mr. wyden: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to vacate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. wyden: mr. president, the senate is now open to crucial debate on our proposal to throw out the trump prodark money campaign rule under the congressional review act. and at the outset, i'd like to start by thanking my colleague, senator tester, for his leadership on the issue of bringing sunshine to american elections. the fact is the state of montana is the poster child of campaign finance reform, a textbook case of the sort of transparency and accountability that american elections need to be all about. and no senator embodies that tradition more than montana's own jon tester. and if you know anything about the history of the state and the montana copper kings, you know why montanans and jon tester always lead this fight. and that is why i am so glad as the ranking democrat on the finance committee to be

quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: mr. wyden: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: i ask unanimous consent to vacate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order the senate will proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the following nomination which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, federal energy regulatory commission, bender almost mcnamee of virginia to be a member. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the time until 4:00 p.m. will be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. mr. wyden: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: the senate is going to soon vote on the nomination of bender mcnamee to be a commissioner of the federal energy regulatory commission. if mr. mcnamee takes a seat on the commission, it means that christmas is coming early for the executives who want big, dirty energy ba

mr. wyden: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: the senate will soon cast the first procedural vote on the nomination of justin muzinich to serve as deputy secretary of the treasury. i am going to oppose this nomination, and i'd like to lay out exactly why beginning with a basic rule that i intend to maintain going forward. if a treasury nominee says that the trump tax handouts will pay for themselves, i intend to oppose them. the reason why is by sticking with this debunked claim, you're basically laying out the economic policy version of being a flat earther. you're either peddling an idea you know is untrue or you can't do math. either way, you shouldn't have pivotal, powerful job at the treasury department. when mr. muzinich came before the finance committee for his nomination hearing, it was a titanic battle just to try to get him to offer any kind of substantive answer on pretty much anything. one question he finally answered straight up was whether he agreed that the trump tax handouts would, quote, pay for themselves

mr. ryan: thank you, thank you. first, i want you oregonians to know your senator, ron wyden, long time friend of mine, led me into aecture. oregon, willamette, i could go on, but he did it with this baseball hat that reminded me of a rose bowl six years ago i was hoping to forget about. [laughter] but, i digress. what a beautiful tree. this is a beautiful occasion. i want to thank everyone who had a hand in pulling this altogether. thank you to the folks from willamette, oregon. brigette and everyone who made this possible. thank you for this wonderful journey. [applause] i know that is very much no small task, especially when a tree comes all the way from oregon. i want to thank my colleagues from the oregon delegation. i want to thank earl, susan, peter, and your two senators. one who has a better happen the other one. this is my fourth and final time leading this event. each time the tree is more stunning. we have a pretty nice trees in wisconsin, so maybe one of these days we get a wisconsin tree here, i have to say this noble fir is the best i have seen. it is a gorgeous tree. i also think it is a great time t

hosted an event with orrin hatch ronwiden -- ron wyden and care bout how to improve for americans with chronic illnesses. this is an hour and a half. mr. hartsig:. snoo well, good morning, everyone -- >> well, good morning, everyone. this is an important moment. senator wyden has always been a proud supporter of families and understand why. good morning, everyone. president of the bipartisan policy senator and i am here to that is t something going right here in washington, d.c., authentic collaboration, all know, isn't easy. principle, patience, reate activity -- creativity, empathy and the tolerance for discomfort if you are trying to somebody who has similarly strongly held views in disagreement. but more than anything it requires leadership. morning to ic this onor chairman orrin hatch and senator ronwiden -- ron widen. support from johnny isakson, they led the effort to the chronic act of 2018. who respects a good acronym, so i should share with you that the full name of the is creating high-quality results and utcomes necessary to improve chronic care. and if that's not a demonstration of good staff i don't know what is. o just

mr. donovan be able to work with dr. hsu in pursuit of surgical treatment. even senator wyden got involved. administrators. >> like someone that's not a doctor confirms or denies those things. >> reporter: the first denial, the va said that they have their own vascular surgeons and didn't need dr. hsu. the second denial says that they did not have a billing code. >> i felt hopeless and it was kind of just like, all right, i have no clue what to do. >> reporter: brandon provided us with these detailed medical logs he says he got from the va. they document every phone call and checkup he's had since 2013 and in here not only does the va doctor suggest that brandon could have had a treatable disease back in 2014, but he also documents every single phone call that brandon made to the va requesting an appointment or just trying to get information. now brandon and his family are trying to pay for the surgery on >> they try their hardest to get you the care, but they don't follow through with it. and you will be forgotten if you don't advocate for yourself. >> reporter: after fighting in iraq for

mr. president, i just want to take one other moment to speak to a different topic which is to support the tester-wyden congressional review act. this is an administration cloaked in secrecy and deception. it's an administration that doesn't want the american people to know what it's doing. so it's no surprise that in july the treasury department issued their dark money rule. they don't want the american people to know that behind every bill, amendment, and executive order is a big money special interest. they want to make it easier for big corporations, billionaires, and even foreign money to influence our elections. these special interests know so long as the money keeps flowing, there's someone in congress to do their bidding. at a time when americans want a transparency from their government, this rule would allow special interest to hide their donors from the i.r.s. it's been eight years since the supreme court citizen united decision, a decision which gave corporations the right to spend unlimited, unchecked, and more often than not, undisclosed money on our elections. for eight long years more a

look forward to working with senator wyden in the 116th congress on many issues important to americans, including the high cost of prescription drugs. i yield the floor. mr. casey: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: mr. president, i would ask consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. casey: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to talk about not the mueller investigation, as much as i want to talk about robert mueller himself because of the substantial responsibility that he has -- and i think it is important for us to remind ourselves, as well as to remind our country, about his service at a time when he's been often attacked from folks here in washington. when i think of an individual like robert mueller, i think of two words -- public service. or maybe just one word -- service. he was inspired, as many people know, to become a marine by one of his friends from the college la crosse team that he was on. this man's name was david hackett, who later died on the battlefield in vietnam. as mr. mueller said in a speech -- and i'm quoting him here -- one would have