mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to speak for up to minutes as if in morning business and, fourth, that at the conclusion of my remarks, the senator from massachusetts, senator markey be recognized, that we have permission to engage in a colloquy and at the end of senator markey's remarks senator shaheen of new hampshire be recognized. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you. mr. president, a persistent argument of my climate talks is how corrupt climate denial is. the premise of that argument is that the fossil fuel industry denial apparatus is wrong about climate change and knows it is wrong. that is my case. the fossil fuel industry denial apparatus knows it is wrong about climate change. well, it is a beautiful world and every once in a while along comes something that proves my case. last week on the afternoon of black friday, the trump administration released its national climate assessment. by 13 federal agencies describing the monumental damage th

mr. whitehouse: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: and to speak for up to 20 minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. it is hard, particularly for those of us from coastal states, to overstate the importance of the earth's oceans as a store house of our food, as a regulator of our climate, as a highway for our travel and trade, and as a source wonder, joy, and recreation. according to the organization for economic cooperation and development, oceans contributed 1 point -- $1.5 trillion to the global economy in 2010. but climate change is putting this all at risk. i've spoken frequently here on the floor about the threat climate change poses to our oceans and of the warning signals blaring around the world. one of the most overlooked of those signals is the enormous amount of heat accumulating in the oceans. as cbs news reported last

mr. whitehouse: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that we vitiate any pending quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: madam president, this evening the leader or someone standing in for the leader is going to come and close out the floor with a number of unanimous consents. one of them will be unanimous consent to push consideration of the national flood insurance program, to reauthorize it a week down the road. i will not object to that request for unanimous consent, but i do want to speak to the predicament of the national flood insurance program. for coastal states this is a very big deal and is this a program that is now completely out of step with the conditions that coastal states see before them so we have got to get this fixed. the liability of the national flood insurance program ran up to $30 billion after hurricane harvey. it borrowed $30 billion from the u.s. treasury, and that's its borrowing limit. it basically maxed itself out. so in october congress forgave $16 billion. we moved that from a liability of the national flood insur

mr. president. thank you to my colleague, senator markey, and to senator whitehouse. i'm pleased to join both of you who have done such a tremendous job in leading on this issue of trying to get everyone to wake up to the challenges that we face from climate change and what that's going to mean, not just for us in new england but for people across this country and across the globe. last week, as you all have said -- and maybe the reason we feel so passionate about this is because we see it. we see it happening already in new england, as my colleagues detailed so well. we're on the cutting edge of these changes, and you don't have to have lived in new hampshire for very long to see what's happening as a result of climate change. last week the u.s. global change research program released its fourth national climate assessment, and that details the profound effect that climate change is having and is going to continue to have on the environment, on the economy, and on our public health. the report makes it abundantly clear that every american -- every american -- is affe

mr. whitaker's appointment would create a road map for the evasion of the constitutionally prescribed senate advice and consent role. joining us here live is senator richard blumenthal of connecticut. along with senator sheldon whitehousend mazie hirono, he filed this suit today. senator, thank you for being here. >> thank you so much, rachel. >> as senators, how do you have standing to bring this lawsuit? >> the president's end run around the constitution deprives us of our right to vote. each of us, as senator, was elected by our people in our state to vote on advising and consenting. and there is a larger issue also than just our being injured because we're deprived of the right to do our job. it's also a check and balance which the founders envisioned to apply in exactly this kind of case, where the president appoints someone who is unfit, who lacks qualifications to do the job and alexander hamilton said it on behalf of the founders, they wanted to prevent the president from appointing people who were of such insignificance and pliancy as to render them obsequious. that is what matt whitaker's known as, his eyes and ears, someone who has called the counsel investigation a hoax. so there is an immense practical sig