. a request for action by the department of justice has been referred by you to th

vitters to their homes. -- visitors to their homes. host: who determines who sit on the rules committee? mr. ginsberg: that's termed by each state's delegation, so once the delegation is chosen, in state conventions or by state executive committee, the members of the actual delegation to the national committee will vote. and put two people on rules, two on credentials, two on platform, two on permanent gazaon. host: when donald trump says if he's denied the nomination ris woulbreak out in cleland, for him or anybody comes in with a vera, majority of those going into the coenappe to those des? how does the r.n.c. prepare for the anger, the frustration, the resentment they may feel this nomination was taken away from them? mr. ginsberg: i think the rules are the rules. as the chairman said in the tape that you showed, the rules say that you have to have a majority of delegates to the convention. it's not a plurality. historically conventions have majority winners, not plurality winners. because you want the strongest possible candidate. you have to get a majority of your base agreeing that tha

vitter is the objector. you did not yield the floor, you may proceed. >> i will conclude very quickly. mr.hairman, it's time to change your website. i yield the floor. >> senator cornyn. whilean't help but think listening to our colleagues across the aisle that if flip-flops were an olympic sport, there might be some gold medals awarded. it's really breathtaking. i do believe the debate we are having here today is an important one and we should welcome it. it's important for us to have public and and visible to the american people. the question is simple. , the majority of whose members were elected as a check on a president clinton -- on a president with little regard for congress, confirmed a supreme court nominee of that primacy -- president and the last months of his office when that nominee would likely change the ideological balance of the supreme court of the united states for decades? justice scalia served for 30 years. clearly the stakes are high. decided thewe have american people should have their voice heard in the selection of this next lifetime appointment. the center has cle

mr. vitter: he started as my legislative director in the house under the really wonderful tutelage of my first chief of staff marcy greceler. we're both indebted to marty who is deceased for getting us started on a wonderful foot in congress. then kyle became my chief of staff upon marty's retirement in 2002. and i guess i would sum up the bottom line in a very simple and important way. there's not been one moment during these 17 years when i've regretted placing my complete trust in kyle to lead our office and serve the people of louisiana, not one. from day one kyle set the office standard of serve to constituents and set it as a top priority. he establishes -- he established offices throughout the state and one of his most memorable decisions instituted a mobile office on wheels so that we could reach out to those hit hard by hurricanes gustav and ike in 2008, folks who could not otherwise reach our permanent offices. i say memorable because for the staffers who actually had to man and woman that vehicle, it was an adventurous ride. now, of course, kyle's leadership style and commitme