mr. whitehouse: mr. president, is the senate presently in a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes. mr. whitehouse: may i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. the decision coming up in this united states supreme court, the janice decision that senator brown has just spoken about, is one that merits the attention of people who are concerned about the country and the court, and i'd like to make two points in my remarks. the first has to do with the very difficult to explain, or at least very difficult to comfortably explain pattern of 5-4 decisions of the united states supreme court in which the five consists entirely of the republican appointees. the supreme court makes a lot of decisions, of course, but there is something that is particularly interesting about the 5-4 decisions for the five republican appointees -- where the five republican appointees line up and roll the other appointees, and when you start looking at those decisions, there are some really significant patterns tha

mr. whitehouse. >> no. >> mr. warner? >> no. >> mr. merckly? >> no. >> mr. cane? >> no. >> mr. king?> no. >> mr. van hollen? >> no. >> miss harris? >> no. >> mr. chairman? >> aye. >> report the vote. >> kill the bill! kill the bill! >> the ayes are 12 and the nays are 11. >> the bill is reported out. >> kill the bill! kill the bill! kill the bill! kill the bill! >> that's how it went. you saw the headlines about that today. it sounded like a neat and tidy process. that was the neat and tidy process. it wish the republicans got their no debate, party line hearing today. what they are trying to do with this really enormous bill will hurt the american poor and hurt the american middle class quickly and significantly and for a long time. and it will throw 13 million americans off their health insurance. and so what they are trying to do is very, very unpopular and that's why they are trying to go fast. that's why they are trying to outrun the resistance to what they are doing. they are also likely to get another non-partisan report on the cost of their bill and who it hurts as soon as to

mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. it has been a sorry spectacle for americans to witness what the polluting industries are doing with the full connivance of the trump administration to the environmental protection agency. an agency that enjoys broad popularity among the american people but is obviously a thorn in the side of big polluters who make very big campaign contributions and therefore have inordinately big influence here in congress. the creep show parade of nominees to the offices responsible for protecting the public's health at e.p.a. is nothing short of astounding. it is an array of cranks, charlatans, hacks, lobbyists, toadies, in really unprecedented measure in the history of our country. it seems that at this point the key and only credential for appointment to the environmental protection agency is that you are reliably pro-industry and reliably anti-public health. we are facing a nomination for one of these characters. his name is william wehrum. he was previously nominated to the e.p.a. office of air

mr. whitehouse. >> nope. >> mr. warner. >> no. >> mr. barkley. >> no. >> mr. kaine? >> no. >> mr. van hollen? >> no. >> ms. harris? >> no. >> mr. chairman? >> aye. >> report the vote. >> mr. chairman the ayes are 12 and the nays are 11. >> the bill is reported out. we'll recess momentarily. [ chanting ] [ chanting ] >> since the vote has been completed, apparently those in attendance do not want anyone else to speak. if this continues, i will close out the meeting. [ chanting ] kill the bill! don't kill us! kill the bill! [ chanting ] don't kill us! kill the bill! don't kill us! kill the bill! [ chanting ] >> again, following the precedent of the committee, most people have submitted their comments. i think that most of the republicans will be submitting theirs for the record. so senator sanders vote last. go to this side. >> pass at this point. >> thank you. >> senator murray. >> thank you, mr. chairman and ranking member sanders. before i start, i want to make some quick clarifications. since it sounds like some of my republican colleagues are confused and may have actually been

mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: in this season of thanksgiving, let me say that i'm thankful, as i rise for my 187th "time to wake up" address, the spirit that this great nation devotes to tackling climate change, even with this president. the united states now is alone in the world as the only nation not committed to the historic paris agreement. but at the u.n. climate change conference in germany, i saw firsthand that americans are still committed to climate action. corporate leaders like mars, microsoft, facebook, and walmart were there to discuss the role american corporations can take on climate change. american governors, mayors, universities, and many other corporations all brought the same message to bahn -- that notwithstanding the corrupted trump administration, america is still in. senators cardin, markey, schatz, and merkley and i sent the message that most of our constituents and the majority of the american people believe -- that climate change is a serious threat to our country and the pla

mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 15 minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. our e.p.a. administrator scott pruitt has a little problem. you see the supreme court has ruled that greenhouse gases are pollutants under the clean air act. therefore, under the clean air act, the environmental protection agency which pruitt leads is legally obligated to regulate greenhouse gases. they must do this as a matter of law. moreover, the e.p.a. has determined that greenhouse gas emissions endanger the public health and welfare of current and future generations. and scott pruitt has said that he won't contest that endangerment finding. he is stuck with it. why? because he knows it's a contest he'd lose by a landslide. the climate denial nonsense he espouses has never passed peer review. it's not real science. and it would get buried in any forum where facts and truth matter. that's also likely why the

senator whitehouse: mr. stretch? mr. stretch: that's correct. mr. edgett: that's correct. mr. salgado: that's true. senator whitehouse: and i gather that all of your companies have moved beyond any notion that your job is only to provide a platform and whatever goes across it is not your affair? mr. stretch: senator, our commitment to addressing this problem is unwavering. we take this very seriously and are committed to investigating as necessary to prevent this from happening again, absolutely. mr. edgett: absolutely agree with mr. stretch. this type of activity creates not only a bad user experience but distrust of the of platforms that we are working at trying to get better solving this problem. mr. salgado: that's the same for google. we take this seriously and made changes and continue to get better. senator whitehouse: and ultimately you are american companies and threats to american election security and threats to american peace and order are things that concern you greatly, correct? mr. stretch: that is certainly correct. mr. edgett: i agree. mr. salgado: that's right

mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i was very pleased to be here for the, the remarks of my colleagues and friends. and i'd just respond by saying that we are all for growth. we are all for growth of the american economy. i think on this side we're just a little bit less sure that you grow the economy by growing the share of the economy that goes to the super rich and to big corporations. or that you grow the economy by growing benefits to corporations that move jobs from america overseas. and i'm pretty confident that on our side, we don't believe that the solution to the deficit is a tax bill that raises the deficit. but i'm here to talk about the climate change conference that we just got back from in germany , a conference where the united states stood alone as the only nation in the world. syria and nicaragua having left us. not a party to the historic paris agreement. led by senator cardin, my colleague, senators markey, schatz, merkley and i went to tell the nations gathered there that the trump admin

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator whitehouse, mr. casey. >> mr. chairman, thank you. >> excuse me, senator murkowski is here and i failed to go to that side. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, i apologize. >> i know i'm at the end dias and came in later, but there's added benefit to being one of the later ones and having the full opportunity to not only hear most of your opening comments, sir, but to hear the questions and the inyearries and your responses, again, congratulations on your nomination. i will also be curious to hear your response to senator paul's inquiry, regarding i mportation of drugs. i think for those of us in alaska where our neighboring country, our neighboring state, if you will, is canada, many in my state wonder why we are not able to do more when it comes to safely importing. so, i, too, am curious to know what you might propose in that area. senator baldwin mentioned the hearing that we had some weeks ago about drug pricing and i think, a general level of just confusion and bemusement that many of us had, those who

whitehouse. >> thanks. t mr.ke to radio host saying listeners want the feds to go after hillary clinton and the president responded with this. >> the saddest thing is that because of the president of the united states, i am not supposed to be involved with the justice department. i'm not supposed to be involved with the fbi. i'm not supposed to be doing the kind of things that i would love to be doing, and i'm very frustrated by this. >> president trump himself under scrutiny concerning his interactions with the justice department. we learned last week he wanted a gag order lifted on an undercover informant in a case that could involve hillary clinton, and it's still not clear if the president did anything improper by firing former fbi director james comey. if h. >> if you ever have the feeling president trump believe the the only person in the federal government is him, he's no you confirming it. in his latest interview with fox news, his response, no problem. >> we don't need all the people that they want. don'

whitehouse. chairman,ehouse: mr. because the coverage of this won't show it, let me just say for the record that every single republican senator has left, except for the chairman, like folks running away from the scene of a crime. mr. chairman back in 2009, , before you voted against the senate passage of the recovery act, as the economy was teetering into disaster and we tried to hold things together, you said then, the american people are telling me and my colleagues to stop spending money we don't have for programs we don't need. the u.s. government the big , credit card in the sky, has already maxed out its credit card, but the bank hasn't noticed and the government is now applying for another card with a higher spending limit. end quote. that was then. this is now. here we are. eight years later. and the national debt has fully doubled since the chairman declared that our national credit card was then maxed out. instead of doing our job as a budget committee, and recommending policies to address the $20 trillion

whitehouse. thank you, chairman. mr. azar, we talked in our lastconversation about care organizations and the ways we candeliver better care at less expense. there's another much more particular area where i think there's another bipartisanopportunity to improve care. in this case, it probably wouldlower expense, but that wouldn't be the point. that area is endof life care. advanced care. there's a very good group that you may be familiar with called the coalition of transformed care which has very, very broad corporate institutional support that is focusing in these areas. rhode island has been very active in this space. we have enormous support from -- we're the most catholic state in the country, the catholic diocese has been very helpful. the state council of church has been helpful,our major hospital groups and medical society have all beenextremely helpful. and what we see is that from time to time, we bump up against problems within the medicare and medicaidbilling system, which in a general arbitrary world might

mr. chairman. >> thank you, chairman graham and ranking member whitehouse and i'd like to thank our three witnesses for joining us today. i think what you presented today is truly troubling evidence of the scope and reach of russia's interference in our l.a.x. election and the ways in which americans who typically expect to know when they're consuming a political advertisement were misled and what are very troubling, slow, halting steps of your otherwise compelling and innovative companies to come forward and to work with us and to help us understand the scope and consequence of this. senator coons: mr. stretch, let me start if i could with a political ad from facebook. this is an ad that was run on facebook in may of 2016. a key moment in the primary campaigns of both hillary clinton and donald trump when both were closing in on the nomination. a group that claimed to be part of texas -- you can see in the upper left -- but was in fact paid for by russians in rubles used this ad to target americans based on their professed characteristics like an interest in patriotism or supporting veterans. the

whitehouse? >> welcome, cesar -- mr. a's are. i don't think there is much that you and i are going to accomplish today on the question of drug pricing, but i hopevery -- hope very much in office you will take the side of the american people and not just the pharmaceutical industry or worse yet the investors who have raided the pharmaceutical industry with the solo mission to jack up prices on necessary pharmaceuticals and extract money with monopoly authority. we know how to deal with that ordinarily. i want to talk about a different situation, which i think is an opportunity for considerable bipartisan progress. i want to start with tworhode -- two rhode island stories. you know what a medicare aco is. i do. -- >> i do. >> we have two in rhode island. one is a very early one, coastal medical, which over four years has saved medicare $28 million relative to its benchmark while maintaining a 99% quality score. that makes it one of the best in the country. its average per member per year expenditure is going down, while the satisfa

mrs. parker. that's the power of and. >>> president trump wrapping up his marathon tour of asia but also facing fire over his record on the environment. critics like sheldon whitehouse brand the president's new pick for the top environmental advisor as a climate change skeptic. they accuse kathleen hartnett of rejecting basic science. meanwhile at the conference on climate change in germany, the official u.s. delegation will present its first talk tomorrow. the event promoting the use of fossil fuels. joining me katherine lampell and jake levine. jake, let me start with you. normally the united states is a leader at the environmental conference. this year's top 23 tells a very different story. it's a shadow delegation basically. what's going on out there? >> i'm holding back some laughter, jacob, because were this not real life and not hugely important and serious and bearing on matters of public health and clean air and clean water, it would feel like a "saturday night live" skit going on with, you know, a recent appointment that really completes the trifecta of climate deniers who are now leading the agencies that are charged with solving climate change. so thankf

mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i come to the floor for the 184th time to ask us to at last wake up to our duty as a congress to enact some prudent policies to address the looming effects of climate change. the presiding officer is well aware of what alaska faces from ocean acidification and ocean melting and sea level rise and all of that. for the generations who will look back at this, i have tried in these speeches to chronicle the political tricks and bullying that have put congress -- the congress of the united states -- in tow to a massively conflicted special interest, such as we are incapacitated on this vital subject. the shamelessness of the fossil fuel industry and the spinelessness of congress in standing up to it will provide a long lesson in modern-day corruption and political failure. the trump administration has been particularly loathsome, threatening the emissions standarded for cars and tax reduction, disbanding science advisory committees, liftin life moratorium on coal leasing and ope