mr. polis. mr. polis: mr. speaker, i'm grateful that this body is moving forward on the bolts ditch land boundary adjustment bill. i'm hopeful that after passage the senate will bring this bill up and pass it on until it ecomes law to remove any incumbrances that minturn has. i urge a yes vote and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. lamborn. mr. lamborn: i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill h.r. 689. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the -- mr. lamborn: mr. speaker, on that i ask for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. all those in favor by taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. and pursuant to clause 8 of rule

mrs. torres. mrs. torres: mr. speaker, seeing as we have no additional speakers, i would like to again thank representative blackburn for her efforts and urge adoption of this bill. thank you and i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. mr. mcclintock. mr. mcclintock: mr. speaker, i would join in asking for adoption of this measure and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill, h.r. 88. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and, without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid n the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek reck fission? collin clidge mr. speaker, i move to suspend -- the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek

mr. walz. mr. walz: we're prepared to close with no more speakers. i want to thank the gentleman again for bringing this to our attention, honoring sergeant abraham's life and, again, i think there is a little lesson here. how we conduct ourselves reflects on the sacrifice people like mr. abraham gave and the gentleman has done so honorably and nobly. i encourage my colleagues to support h.r. 609, and i yield back the remainder of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. roe. mr. roe: i thank you, mr. speaker. i think this is an amazing story that mr. kelly has shared before us. i had a history professor in the ge that survived bataan death march and spent 3 1/2 years -- i wonder if these two men knew each other. he, too, was a remarkable man. i can think of no honor than to honor his memory by renaming this medical center. i ask that all members support this legislation. mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. th

mr. higgins: thank you, mr. dow. mrs. brooks, mr. cox, thank you for your t i yield. mr. katko: the chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey, mr. payne. mr. payne: thank you, mr. chairman. and to the ranking member of the subcommittee. it's really an honor and privilege to have her join this committee that has really done great work and worked in a bipartisan manner over the course of the time that i have been involved. looking forward to continuing that work. mr. dow, in your testimony you discussed implementing improvements to the checkpoint experience. in your opinion, what are the most effective and pressing adjustments that should be made to the precheck process in order to encourage greater participation among trusted populations without sacrificing the security of all the passengers? mr. dow: very good question, mr. payne. thank you. on the precheck pros serks number one we have to get more people in the program. we have millions of people who have been vetted very deeply from a secure standpoint. we should figure out how to get those people in the program. s

mr. paul. mr. perdue. mr. peters. mr. portman. mr. reed. mr. risch. mr. roberts. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders. mr. sasse. mr.mr. schatz. mr. schumer. mr. scott. mr. sessions. ms. stabenow. mr. sullivan. mr. tester. mr. thune. mr. toomey. mr. use dal. mr. warner. mrs. warren. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. the presiding officer: a quorum is not present. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, i move to instruct the sergeant-at-arms to request the presence of absent senators and i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a second? a sufficient second. there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or desire to change their vote? if not the yeas are 91. the nays are 4. the motion is agreed to. the sergeant-at-arms is so instructed. a quorum is present. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, the senate is not in order. the presiding officer: the senate will be i

mr. chaffetz: mr. chairman, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. chaffetz: mr. chairman, h.r. 998 searching for and cutting regulation that is are unnecessarily burdensome, also known as the scrub act, was introduced by our colleague, jason smith. i happen to be a co-sponsor of this bill as well as the judiciary chairman, bob goodlatte, pete sessions, the rules chairman, the gentleman from texas. we rise in support of this bill, the scrub act, regulatory accumulation is the significant problem for the federal government. year after year federal agencies add regulation after regulation piling on to an already very complex and crowded regulatory system. the code of federal regulations, also known as the q.f.r., has some 178,000 pages. these are the regulations that you're supposed to understand if you're in a business, small business, big business, medium-sized business. it contains more than one million regulatory restrictions. and every year the federal

hirono, mr. hoeven, mr. inhofe, mr. isakson, mr. mr. johnson, mr. kaine, mr. ki mr. king, mr. lankford, mr. leahy, mr. lee, mr. manchin, mr. markey, mr. mccain, mrs. mccaskill, mr. menendez, mr. merkley, mr. moran, ms. murkowski, mr. murphy, mrs mrs. murray, mr. nelson, mr. paul, mr. purdue, mr. peters, mr. portman, mr. reed, mr. rirk, mr. roberts, mr. rounds, mr. rubio, mr. sanders, mr. sasse, mr. schatzs, mr. schumer, mr. scott, mr. sessions, mrs. shaheen, mr. shelby, ms. stabenow, mr. sullivan, mr. tester, mr. thune, mr. tillis, mr. toomey, mr. udall, mr. van hollen, mr. warner, mr. whitehouse, mr. wicker, mr. wyden, mr. young quorum call: the presiding officer: a quorum is still not present. mr. mcconnell: i move to instruct the sergeant at arms to request the presence of absent senators, and i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there is. the clerk will call the roll. votvote: vote: vote:

mr. wyden: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: madam president, the senate is now debating the nomination of steven mnuchin to be the secretary of treasury. and this is yet another nomination on which the majority has walked away, unfortunately, from a 20-year bipartisan approach when it comes to the vetting process. in 2009 when tim guide near was -- guide ner was president obama's nominee, a vetting issue came up and both sides of the finance committee carried the investigation out to its conclusion. but the situation has turned out quite differently this time. there were several properties in the united states and abroad worth a hundred million dollars missing from mr. mnuchin's disclosure. he failed to disclose several positions in various firms. he misled the public. he misled the committee's about his bank's forecloser tactics and he appears to have hidden key data requested by members of this body. frankly, i don't believe these investigation

mr. mnuchin's howegins with gory details one left the industrialized process of taking people out of their homes and onto the street. it begins with the details of how mr. mnuchin enriched himself at the same time his foreclosure machine was running. as i described, the financial crisis was a personal setback from which a lot of americans still have not recovered. mnuchin, it was not exactly a setback -- but for mr. mnuchin, it was not exactly a setback at all. . in fact, it was the deal of a lifetime. 2009, mnuchin let investors who bought a bank that had been engulfed in crisis the year before. mr. mnuchin and his group got an unusually sweet deal from the buying $3.5 billion worth of assets for $1.6 billion. it was named one west bank and it opened up shop the very next day. as part of the sweetheart deal, mr. mnuchin that what is known as a shared loss agreement from the federal deposit insurers corporation. under the deal with one west, the federal deposit insurance corporation made

mr. menendez: mr. president, i rise today to speak in opposition to president trump's nominee to serve as secretary of the treasury, steve mnuchin. from his days at goldman sachs on the front lines of developing the very products that brought our economy to its knees, to his reign as chairman of onewest bank quantified by tens of thousands of foreclosures and qualified by years of despair, to his plan to get rich off cash-strapped seniors, to his investments in sears that stripped pension benefits from low-wage earners, mr. mnuchin made a career out of exploiting the financial turmoil of hardworking american families, never once stopping to consider the impacts of his profiteering on the people of this country. and at every step of the way mro privatize profits and socialize losses. while our president spent much of his campaign railing against goldman sachs and wall street's stranglehold on washington, it should be lost on no one that wall street has the majority vote in this administration. with frie

mr. pence: hello cpac. it is great to be back as the premier gathering of conservatives in the united states of america. [applause] mr. pence: this is the ninth time i have had the privilege to address cpac. thanks to all of you and the confidence of our new president, this is the first time i am here as vice president of the united states of america. [applause] mr. pence: because of all of you, because of your hard work and your support and your prayers, my family and i have the privilege to serve. and more importantly, because of all of you, my friend donald trump is the 45th president of the united states of america. [applause] mr. pence: you know, the president and i have become good friends. it is the greatest privilege of my life to be vice president to a leader of such conviction, vision, and courage. some people have remarked that we are a little bit different. [laughter] mr. pence: i am a small guy, he is big city. i am midwest, he is manhattan island. he is known for his bigger

mr. carper: mr. president, a few minutes ago we stopped everything and the chaplain for the u.s. came in and gave us a prayer. we have a bible study group that meets every thursday. we met yesterday in jim inhofe's hidaway. every time we meet, almost without exception, chaplain black reminds us, democrats and republicans, those of us who need the most help, he reupltdz us that -- reminds us of all the times the scriptures invoked that we should ask for wisdom. well, i ask for wisdom every night for myself, for my colleagues here in the senate and in the house, the president, vice president, their spouses, every night. we have the opportunity to gain some wisdom. when scott pruitt was nominated to be the administrator for the e.p.a., i sent him a letter on december 28. i asked 52 questions and asked to have the responses by januar. they didn't come. we had a hearing on january 18. i got some answers, not all. i also asked, also asked by sheldon whitehouse, was access to what the folks had been asking

mr. tipton: mr. speaker, the bureau of land management manages 245 million acres or nearly 10% of the total area of the united states. a whooping 700 million acres of mineral state. nearly all of this acreage is in our western states which makes it imperative that agency extensively cooperate with those state and local governments during the planning process. it is true that the b.l.m.'s new planning rule, planning 2.0, included revisions to several aspects of the planning process, some of which seemed to make some good sense. unfortunately, the new rule also introduced a significant measure of confusion regarding how planning areas would be determined, and most distressingly, diminished the most historic and valued role that state and local governments play throughout the process. in many of the counties in my district, it is not uncommon for the public lands to make up well over half of the total area. for these communities having an equal seat at the planning table isn't merely a luxury, it's an e

mr. president. congressman price i don't know him well, but voting for somebody who wants to raise the medicare eligibility age, it's immoral, it shows how out of touch most of my colleagues that will vote for congressman price have never really sat down with anybody who would think it was a really bad idea, not immoral to raise the medicare age. o i plan to join a lot of my colleagues on voting no. i just think it's the wrong move for our country. i think it's the wrong move for senior citizens of this countryv who depend on medicare and/orsi medicaid, people of all ages. it's clearly the wrong move for our country. i yield the floor. >> the senate is now debating the nomination of steven minh ah nguyen to be the secretary of treasury. this is yet another nomination on which the majority has walked away unfortunately from a 20 year approach when it comes to the vetting process. vet the vetting issue came up and both sides of the finance committee carried thee investigation out to its con

mr. hoyer: mr. speaker, i ask -- to speak sent out of order for one minute for purposes of inquiring of the majority leader the schedule for the week to come. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. hoyer: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield to my friend, mr. mccarthy, the majority leader from california. mr. mccarthy: i thank the gentleman for yielding. i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. mccarthy: mr. speaker, on monday, the house will meet at noon for morning hour and 2:00 p.m. for legislative business. votes will be postponed until 6:00 p.m. on tuesday, the house will meet at 10:00 a.m. for morning hour and noon for legislative business. the last votes of the week are expected during the evening hours on tuesday. mr. speaker, the house will consider a number of suspensions next week, a complete list of which will be announced by close of business today. mr. speaker, the house will also continue our work under the congressio

mr. coffman: mr. galluci. mr. galluci: i would tend to agree that there was proper training prior to implementation. however, because this was such a complex overhaul, i think the unforeseen consequences made it much more problematic. at least on our end as v.s.o.'s. whether -- just how much work was moving around. i think even -- and i pointed out in my testimony they had moved work for the predischarge program, delivery claims. there were hiccups all up and down the v.a. system. our review specialist in winston-salem identified a number of claims that disappeared before the 48-hour queue. when we reported it to v.a. they didn't think it was happening at first. it took about two days of back and forth and then providing claim numbers and a hard count of the claims that were pulled back from winston-salem pending rating review, they were in the cloud, 499 for the national work queue, they didn't believe us at first. they almost didn't recognize this was happening within their own business process. i think there we

>> i second. >> mr. grassley? mr. sessions? mr. graham? mr. toomey? mr. johnson? mr. corker? mr. perdue? mr. gardner? mr. kennedy? mr. bluesman? mr. chairman? mr. sanders? murray? mr. wyden? misstep and no? missed white house you go -- mr. white house? mr. warner? mr. worldly -- mr. merkley? mr. king? c-span's washington hollen? >>? mr. van the clerk will report. >> mr. chairman, 12 days, 11 days. recorded.ination is thank you for your time. statements can be submitted until 6:00 p.m. tonight. the meeting is adjourned. thanks. [indiscernible] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] c-span's washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up this morning, democratic rhode island congressman will discuss trump's foreign policy actions including the recent travel began as well as the democratic legislative agenda and republican congressman will discuss the travel ban future of the , affordable

that is why mr. rooney, mr. kinzinger, and others with whom i have talked but who are not co-sponsoring at this point in time, are carefully considering this action. it's not partisan. every american, every republican, every democrat is concerned about russia and what they have been doing to violate international law, not to mention the criminal behavior that they may be pursuing and are pursuing, we believe, in syria. it's a serious matter of national security. which is why both democrats and republicans are putting this ill forward. irwant to thank all of the co-sponsors -- i want to thank all of the co-sponsors on both side of the aisle for this timely legislation. at this point i want to yield nigh mifriend, to the gentleman from new york, the ranking member of the foreign affairs committee, eliot engel. mr. engel: thank you, steny. i'm pleased to be here with my colleagues, mr. hoyer, mr. schiff, to say that what russia has done and is doing is very alarming. and therefore they should not be allowed to weas

mr. smith: mr. speaker, despite the saturation, negative media coverage of president trump, the people have spoken. a recent poll found that president trump is thought more trustworthy than the news media. the administration is considered truthful by 49% of registered voters, but the media is less trusted than the administration with only 39% finding it honest. so president trump is more credible than the liberal national media. that's no surprise. if the media wants to increase their credibility, they should report the news fairly, objectively, and without mall list. -- mall lace. -- malice. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from nevada seek recognition? without objection. ms. titus: so far in 2017, donald trump and the republicans have teargetted women, immigrants, and health care, now they are siting their sights on bear cubs, wolves, and coyotes. republicans in cahoots with the gun lobby and trophy hunters want to eliminate a rule that currently prohibits hunters from

mr. trump: there are a lot of mr.: i was truly happy to pay even on the -- ivana what i paid her. if i had gone down the tubes and it did up with nothing, she and the children would always be taken care of. at the time, don't forget i was being sued for $2 billion at one point, by her, and i was going to be nasty, and frankly, had i not had a glitch, i would probably not be on this program right now. i would be a divorce court. charlie: if you had not bottomed out and put some pressure on her -- mr. trump: it was not a question of pressure. there was a point where she probably felt i was not going to make it. charlie: but were you telling her differently? mr. trump: i was not telling her anything. all she had to do is read "the wall street journal." they were making dire predictions about me, but i guess i got more print than anyone else. what happened is, had i not been involved in a glitch, i don't believe that we would be here right now. i would be studying for tomorrow's examination before a trial. charlie: he wou

mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, over the course of this debate over the last nine hours, plus six hours on friday, of the 30 hours that we have on this, many senators have come to the floor to talk about their concerns about the nomination of betsy devos to be secretary of education. there are open questions about her extensive financial entanglements. there's open questions and clear concern about her basic lack of understanding of just basic education issues. we've heard that time and time again. and in the many ways in which her vision for our education system is really at odds with where families and communities nationwide want us to go. but, mr. president, let me take just a moment to focus on one major concern in particular. it is a public health threat that i know is deeply concerning for families and communities across this country, and that is the epidemic of sexual violence on our college campuses. mr. president, one out of five women and one out of 71 men are sexually assaulted while in college

mr. hatch: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. hatch: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. hatch: mr. president, we are currently in the midst of the longest trapbg transitionalt the department of treasury in our senate's history. the senate has never left this much time to go without a treasury secretary. in fact, the senate has never left treasury without a confirmed secretary in between administrations for this long, yet despite the obvious need to fill this position, we have had to deal with continual and pointless delays courtesy of some of our colleagues. i won't begrudge any senator for taking advantage of the privileges offered to them under the rules of the senate, however, i think we have ample reason to question some of our colleagues' judgment and priorities with regard to how we dealt with the nomination of steven mnuchin to the office of -- as treasury secretary. let's g

mr. mr. krishnamoorthi:: the secretary of homeland security found out about the president's executive orders through cable news. in some cases, the president himself has been uncertain of what his executive orders contained. sir, we need transparency today. congress has the responsibility to eliminate this confusion and make sure that executive actions are clear and transparent to all americans. that's why i am introducing the executive order transparency act. this one-page bill requires that all executive orders be posted on the white house website 72 hours before each is signed. this simple bill is an investment in a working government, and i urge all my colleagues to join me. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from illinois yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek recognition? >> i ask permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman from ten

walorski of indiana, mr. smith of nebraska, mr. knight of, mr. rice, mr. womack of arkansas, mr. woodall of georgia, mr. flores of texas. the speaker pro tempore: the chair announces the speaker's appointment pursuant to 22 u.s.c. 2760 and the order of the house of january 3, 2017, of the following members on the part of the house to the canada-united states interparliamentary group. the clerk: mr. huizenga of michigan, chairman. mr. young of alaska. . liinf mne mrcrerf rtdata e ear o mpe:he aianuns e sak's apinen tpuua t22 s. 2-hndherd o thhoe jua 27 t flong memrs o thn e pt t hsef thexo-it ste inrpliamenry gup thclk: m mauofex, aian mrduffy isns, ce chrm. . rdf tas mr prcofewexo. e ear o mpe:he chrnnnc t sak's apnten othe niol ltalenr tmeedy puicaw07-117ndhe orr t hsefanry 3,01 otholwi meer on e rtf eou the brdfrueeofhe jo fendyenr peorng art thclk:rs. coto o viin. thspkeprteor t aianuns epeer potmt rd oth hoe anry,01 o e llinmeernhe pa othhoeo e naon htocaubcaon anrerdomssn. thclerk:r.eawsf rt cali. e ear o tempe:he chr noce t sak's apinenpuua tseio 3 othdertntf at auorieac fi

mr. speaker, i ask you now for this consent. to speak out of order for one minute for the purposes of inquiry of the schedule for the week to come. >> without objection. >> i yield to my friend, mr. mccarthy, the majority leader from california. >> i thank the gentleman for yielding and i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. >> without objection. >> on monday, the house will meet at noon for morning hour at 2:00 p.m. for legislative business. those will be postponed until 6:00 p.m. on tuesday the house and meet at 10:00 a.m. for legislative business. the last notes of the week are expected during the evening hours on tuesday. mr. speaker, the house will considered suspensions next week. a complete list will be announced by close of business today. the house will also continue our work under the congressional review act to undo onerous obama administration regulations through three more joint resolutions. first sponsored by rep brett guthrie. this could result in fewer te

mr. kennedy. mrs. feinstein. mr. durbin. mr. franken. mr. blumenthal. mr. chairman. aye. chairman, the votes are 11 nay.nine >> the vote is approved. meeting over. >> this is a man who will not protect the voters. [indiscernible] >> a sad day for american justice. [indiscernible] [indiscernible] this morning, and coverage of confirmation hearings continues as the senate and public works committee votes for the nomination of oklahoma attorney general scott pruitt to become the next administrator of the environmental protection agency. watch live at 10:15 a.m. eastern time. announcer: in case you missed it, here are a few programs c-span viewers saw last week. mike pompeo's swearing-in as cia director. dutiesll discharge the of the office on which i am about to enter. so help me god. congratulations. questioningenators congressman tom price. >> he bought over 4000 shares at discounts that were at discounts as much as 40% cheaper than the price on the australian stock exchange. and you were sitting on the time and committees that had jurisdiction over major health care progr

mr. mr. conaway: i rise to recognize a constituent of mine who is re with us today, chaplain harvey klee is here today. we heard him give a beautiful invocation calling us to be unified in our actions. chaplain klee has dedicated himself to living by those words, serving our nation and its people in many ways. he served in the navy in the korean war, later worked as a missionary in helping drug addicts and designing training programs for inmates at prisons in california. he founded the texas chaplain association and has been appointed texas department chaplain nine times, more than any other chaplain in the history of the department. chaplain klee, thank you for reminding office the power of the lord jesus cries. mr. -- christ. -- christ. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will entertain up to 15 further requests for one-minute speeches on each side of the aisle. for what purpose does the j michigan seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i seek unanimous consent to address the house for one minute

mrs. capito: mr. president, i have several requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: so noted. mrs. capito: thank you. plu, the president. i'm here to address an issue of great importance to this country, this administration and that is the nomination of scott pruitt to be the new e.p.a. administrator. we have been eight years removed now from what we consider, many of us i think particularly as we look back as the great recession. however, many american workers, their families and their communities have yet to feel the benefits of any kind of a recovery, and a key component to the slowest recovery since world war ii is the regulatory overreach coming out of this city, washington, d.c. since the end of the recession in june, 2009, federal agencies have burdened a weakened economy with thousands of pages of new rules. costing consumers billions of dollars and tens of thousands of workers have

mr. bishop: mr. speaker, pursuant to house resolution 74, i call up the house joint resolution 36, providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5 of united states code of the final rule of the bureau of land management relating to waste prevention, production subject to royalties and resource conservation and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the joint resolution. the clerk: house joint resolution 36, joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8, title 5 of united states code of the final rule of the bureau of land management relating to waste prevention, production subject to royalties and resource conservation. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from utah, mr. bishop, and the gentleman from california, mr. lowenthal, each will control 30 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from utah, mr. bishop. mr. bishop: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five leg

mr. wyden: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: madam president, the senate is now debating the nomination of steven mnuchin to be the secretary of treasury. and this is yet another nomination on which the majority has walked away, unfortunately, from a 20-year bipartisan approach when it comes to the vetting process. in 2009 when tim guide near was -- guide ner was president obama's nominee, a vetting issue came up and both sides of the finance committee carried the investigation out to its conclusion. but the situation has turned out quite differently this time. there were several properties in the united states and abroad worth a hundred million dollars missing from mr. mnuchin's disclosure. he failed to disclose several positions in various firms. he misled the public. he misled the committee's about his bank's forecloser tactics and he appears to have hidden key data requested by members of this body. frankly, i don't believe these investigation

mrs. dingell: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to give voice to my constituents and their families whose world has been turned upside-down following president trump's executive order last friday which they feel is directed at muslims. since the order was signed, we have been flooded with calls, with messages, and no matter where i am in the district, people who are scared and terrified. i cannot convey to this house enough the feelings of individuals who have gone through a stringent vetting process, hold green cards, are official legal residents, in some cases even citizens, afraid that someone's going to knock on their door at 3:00 a.m. and take and deport them from this country. the real people, the detroit headlines are full today of stories. an iraqi whose mother died who served with the military in iraq and was trying to bring his mother back, he's an american citizen. another doctor whose wife is cutter and taken her baby home. -- qatar, taken her baby home. both here legally. i ask my colleagues to pl

mr. trump: i think just doing what i am doing. i have had a great street after the last year. the economy is in a deplorable condition. the politicians destroyed the economy in 1986. . really got very lucky when i built the taj mahal, which everyone would said -- which everyone said would be his downfall, it turned out to be one of the best deals i have ever made. it made over $40 million a month . no casino in history has made anywhere near that. all three of my casinos were rated four stars. it has been an incredible period of six or seven months for me, and it has been gratifying. the comeback stories and everything else, i probably care less about that than i would have three or four euros ago, but it has been a good experience for me. mr. trump: how are you different from three or four years ago? i may like toeday lose everything for a period of time to see who is loyal and who is not. i found out a lot. charlie: did you find out? .r. trump: you can't guess it you would think some pe

mr. alexander: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i come to the floor to thank the senator from alaska and the senator from maine for this reason -- they are following a long and venerable tradition of the united states senate that too many senators do not follow. they are alarks despite their final view on the substance of an issue, the full senate to make a decision 0 on an important issue. it used to be that a motion to proceed to an issue was routine. it used to be that after a certain period of time we cut off the vote so that we could have an updarn vote -- up-or-down vote, 51, on an important issue. we've gotten away with that. but senator collins and senator murkowski have been the most consistent senators, absent circumstances, i am going to allow a vote to come to the floor so the full senate can make their decision. i thank them for that. as to ms. devos, i ask consent to put in the record following my remarks an article by -- why the senate should promptly confirm betsy devos as the united states education secr

mr. hebert, whom he described as quote, "an individual who testified falsely before this committee." let's talk about that. back in 1986, mr. hebert and his supervisor at doj recalled tasha -- were called to the hill without advance when to be deposed. mr. hebert's supervisor incorrectly stated that when he was a u.s. attorney, senator sessions pressured the fbi to stop a voting rights investigation. now, that was not the case. it wasn't senator sessions who did that. mr. hebert's supervisor got it wrong. he misremembered. when committee staff next deposed mr. hebert, he was asked whether he observed senator sessions interfered with doj cases. and mr. hebert replied quote, i only know what happened with our county case, but my supervisor is in a better position to talk about that than i am." mr. hebert continued, "he and i both have a very fuzzy recollection about that. it was my supervisor's case primarily." then senator biden asked mr. hebert about his testimony the next day and mr. heb

mr. cox: mr. chairman, i have to say this with all honesty, i think particularly this subcommittee has a great chairman. a great ranking member. mr. katko: i agree. mr. cox: and i mean it from the bottom of my heart because you work together. you want to find solutions. it's easy to constantly identify problems. the american people are looking for solutions. employees are looking for solutions. government does lots of good things that helps this country operate and helps the private industry operate. so i am excited about this congress and this subcommittee. i will work with you and afge works with the two of you in any way we can to find solutions to help our economy and keep us all safe. mr. katko: thank you, mr. cox. i appreciate the kind words. we do try and dispense with party loyalties and to do the right thing to keep the american public safe and keep this system humming and also make it better. that's our job. hopefully we can stand as an example what others in congress can do when they pu

mr. krista morphy, we appreciate you being here and being the making member. we have mr. mitchell and a number of other new members to the oversight committee will be joining us from the democrat side. i want to welcome mr. mitchell to the committee this afternoon. let's start with opening statements and get to our witnesses. we appreciate our witnesses in your today, talking about an important subject. health insurance premiums are soaring. president obama and the administration promised that the affordable care act would lower health insurance premiums by $2500. american families are still waiting to see those reductions. the health insurance premiums have skyrocketed under the affordable care act. some americans have experienced higher mm increases and had the job coverage because it became too expensive. under the affordable care act, they are not just rising premiums, the americans have seen massive increases in the cost of their deductible. insurers are seeing unprecedented losses o

mr. nunes: no, but i have been briefed on them. it would be unusual, i think unprecedented for us to get transcripts that were illegally leaked out and discussed for us to have those here in congress. i think we have to be very careful about the legislative branch of government getting fisa warranted, communications and that we start coming through private conversations american citizens are having. we have to be very careful where we go with this. >> is it not concerning, though? mr. nunes: no, what it appears to me like is it seems to me -- it seems to be there is a difference between what russia's sanctions are to people like myself, which when i think of russian sanctions, i think of dealing with crimea, dealing with the invasion of ukraine by the russians and the sanctions that we have put into place working with our allies, with the eu and others. and then what happened right at the time after christmas when president obama kicked the russia diplomat out. i don't consider that to be

mr. nunes: i want to thank all of you for being here. as you-all know it's long been a priority of mine to be a very transparent with all of you and to make sure that i'm readily available to answer any questions, especially when major issues arise as it relates to intelligence. and so kind of just watching what's occurred over the last few weeks, i wanted to make sure we formalize the process a little more. i know that last week i was here we had several press drums that a lot of you were attended. but i wanted to formalize it and make it more a press availability. i don't know if we'll do this every week or every other week. i'm just looking forward to taking your questions. with that i'll open it up. reporter: can you say categorically there were no contacts whatsoever between any officials affiliated with the russian government and the trump campaign? mr. nunes: not that i'm aware of. we have not seen any evidence from the trump campaign or any other that's communicated with the russi

mr. schumer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: lefty versus righty microphones, mr. president. okay. now, i've just listened to my friend, the majority leader, mr. president, and the majority whip on the floor. they're able legislators, but they are sort of misleading the public as to the motivation. they have tried to -- our motivation. they have tried to paint every democratic request as leftover resentment from the election. sour grapes, the majority leader said a few weeks ago. they can say it day after day after day, but it will never be true. all that we democrats are insisting on is careful, careful consideration of nominees who we believe almost universally are below par. these nominees are going to have tremendous, tremendous effect on the american people. every mother and father in america should worry about betsy devos' lack of dedication, almost negative feelings about public education. she heaps a

hash, mr. graham. mr. lee. mr. cruz. mr. kennedy. mrs. feinstein. mr. durbin. mr. franken. mr. blumenthal. mr. chairman. seven no, nine yes. >> the vote is approved. meeting over. this is a man who will not protect the voters. [indiscernible] >> a sad day for american justice. [indiscernible] [indiscernible] >> thank you. thank you. nice to meet you. [indiscernible] >> thank you. that is true. [indiscernible] announcer: coverage of confirmation hearings continues as the senate and public works committee was for the nomination of oklahoma attorney general scott pruitt to become the next administrator of the environmental protection agency. watch live at 10:15 a.m. eastern time. announcer: sunday, in-depth will feature a live discussion with nick adams. taking your calls, tweets, emails, and facebook questions during the program. >> despite the cultural problems of america, this is still by far and away, the greatest entry in the history of the world. announcer: is the author of andrica: the greatest good "retaking america, crushing critical correctness." promoting working on ame

and mr. pruitt -- mr. pruitt chooses to defend and protect the needs of the biofuel industry over the needs of our children? that is not someone worthy of representing the american people. that is not someone worthy of heading this agency. and, you know, let's just stick to mr. pruitt's own words, not the words of oh, not the words of my constituents, but in his own words. this is what he said about the agency that he's been chosen to lead. mr. pruitt describes himself as, and i quote, a leading advocate against the e.p.a.'s activist agenda. he said this on his linkedin page. we bein accessed this in januarf 2016. on the role of the e.p.a., he said, an i quote, i believe the e.p.a. has a role to play in our republican form of government. air and water quality issues can cross state lines and can sometimes require federal intervention. at the same time, the e.p.a. was never intended to be our nation's front line environmental regulator. unquote. this was his testimony before the house committee on science,

mr. sullivan: mr. president, i rise today to support the nomination of senator jeff sessions for attorney general of the united states. he is a veteran, an outstanding public servant who has worked tirelessly for decades in service of his constituents in alabama but really in this body as a u.s. attorney, as attorney general of alabama. he's a good colleague. he's a friend to many of us on both sides of the aisle. he's gracious with his time, his wisdom, his intelligence. you know, mr. president, in all nomination processes, there's some twisting of facts that goes on, some even unfortunately character attacks but the twisting of his record and the attacks on senator sessions in my view have been particularly egregious. that's why i was very saddened by what happened on the floor of the united states senate last night. one of our colleagues violated rule 19. here's what rule 19 says. no senator in debate shall directly or indirectly by any form of words impute to another senator or to other senators an

mr. applebaum? >> >> i am stuart applebaum from new york and the executive vice president of the 1.3 million member united food workers union. this has been a great process with amazing candidates. we listen to each other, we have learned from each other. now we must be moving forward together. we must leave this meeting united. our country, our democracy. -- our democracy demands it. motionoud to second the to make the selection by acclamation. thank you. [applause] all in favor say aye. opposed? arise. it is my great honor to present the next chair to the democratic national committee, a champion for working people, a visionary, a great american, mr. tom perez. [applause] [cheering] thank you. [applause] mr. perez: thank you so much. thank you so much. folks, i would like to begin by making a motion. a motion i have discussed with a good friend. and his name is keith ellison. and the motion i would like to make to the body is a motion suspending the rules, if i may, to appoint keith ellison deputy

mr. wyden: mr. president, as the senate begins to consider the price nomination, i wanted to see if i could put a little perspective on the upcoming debate. focusing on bipartisanship has always been important to me. i know many of my colleagues on the senate finance committee on the democratic side share that view, and in 2009 the nominations of democrats tom daschle, tim geithner and ron kirk were all handled in a bipartisan way. issues came up in the vetting process in each of these cases and both sides of the committee took the investigation serious seriously. unfortunately, mr. president, that is not -- that has not been the case in 2017. while congressman price served on the powerful ways and means committee, he traded in health care stocks, pushed policies that helped his portfolio, and got special access to a promising stock deal. i asked the congressman directly in his finance committee hearing whether he got a special deal. he said that he did not. i don't think you could be much clearer t

mr. yoder: mr. speaker, i rise tonight heartbroken with my friends and colleagues, both democrats and republicans, to honor the life and memory of a man shot and killed last week in my district, as well as in support for someone who was ism ed and ian, whose hero prevented this tragedy from being worse. i ask my colleague in the chamber please join me in a movement silence. the speaker pro tempore: please ise for a moment of silence. mr. yoder: mr. speaker, the man who perpetrated the attack in my district last week was filled with hate. he does not represent anything we believe in as kansan or as americans. last night our community sent a strong message that love will overcome hate. s ousands of concerned citizen in my district came together to support one of another and our growing and vibrant indian community in this time of great tragedy. we show the world that our diverse political and religious views are what make our community and our country great. mr. speaker, in addition to this moment of

mr. raskin: mr. speaker, thank you very much. i'm delighted to be with you this afternoon, and i have a series of other speakers that will be joining me later in the hour from the progressive caucus as we discuss some of the key events of the week from our perspective. i would ask unanimous consent that all the members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on this subject of our special order. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. raskin: mr. speaker, i love magic, and i bet a lot of people out there watching today love magic too. ever since i was a kid, i loved the cops and the card tricks and the rabbit coming out of the hat. when -- i -- i loved the cups and the card tricks and the rabbit coming out of the hat. i entertained at birthday parties helping to pay my way through college. and the key move in magic, as you know, mr. speaker, is the sleight of hand and i looked up the definition of sleight of hand in the merriam