mr. whitehouse: mr.resident, i am both pleased and honored that my distinguished friend, senator feinstein, is joining me today to discuss how climate change is affecting our country from the east to the west, from one of the biggest states to the smallest one. of course we are small in size but we are long on coastline. as coastal states, as the ranking member -- as the presiding officer will understand, both rhode island and california and our coastal states along the south atlantic coast are on the front lines of climate change. sea levels are already rising. and as they do, rhode island's coastal communities are having to spend more and more money on resiliency projects to protect their roads, their bridges, their beaches, their water treatment plants, their harbors and other infrastructure. a 2000 study by our d.e.m. found that 7 of 19 water treatment facilities in rhode island are expected to be overwashed by flood waters driven by climate change. frankly, just figuring out what this risk looks lik

mr. whitehouse: mr. president, one of the things that marks service as united states senator is the chance to meet really remarkable individuals. and among the remarkable individuals that i have had the chance to meet in my time in the senate, there are few if any who are more impressive and memorable than those who have been diagnosed with a.l.s., commonly known a lou gehrig's disease. competing with them for being impressive and noteworthy are the friends and family and advocates who become their support system and their caregivers. it is not just those with the diagnosis but it is also those family and friends and caregivers who face incredible bravery. i remember someone once saying that a special kind of courage is maintaining good morale in the face of terrible circumstances and few circumstances are more terrible than a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. we know how it ends. we know that it is always fatal. there is no treatment. there is no cure. there is nothing to halt or reverse the e

mr. whitehouse: yes. mr. nelson: i say to the senator from rhode island, since it is documented over time that the average annual temperature of the earth is rising and we see the statistics, the measurements of temperature, and is it not true that the scientists tell us that there is a temperature some 4 degrees-plus farenheit more beyond which there is no return for the earth continuing to heat? is that a true statement? mr. whitehouse: that is a true statement. the scientists of the world have more or less reached consensus that that 2 degrees centigrade increase is one we do not want to go beyond because it could set in force further consequences that would accelerate the problem. for instance, large amounts of frozen arctic methane or even under sea methane letting loose. you're already seeing lakes that bubble in northern russia and in canada from methane melting up through them. they're methane bubbles. it's not air bubbles. if that accelerates, you can get a feedback loop in which the input that we've

mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i'm honored to join the senior senator from oregon in support of this important resolution. as i think everybody on this floor has observed, there is a rot in our american democracy, and there is a shadow over the halls of congress. the rot is dark money, and the shadow is special interest influence empowered by that dark money. a lot of this goes back to the extraordinarily misguided decision of the united states supreme court, or i should say five republican appointees to the united states supreme court in citizens united, which took the astonishing position that the integrity of our elections should receive a value of zero in their calculus and their solicitude should be exclusively for the wealthiest forces that bring their power to bear on american democracy, because after all, if what you are doing is unleashing the power of special interests to spend millions of dollars, you are by definition only powering up the group that has millions of dollars to spend and a reas

mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: i am very grateful to the distinguished senior senator from new jersey for joining me again this week to bring attention to the challenges that climate change and rising seas pose for our coastal communities. our states -- new jersey and rhode island -- shared the unforgettable experience of super-storm sandy, which roared ashore on higher tides and warmer oceans. we know in new jersey and rhode island how vulnerable we are. as sea levels rise and storms intensify, the national flood insurance program should be one of our government's best tools to educate and prepare our communities for the changes that carbon pollution is driving to our coasts. but the program falls well short of this basic goal. instead of tackling its shortfalls head-on, ahead of the next big storm, for instance, we're getting set to punt again on the flood insurance program. my ocean state, much smaller than new jersey, has 400 miles of coastline threatened by sea level rise and storm surge flooding. s

mr. whitehouse: thank you. mr. president, this week the nations of the world are gathering in poland to review and we hope amplify their commitments to reduce carbon emissions under the 2015 paris agreement and to discuss how they will report and verify reductions in carbon pollution. the united states of america is technically present in poland in the form of a small delegation, but american leadership in poland is decidedly absent. why? it's pretty simple. the government of the united states of america has fallen under the political control of the industry most responsible for this mess. american leadership was essential to forging the global consensus on carbon emissions in the original paris agreement. i know because i was there in paris in 2015 as secretary kerry and the u.s. negotiating team worked to seal the landmark pact. what a pathetic difference a few years make. in 2017, president trump announced that the u.s. would become the only country in the world to turn its back on this global agreement. the uni

mr. mcaleenan: right. senator whitehouse: it seems we are a long way from being close to an adequate surveillance and adequate intervention. mr. mcaleenan: yeah. i think mr. were some -- i think there were some important developments within the last few weeks. there has been importance, administrationwide. the president has a personal commitment to addressing fentanyl. i've seen that demonstrated. he engaged the chinese president on scheduling fentanyl as a controlled substance which really the chinese government effort is going to be essential to addressing this because so much of the production right now is in china. much of it illicit now and i think -- senator whitehouse: you don't want to talk about ongoing investigations and prosecutions. i've been a united states attorney and i understand that. but can you at least reassure me there is a flow of cases being prepared for presentation to united states attorneys so that chinese individuals who are responsible for shipping fentanyl into the united states are indicted unde

senator whitehouse: senate perspective, i've got a big thank-you to chairman grassley here. he was my co-author on the juvenile justice bill that is in front of you, mr. president. and he helped coordinate the durbin-lee-cornyn-whitehouse assemblage that brought the sentencing reform bill before us. the senate is an unusual institution. [laughter] pres. trump: that's true. [laughter] senator whitehouse: it has some old-school traditions that are important from time to time. and chuck grassley is an old-school chairman, who used his old-school chairman authority and power to make sure that this stayed together until it could move, and when it could move, to make sure that it did move. it was old-school senate work at its very best. [applause] pres. trump: everybody ok? bernie? mr. kerik: good morning, mr. president. you know, in 2013, me and van jones went to the white house. we were in the white house five times four or five times with president obama and a number of people, trying to get this done. as somebody that ran the largest police department in the country, and the largest jail system rikers island and somebody that spent time at federal pris

mr. demers: we have done a number of botnet takedown's this year. senator whitehouseo does it, who is tasked with it? how do they use it? i think this should be an enduring project. you closed your testimony by saying we must work together with you in congress. i hope that you see a bright welcome flag in this department, in this committee to work with us. i think senator graham and i have held hearings on this. we have asked people to come in and urged cooperation. there was a time early in the administration when i looked at tom bossert, who i thought was a very credible expert in the white house, and they looked at joyce behind him, also a credible expert, former senator dan coates, and in the early days, mike flynn had been very involved in cyber activities and helped coordinate a good naval war college conference in washington. i saw things coming together for a real opportunity to do some legislation with the administration on this. that has turned into, as best i can tell, a great big nothing. i think there is a big legislative opportunity here, but there's no