mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. this is the 133rd climate speech that i have delivered and it has been an amazing week. on saturday, "the new york times" posted its cover story about dying coral reefs in our oceans. on sunday, the cover story in "the providence journal" was about drowning salt marshes in rhode island. both are the handiwork of climate change. but even more amazing, listen to what a koch brothers operative said last week -- and i quote -- "charles has said the climate is changing so the climate is changing." that was cheryl corrigan speaking of koch industries, the massive fossil fuel conglomerate led by charles and david koch. and the "charles" was charles koch. she went on, "i think he's also said, and we believe that humans have a part in that." climate change is real, it see seems, and manmade, if even they will say so. what this really means, mr. president, is that the denial schtick has collapsed entirely. we saw this coming with the oil and gas c.e.o.'s in the run up to the parris climate summ

mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. i am here today to highlight law enforcement legislation that would help crack down on human trafficking, terrorism financing, money laundering, the narcotics trade, tax evailsvation, public corruption and a litany of other crimes in the united states and around the world. these crimes all involve money, and the united states has become a favorite destination for criminals looking to hide it. earlier this month, the international consortium of investigative journalists published the first of the so-called ""panama papers,"" a leak of11.5 million confidential documents from a panama-based law firm that sets up shell corporations and tax shelters for wealthy clients. the documents we've seen so far show that, along with the caribbean islands you might expect, several american states are popular places to form shell corporations. our friend, senator kent conrad, who used to be chairman of the budget committee, was fond of using this floor chart here showing what's called the ug land hous

mr. whitehouse's goal isn't to punish those who disagree with him on climate? well, one reason is that a rico suit was won by the united states department of justice under the clinton and bush administrations against the tobacco industry. so there's this little matter of this being the law. the journal never seems to mention the fact that the government won the civil case against the tobacco industry. before the rico lawsuit was won by the department of justice, the "wall street journal" editorial page had worked it over pretty well, calling it abuse, hypocrisy, a understand a shakedown. so i understand that they don't like that fact, but it is now a fact that the department won that case. a second reason is that if there is indeed a core of deliberate fraud at the heart of the climate denial enterprise, no industry should be too big to dodge the legal consequences. most of the writers i mentioned noted themselves similarities between the tobacco fraud scheme and the climate denial operation. as has sharon eubanks, the lawyer who won the tobacco lawsuit for the

mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 20 minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you. i'm here for my 132nd time to wake up speech. we are now back from recess, and while we were away, one little thing and three really big things happened. the little thing has to do with the so-called war on coal, which we have heard so much nonsense about in this chamber. there was this article saying "natural gas has been waging a war on coal for more than a decade, and this is the year it plants the flag." natural gas has been waging a war on coal, not obama, not liberals; natural gas. the article predicts a resulting -- quote -- "wave" -- close quote -- of coal plant retirements. who wrote this? some green lefty publication? actually, it was the "wall street journal's" news department. so, as coal companies go bankrupt left and right, there's the coal story. natural gas has been wage be the war on coal for more than a decade. spinning

mr. whitehouse: that is not getting me there. i need a system in which a school can pursue an education agenda, because if teachers are receiving here is my new innovation agenda -- and they have been receiving agendas like there'sr decades now -- always a new agenda and they always have the and they do new reports, and the local school -based innovation gets stifled by that. that is my concern. murkowski: thank you, welcome. as you know, secretary, the alaska was compelled to stop testdate wide assessments the statewide assessments underway this year. their assessment to the alaska measures of progress began on march 29, and through a series of failures -- first of all, there were a lot of different anomalies for students throughout the state. you would be going down to question one, is there a where is questionquestion 3? these were anomalies that were not just in one district, but in multiple districts. in some there were skipped questions. in some there was no sound on the text to speech accommodations will, assorted error me

mr. whitehouse: mr. president, today is the 135th time i've come to the give voice to the issue that i feel will most significantly define this generation of leadership in the united states and, frankly, around the globe. i know that there are many people in washington who would prefer to ignore what our carbon emissions are doing to our oceans and to our climate, but we disregard nature's warnings at our peril. the changes to our environment fueled by our carbon pollution are far-reaching, from the coastlines to the prairies, from mountaintops to deep oceans, from pole to pole. as a tear restial species, we naturally pay more attention to what is happening on land, like increasing average global temperatures and upheavals in extreme weather. we don't so much see what is happening in our oceans. every year we emit into the earth's thin atmosphere tens of gigatons of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels. nearly 36 gig di gigatons of can dioxide in 2013. not all that carbon dioxide stays in the atmosph

whitehouse. senator sullivan? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank you and the ranking member for calling this hearing. it's a really important one and i want to commend the witnesses today. i have read through your testimony and really appreciate the diverse views and a lot of the insights that you're bringing to this hearing. i wanted to ask a couple questions that relate more to -- and i appreciate the focus on the small communities, because that's one of the things that we struggle with in alaska. you know, a number of those senators have been talking about the challenges of old infrastructure. actually, in my state, i have the challenge of no infrastructure. big difference. i'm sympathetic with communities that have to get rid of pipes and deal with old aging infrastructure, but we are kind of unique in that we have entire communities with no infrastructure. so in rural alaska, there are over 30 communities, thousands of my constituents that have no running water, no flush toilets. they use what we call in alaska honey buckets an

whitehouse. senator sullivan? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank you and the ranking member for calling this hearing. it's a really important one and i want to commend the witnesses today. i have read through your testimony and really appreciate the diverse views and a lot of the insights that you're bringing to this hearing. i wanted to ask a couple questions that relate more to -- and i appreciate the focus on the small communities, because that's one of the things that we struggle with in alaska. you know, a number of those senators have been talking about the challenges of old infrastructure. actually, in my state, i have the knowledchallenge of no inf a infrastructu infrastructure. big difference. i'm sympathetic with communities that have to get rid of pipes and deal with old aging infrastructure, but we are kind of unique in that we have entire communities with no infrastructure. so in rural alaska, there are over 30 communities, thousands of my constituents that have no running water, no flush toilets. they use what we call

mr. merrifield. >> thank you, senator inhofe. senator whitehouse?me say first how happy i am that the chairman had a twinkle in his eye when he made that comment about senator booker and myself. let me, second, say to dr. lyman that it is very much not our intention in this bill to short circuit the safety review of any nuclear facility. the concern that i have is that the review process of the nrc has become so reactive, getting through that obstacle course is facing hazards that have nothing to do with short-circuited or long circuitedness but simply not being appropriate to the technology in the same way that if you had to pass a test for how solid the canvas was on the wings of your proposed aircraft when you are actually proposing an aluminum winged aircraft or where the pilot's goggles needed to be and what they needed to be made of when, in fact, you are proposing a closed cockpit aircraft, it's an issue of relevancy not of shortcuts. what i would invite you to do and any other member of the panel who wishes to do is to put in writing some be

mr. merrifield. >> thank you, senator inhofe. senator whitehouse? >> let me say first how happy i am that the chairman had a twinkle in his eye when he made that comment about senator booker and myself. let me, second, say to dr. lyman that it is very much not our intention in this bill to short circuit the safety review of any nuclear facility. the concern that i have is that the review process of the nrc has become so reactive, getting through that obstacle course is facing hazards that have nothing to do with short-circuited or long circuitedness but simply not being appropriate to the technology in the same way that if you had to pass a test for how solid the canvas was on the wings of your proposed aircraft when you are actually proposing an aluminum winged aircraft or where the pilot's goggles needed to be and what they needed to be made of when, in fact, you are proposing a closed cockpit aircraft, it's an issue of relevancy not of shortcuts. what i would invite you to do and any other member of the panel who wishes to do is to put in writing

mr. whitehouse: there we go. i'm on the floor today i guess just a few moments ahead of the rankingember on our senate foreign relations committee, my friend ben cardin who is on his way but he's authorized me to proceed with a few remarks on the topic that he and i and perhaps others would like to address, which is tomorrow's signing in new york of the paris climate agreement. over 160 nations around the world are going to be participating in signing that agreement that will move many of them immediately into their program of compliance and signify for others a statement of intention to join, but i think it's the largest international agreement in terms of the number of countries involved ever. certainly the biggest one that i can think of. so it's very significant in that respect. one other thing about paris i think was also very significant, and that is what took place in america's corporate sector in support of a strong paris agreement. the president and groups lik --h particular leadership from companies l

mr. whitehouse: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: madam president, i am here with my colleague, senator portman, to join him in urging that the house take prompt action on the comprehensive addiction and recovery act that passed with such a stunning bipartisan vote here in the senate. as senator portman has pointed out, years of careful preparation went into the drafting of this bill. five separate national hearings held here in washington with people from all over the country. this is a very polished and carefully developed piece of legislative work that has the support not only of the addiction and recovery community but of the law enforcement community and many others. senator portman has been very diligent about coming to the floor to press for action from the house of representatives. my view is that since the house of representatives is under republican control, they are more likely to be attentive to the urgings of a republican senator, particularly one who has served in the house of representatives, than they are t

mr. whitehouse: and i hope we can begin to make progress, but we continue here in this body to be besieged by persistent and meretricious denial. of course the polluters want us to do nothing. they are so happy to offload to everybody else the costs of the harms from fossil fuels. the cost of heat waves, the cost of sea level rise, the cost of ocean acidification, the cost of dying forests and the rest of it. they are running a very profitable we keep the profits, you bear the costs racket. and they spend rivers of money on lobbying and on politics and on a complex p.r. machine that fills the airwaves with sound bites of cooked up, paid for doubt about climate change. i believe the worst of them actually know better but they do it anyway. in this turbulence, "the wall street journal's" editorial page regularly sides with the right wing climate denial operation. so naturally they have challenged my call for an appropriate inquiry into whether the fossil fuel industry's decades long and purposeful campaign of misinformation has run afoul of federal, civil racketeering laws. now, it is very h

mr. whitehouse: chuck canterbury, president of the national fraternal order of police explains it this way. "when we are able to expose the link between shell companies and drug trafficking, corruption, organized crime, and terrorist finance, the law enforcement community is better able to keep america safe from these illegal activities and to keep the proceeds of these crimes out of the u.s. financial system. of all places, mr. president, the united states shouldn't be a safe haven for criminals foreign or domestic, to hide their illegal assets. we could take a simple, major step in fighting money laundering, financial fraud, and terrorist financing by passing this bill. i urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to cosponsor it and to help us get it passed. i thank the chair, appreciate the extra time, and yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. flake: it's been nearly nine -l months since the u.s. had an ambassador to mexico. the president's' nominee to that post, roberta jacobson, is eminently qualified as all of us know, to