mrs. ernst: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mrs. ernst: mr. president, i want to take a moment -- excuse me. are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mrs. ernst: mr. president, i ask -- the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. ernst: thank you. mr. president, i want to take a moment to emphasize why the secure and succeed act is the right bill for the senate to pass this week. you see, i chose to join my colleagues who have worked hard on this bill for months for a few important reasons. first, this bill provides a way forward for our daca recipients. i have said time and again that i appreciate the contributions our daca recipients are making in our communities. they are our friends, our neighbors, and our churchgoers. i support finding them a way forward. our bill does this. it does it in a fair and humane way. but importantly, it also adds strong eligibility requirements to ensure the safety and security of the program and stop future illegal immigration. for instance, it does not reward the parents that came here illeg

mrs. ernst: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mrs. ernst: thank you. i would like to thank the ranking member from agriculture for joining us here on the floor today. i appreciate her great bipartisan work on the ag committee. i am pleased to be a member of that committee. and it is truly one of those committees where we set aside any political differences. we actually work for the good of our agricultural committee, our ranchers and our farmers, regardless of the state that they come from. we truly do work together to feed and fuel a nation. so thank you very much for joining us today, ranking member. i want t thank my senior senator from iowa as well. i'm rising today to join my colleague, senator chuck grassley, and others that have joined us on the floor to support the nomination of bill northey as under secretary for farm production and being conservation at the united states department of agriculture, the usda. i have known bill northey for nearly a decade. and to be honest, probably a little more than a decade. he is a great friend. he is a grea

mrs. ernst: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mrs. ernst: thank you, mr. president. i would like to start by thanking my colleague, and especially my friend from iowa, our senior senator, chuck grassley, for his tremendous work on this project. and all of those that have participated in the discussions on the secure and succeed act. this legislation puts us on the best path forward to provide a permanent solution for our daca recipients all while strengthening our borders and entry security. our legislation addresses the unique challenges faced by the daca population, many of whom were brought to america by their parents through no fault of their own when they were just children. in iowa and across our nation, daca recipients are an integral part of our community. they are our neighbors. they are our classmates. and they are our fellow churc churchgoers. this last summer when i was at the county fair, i was approached by a young lady and she came up to me and she said senator ernst, i would like to know where you stand on daca. so i explained my position t

. >> and mr. ernst. >> thank you, and min stray or the -- administrator pruitt for being here to answer our questions. americans expect good governance and accessibility, participation, responsiveness and accountability and since taking the reins at epa, you have shown that you are not afraid to engage with the american people by going out to look at those superfunds. you are show nag you are willing to know firsthand the concerns of those americans that are giving those affected an opportunity to engage in the decision-making process. so thank you for that. in addition to the superfund issue that you just addressed, in august of last year, you traveled to des moines, iowa, and you have met with over 50 stakeholders from across the ag industry at the farm bureau and we left that round table really encouraged by what we heard and what we were able to engage in knowing that we do now have a partner in epa. under your leadership epa has taken necessary actions to walk back and repeal destructive obama-era

mrs. clinton talked about that with george mitchell at the time. robert ernst said absolutely not. we are not going to use the reconciliation. that is not what this is supposed to be. we want to have full consideration of something this important and yet in the bush tax cuts in 2001 and now again reconciliation has been misused in order to accomplish something with 50 votes. >> host: i believe that i recommend and i point out that senate rules haven't looked at since 1979. they need to be re-examined perhaps by former senators with public representatives as well and the bipartisan policy commission. it's a serious question you could ask whether the senate should have supermajorities for anything as opposed to just majorities but it has to be agreed on. you can't claim that democrats are in party but when republicans are in power you need 50 votes. that doesn't work or it shouldn't work and the tragedy is that has worked for the republicans and most particularly and most recently for senator mcconnell. >> host: i want to talk precisely about that for a couple of moments and we are g

ernst. >> thank you, mr. chairman, thank you mr. pruitt for being here today and taking time to answer our questions. i really do appreciate that. as you know, americans do expect good governance from all of us, and they expect accessibility, participation, responsiveness, and accountability. since taking the reigns at the epa, you have shown you're not afraid to engage with the american population, and you just gave that example of going out visiting the sites for super funds. you have also shown that you are willing to hear firsthand the concerns of americans while giving those that are effected an opportunity to engage in the decision-making process. so thank you for that. in addition to the super fund issue you just addressed, you traveled to des moines, iowa, and you met with over 50 stakeholders from across the ag industry at the farm bureau, and we left that round table really encouraged by what we heard and what we were able to engage in, knowing that we do now have a partner in epa. under your leadership, epa has taken nece