mrs. blackburn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. we are in a quorum call. mrs. blackburn: i ask that we dispense with the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. yesterday evening i had the opportunity to invite 100,000 of our fellow tennesseans to join me in a telephone town hall. now, we have found that this is something that tennesseans love. instead of having to drive to a location, they are able to just pick up the phone and, as they are doing homework with children or preparing dinner, they are able to jump on the phone and talk about yishes that are -- issues that are important to them. and we covered a wide range of topics yesterday evening. we talked about nuclear power and gun rights and health care for our veterans. we even talked a little bit about an invasive fish species, asian carp, and how that is affecting our beautiful rivers of there was one thing that continued to come out through the course of this telephone town hall, and i bet you can get what that topic

mr. blackburn, to loose pow e and what should they be doing right now to stay safe? >> it's getting a little late, so most people should be in their homes if they have not already evacuated. certainly we've said over and over and over, you should have seven days of food and water. you certainly should have tried to secure your windows, your doors, to make sure your house is as secure as possible. we expect for three days after the hurricane goes through, every citizen should be self-sufficient. and in actuality we'd like you to be self-sufficient for as long as possible brianna it takes a while for the county and city and state to come in resources brianna it takes a while to mobilize and know where to go. citizens have to know to be responsible, and we've been getting that message out repeatedly really for your the last five, seven days. >> good luck to you and everyone in your community. we'll be watching very, very closely. thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. >>> up next hurricane evacuations are in order for florida and along the southeastern coast. we'r

mrs. blackburn: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam president. i want to express to the senator from texas our concern and our thoughts for all of those who have been so impacted. and he mentioned the floods and the impact that had happened. i found out about some of the good work of the good samaritans in the area by watching what was taking place on social media. and i'm certain millions of americans saw firsthand some of the generosity and the help that was given there. and, indeed, madam president, the internet and social media platforms have transformed the way we communicate, the way we send out information and many times the way we receive it. correspondence that just a few years ago would have taken pen, paper, and postage is now sent and received with a simple click of a mouse. everything happens online, from communicating about disasters to shopping to party planning to campaigning. we share photos and milestones with our friends. we let people know that we're okay in times of disasters or that we n

blackburn. >> thank you mr. speaker.ime minister Ãb when i read the first paragraph and it talks about the supreme court verdict, mr. speaker, it wasn't the supreme court verdict, it was the judgments of the supreme court. perhaps the prime minister might start to show some respect for the judiciary. we are here today because the prime minister was absolutely humiliated by the supreme court. by a count of 11 Ãzero. [inaudible] that we might have had some humility. that we might have been able to acknowledge that what we had is the unlawful shutting down of parliament. mr. speaker, who Ãb the former prime minister à tierney begins. mr. speaker, will it pains me to say it, the prime minister is still standing here today, he in fact does believe he's above the law. mr. speaker, he is not. and thank heavens for the action that was brought forth in scotland and england that i want to pay tribute to my honorable fred à [applause] [loud shouting] >> thank goodness the courts have done their job and made sure the parliament is g

mr. chairman. >> thank you very much. senator blackburn is next, and at the end of her questioning, we will observe the moment of silence in memory of the victims of 9/11. senator blackburn. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and ms. cogswell, i will tell you that the inconsistency that is happening with the vetting that takes place at the airport, but then we look at the southern border, and we have thousands of people on a weekly basis who are not vetted. we do not know who they are, and we do not know what they are bringing into the country, and many times it is drugs. many times they are bringing in human beings. trafficking women and children. we would never allow that passing through an airport. but yet it is happening at the border, so it is appropriate that the dea and the tsa personnel is there to proside some control and appropriate vetting. let me stay with the vetting process, and senator lee touched on this. in recent years as he mentioned both the gao and the ig has identified very serious security vulnerabilities that exist with th

blackburn: mr. mccarthy, i have been concerned and we have previously talked about the gaps, and they are really critical gaps in army cyber defense. this is all going to be vitally important as we look at the 21st century warfare. as we look at interoperability and integration and working cross platform. -- fund the multifaceted utilization in ai , the way you will have disparate platforms you will be working from in multiple locations. why don't you talk about how you envision and is the army pursuing signet and pw and ciber, and how you see the army shapingfitting into or this strategy. mr. mccarthy: senator, first it is people. we have to recruit more cyber experts. it's a very difficult to recruit and even harder to retain. we have used tool of force solutions across the force and found a lot of success there in trying to retain men and women to stay in the army because they make the move to the private sector because they're clearly very marketable. we've established some unique relationships

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator blumenthal. senator blackburn. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you to our witnesses. we appreciate that you are here. i enjoyed visiting with you for a few minutes before the hearing began. mr. wolfram, i want to pick up where we had discussed. in your testimony computational irreducibility. look at that for just a moment. as we talk about this, does it make algorithmic transparency sound increasingly elusive and would you consider moving towards transparency is a worthy goal or should we be asking another question? >> yeah, i think there are different meanings to transparency. if you are asking tell me why the algorithm did this versus that, that's really hard. if we really want to be able to answer that, we're not going to be able to have algorithms that do anything powerful. in a sense being able to say this is why it did that, we might as well follow the path we used to explain it rather than have it do what it needed to do itself. >> so the transparency, what we can't do is try to get a pragmatic result. >> yeah, we can't

blackburn. followed by senator scott. >> mr. chairman i want to thank each of you for being here this morning.nk you for talking with us. this committee has looked at this issue on the algorithms and their utilization for some time. and were going to continue to do this. looking at content. in the extremist content is online. it is certainly important and then we know that there are a host of solutions. and we need to come to an agreement and an understanding of how you are going to use these technologies to really protect our citizens. in social media companies are innocence open public forums. they should be. where people can interact with one another. part of your responsibility in this thing is to have an objective cop on the beat. and to be able to see what is happening because you know looking at it in real time. but what has unfortunately happened in many terms, is that you don't get an objective view. you don't get a consistent view. you get a subjective view. and this is problematic. it leads to confusion by the public. that is using the virtual space for entertainment and for their t

mrs. blackburn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. i so enjoy listening to my colleagues as they talk about the issues that are important this them and to the states that they represent. it is indeed one of those privileges that we in this body enjoy, and many times we take it for granted. but today, as a day of remembrance, is a day that we look back and say we ought not to take it for granted. because there are many in this world who would threaten our freedoms and our liberties. and earlier this week i was talking with some of the members of our team, and we were trading stories about where we were on the morning of september 11 and how it affected the way we viewed their place in the world. and their memories, what their recollection was. and those of us who vividly remember that day still recall an unsettling cascade of emotions. there was shock, confusion, and finally dread as we realized that we were not as initially thought seeing a senseless accident but, indeed, what was happening -- we we

mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam president. this is not the first time that i've come to the floor to discuss the situation that is on our nation's southern border and the need that we as a country have for a stronger, more efficient immigration policy. i've made more than one trip to south texas this year, and each time i return i find myself more motivated to cut through the noise and to get something done. what should a practical policy discussion has unfortunately turned political and very real problems have compounded into an unprecedented crisis. within these halls, we have debates over asylum camps and visa requirements. they are indeed important issues, but recent reports on the explosion of human rights violations perpetrated by cartels, coyotes, and international gangs has added some much-needed context to these debates. by now we've all heard how dangerous the journey to our southern border can be for those who are being brought forward by cartels, coyotes, and international gangs. traffickers have really built a big

mrs. blackburn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackrn:hank you, mr. president. one of the occasions that we celebrate every year is constitution day. and that actually took place yesterday and it was so exciting to visit with students and talk with constituents and celebrate constitution day. and the fact that we have this document -- and you know, our constitution is a disarmingly short document to read. it just really doesn't take a lot of time. when you sit down to read it and digest it and when you're done with it, you might easily walk away thinking, you know, that wasn't that hard after all. it's pretty simple, right? well, we all know that that's not necessarily the case. easy to understand but so important that we look at this in its entirety. there's an entire body of law dedicated to tearing that constitution apart. and it is mind boggling when you think about that. we have this document. it puts this foundation in place. and there is law that would rip it apart. there are those that would rip it apart who are looking f

mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. it is such an honor to be here to follow leader mcconnell and talk about the achievements of our state's senior senator and recognize his wonderful work, not only in d.c. but also in tennessee. and i want to touch on just a few of those highlights and the importance to our state, as we have for many years -- for me, being a state senator, involved in our community, coming to serve in congress and now serving in the senate with our senior senator, it is something that is a wonderful experience. and the majority leader just mentioned that our senior senator will retire at the end of next year, and, of course, we're all going to miss seeing him around capitol hill. senator alexander has really distinguished himself as a man who's committed to tennessee tradition and to helping tennessee find prominence on the global stage. now, anyone who has ever entered senator alexander's office know that he is a music lover. but what they may not know is that he is also both a classically trained pia

mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam president. i want to get straight to the point this morning. i find it absolutely incomprehensible that some of our friends across the aisle are repeating the same missteps that turned last fall's supreme court confirmation battle into a black mark on the history of this body. i want to make it clear that i have no desire to relitigate the disputes borne from justice brett kavanaugh's confirmation hearings. i do not want to hear my friends on the other side of the aisle leverage for of the same baseless, salacious allegations in the name of partisan politicking, but when you stop and you think about it, since they have chosen to go there, it is imperative that i speak out, that we speak out about what is transpiring. you know, i was not in the senate for the first go-round on this, but i'm here now and i can tell you that i intend to give their arguments exactly the amount of deference and respect that they deserve. you know, sitting on the sidelines is never easy, but it's especially difficult when you're watching a fight you know that you cou

, rounds, ernst, perdue, scott of florida, blackburn, reed, shaheen, blumenthal, hirono, kaine, king, heinrich, warren, peters, manchin, duckworth and jones. mr. lankford: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 417. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, department of treasury, brian mcguire of new york to be deputy under secretary. mr. lankford: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of brian mcguire of new york to be deputy under secretary of the treasury, signed by 17 senators as follows. mcconnell, cotton -- mr. lankford: i request the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lankford: i ask unanimous consent the senate be in a period of