mrs. blackburn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. i wanted to speak for a few minutes -- the presiding officer: senator, we are in a quorum call. mrs. blackburn: i ask that we suspend the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. blackburn: i wanted to speak for a a few minutes today to talk a little bit about rural health care and to ask my colleagues for help in he can prosecuting the 20% of -- for help in protecting the 20% of americans who live in rural areas and are in danger of losing or may have lost entirely access to health care in their communities. since 2010, 118 rural hospitals have shut their doors, 14 of those facilities are in my state of tennessee. medical practitioners are paying attention to this trend and more often than not choose stability in the cities and suburbs over the uphill battle that comes with practicing medicine without access to the funding and modern resources many clinics now ta

mrs. blackburn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: i ask that i can finish my remarks before the vote, and i ask that with the zuckerman nomination that if invoked, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. blackburn: i am here to stand with my colleagues to talk about the 2019 violence against women act. most women will tell you that they know of a female friend or acquaintance or relative who has experienced the horrors of sexual assault or domestic violence or even trafficking. through my work with shelters back home in tennessee, i've learned that the volunteers, the counselors, the advocates, the attorneys who support these victims are of the utmost importance. that is who the victim needs to see the minute they walk through that door into the arms of somebody who says, how can we help you? this is a safe place. those are the people that come around them to empower them. and the one

mrs. blackburn: yes, mr. president, i do object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. durbin: mr. president, for the record, how many pieces of legislation did we consider in the senate last week? none. the week before? none. how many months has this measure been sitting here in the senate? the republican-controlled senate, four months. and for four months, the leader, the republican leader has not considered it worthy to even come before the senate for debate. i don't control the agenda. senator mcconnell does. and he's decided that this measure is not worth debating on the floor of the united states senate. so when i come to make a unanimous consent request to bring this measure to the floor, it isn't as if we are taking away an option which the minority leader -- pardon me, the republican leader is using. he's not. and when we look back to the debate -- or at least the effort to find a compromise with president trump on this issue, it is next to impossible. he is surrounded by people who are completely against daca and dreamers. steven miller is a good illustration

mrs. blackburn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. it is so interesting to be here on the floor and to listen to a variety of ideas and to know that across the country, people are logging on and they are tuning in and they're watching how we go about our business. and one of the things that is so interesting is we pull the internet and online activity into our lives and stay connected. we sometimes enjoy the idea of just unking unplugging for a -- unplugging for a weekend, going super-in the country that -- going somewhere in the country that hold a really special pull. especially this time of year, people will talk about going away for thanksgiving, or maybe they went to look at pretty leaves. they see is it as an escape and maybe even an opportunity to get just a little by the of smugness in their tone when they talk about they have chosen a destination that has politely informed them not to expect wi-fi and not to expect that internet connection. but here's a question for you. how many would make

mrs. blackburn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. it really has been quite a year here in washington for drawing out policy battles. it's november. we're still fighting over defense spending trade, the results of the election that long ago was decided in 2016. but a quick flip through this morning's world news sections served as my daily reminder that americans really do have so incredibly much for which to be thankful. you might even feel inclined to say that we are really lucky to live here in the united states. but i will tell you luck really doesn't have a lot to do with it. our freedom was bought with the blood of thousands, thousands who instigated a revolution in spite of being outspent, outmanned, out gunned by the global -- outgunned by the global superpower of their time. thank goodness they had that fighting spirit, the same absolute belief in the right to self-determination went on to fuel the abolitionists, the women suffragists, the civil rights warriors, and today their fearlessness

mr. chairman. >> senator blackburn. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for being here today and for taking our questions. responded, you have addressed senator, senator, senator. i think you should be addressing victims because they are the ones we are asking questions on behalf of. they are the ones who have come today on behalf of their family members. another thing i want to ask you -- you have mentioned a couple of times a lack of awareness of emails or documents or communications. we have something around here before we vote. we read the bill. so we know what is in it. if we need to ask questions, we ask questions. we develop the awareness that is so necessary to make good decisions. of thehave a full view situation that is in front of us. disconcerting to hear someone who is to be the leader of a company to say, i was not aware. or, i did not know. that.had not read nobody made me aware of that. buck.l that passing the it is your responsibility if you are going to lead the company to have that awareness. have you at this point read each a

blackburn. >> you know, mr. speaker, i thought it was prime minister's questions, not a rant. i have to say. [shouting] >> i have to say. >> order. i'm seriously worried about your condition. calm yourself, man. i'm very concerned for you. calm down. ian blackbird. >> i certainly wish mr. grant all the best for his future because he's not coming back like so many of the scottish conservatives. [laughing] we hear that the prime minister is going to be coming up to scotland in the election campaign. can i tell the prime minister he's welcome because each time he comes to scotland -- ] mr. speaker, scotland -- we won't have it forced upon us. isn't it clear that the scottish national party is the only party standing up for scotland's interest? and respecting our democratic decisions to remain in the european union? mr. speaker, this coming election will be one of the most important in scotland's history. only a vote for the snp can secure the escape route for scotland the way from this brexit mass, from the chaos of westminster, the austerity of the tories and to protect scotland's rights to ch

blackburn. >> thank you, mr. chairman, excuse me, i want to introduce in the record council of prisons local region letter. okay, go ahead. >> thank you, and thank you so much. we appreciate that you're there and easy to see with general barr wanted you to come out of retirement and come back. >> jeffrey epstein concerns a lot because we have victims, women, young girls that are never going to see justice fully because of his death and you've mentioned that all of your high profile inmates are treated the same. so i want to pivot to the staff and senator coons had started on some of this and let's look at policies and procedures for staff for handling these high profile or suicidal inmates. do you have written protocols that are there to be followed as standard operating procedure even if you're augmenting staff. >> right. >> that everybody knows this is how it's done? is that in existence? >> yes, it is, in all of our special housing units or secure units, posted right tt the front entry, officer's quarters and

mr. purdue, i want to thank my colleagues, looking at three leaders in the senate, and the audit and budget issues for the pentagon. senator ernst, senator blackburn and senator purdue. you did raise the issue of the cr and we heard bipartisan concern which is important how you described it. there's a way too deal with it which is to allow us to get on the senate's preparations bill and have my colleagues on the other side stop filibustering from getting on that and we can just vote on it, that would certainly help and that's what we're trying to do so to the bipartisan concern there's a simple answer. let's get on the bill and vote on the bill that came out appropriations committee with a strong bipartisan support, but we'll continue to press that. i certainly will. well, i want to thank you again and members are requested to submit additional questions for the record by friday at noon, mr. secretary, i appreciate and respectfully ask that you promptly respond to additional questions from any of the members of this committee. with that we are adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conve

mrs. blackburn: mr. president. are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mrs. blackburn: i ask that the quorum call be suspended. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. this past weekend i was the first senator in a really long time to fly into somalia's dangerous capital city. it looks like things in -- that things have gotten back to normal. after you fly in and get on the ground, you see that it is really quite a different story. there is a reason why our recollection of somalia history focuses on black hawk down issue and president bill clinton's decision to remove troops from the horn of africa. somalia's legacy is rooted in years of violence that overwhelmed elite forces, president to that economy and left the people very much alone at least until 9/11 when western powers were forced to focus on multiple fronts on the war on terror. i was fortunate enough last weekend to visit our djibouti-based troops. they have expanded to support africa's mission there in the horn of africa. i will tell you, their leadership is committed to not repeating the mistakes