mrs. fischer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. the senate is in a quorum call. mrs. fischer: i would ask that the quorum call be vitiated, please. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. fischer: mr. president, i have the request for seven committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mrs. fischer: mr. president, i rise to continue my tribute to nebraska's heroes. those who have lost their lives defending iraq and afghanistan. each has a special story to tell. today i will tell the story of lonnie calvin jr. calvin grew up in a military family. his father, lonnie allen -- both he and his wife sally thought they would only be there for a short time. however, they enjoyed the good life and soon after the birth of their two sons, naru and calvin, they decided to stay. as a young child calvin spent much of his time in the kitchen. his he mother talks about how ca

mrs. fischer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mrs. fischer: mr. president, i rise today to discuss h.r. 1865, the antihuman trafficking legislation currently being considered here on the senate floor. human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal enterprises in the world. more than 20 million people in our nation and around the globe are affected by this modern-day form of slavery. the criminals who carry out these heinous acts often go after the vulnerable, such as young people who have run away from home, or victims of domestic violence. women and girls are disproportionately affected, according to the international labor organization, 55% of total victims worldwide are women and girls. tragically, children are frequently targeted. the perpetrators trap their victims in unconscionable and violent situations, forcing them to commit sexual acts against their will. this practice occurs in nearly every area code. it's happening closer to home than we even realize. a report published by creighton university and the women's fund of omaha fo

nations and the politicization of human rights welcome to you or i would like to start by asking mr fischer this when you listen to the species of the united nations human rights commission some of the member states are known to be human rights violator then you wonder someone should be disconnected from reality here is that the member states or is it the un us r.c. itself. well there's no question we share the concerns about human rights violators who become members of the the un's human rights council primarily in order to block themselves from from scrutiny we have seen on the human rights council states like and like china like egypt like saudi arabia like venezuela all of course known for systematically violating the human rights of their of their own people and at the same time for the u. mass council just started its thirty seventh session and it begins with statements by foreign ministers so it's expected that they will come and try and and to sell the best vision of their country possible even if it's disconnected from reality that sigman ends today and it's up to noon we'll have a

mrs. fischer: mr. president, i rise today in support of the bill before us, the economic growth, regulatory relief, and consumer protection act. this bill is a product of a multi-year bipartisan process. it's the result of stakeholder input, multiple legislative hearings, a committee markup, and a committee report. there are a lot of great provisions in this bill, but what i'd like to focus on today is what this bill will accomplish for smaller financial institutions, our community banks and our credit unions, especially in the state of nebraska. i also want to touch on the important regulatory relief included for small public housing agencies that are in nebraska and all across this country. over the course of the past year, i've received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from people and businesses across nebraska about this bill, but the outpouring of support from community banks and credit unions has been particularly notable. these institutions are the pillars of our local communities. th

mr. chairman. the chairman: thank you, senator fischer. senator inhofe. senator inhofe: thank you, mr. chairman. i do want to get in the area, secretary chao, of this funding they are talking about over here. but before that, i think rick perry, you're one of the real experts on pipelines. i heard what you said about the rpus -- what's going on down there and what's going on in brownsville. i know what's going on down there. when you look at the problems that we have in terms of pipelines and according to a 2013 report, we need $890 billion of energy infrastructure investment through 2025. a lot of that would be through, course, the pipelines restructuring and improvement. the impediment of infrastructure is existing federal government regulation. i don't think this. i know this. i served for a number of years as chairman of the environment, public works committee. one of the real successes we had there was doing away with a lot of the regulations, streamlining things. i have to give credit to my fellow senator, barbara boxer. she's a very liberal and real conservative. we all agreed on this and

mrs. fischer: i would ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. under the previous order, the senate stands in recess until 2:15

mr. obama actually donated that to fischer house, the clinton, bush, haiti fund as well as a number of otherrganizations, united negro college fund, hispanic scholarship fund, american indian college fund, and central asia institute. so, yeah, he gave away the $1.4 million just for facts sake. the attorney for adult film star stormy daniels is seeking depositions from both president trump and his attorney, michael cohen. the reason michael offensiavena wants to force them to testify about that $130,000 payment that cohen made to ms. daniels as the 2016 presidential campaign ended, here's what mr. avenatti said to me last hour. >> we're focused on the formation of the agreement and the terms of that agreement and what the president knew and when he knew it. we're not interested in what the white house spokesperson or deputy spokesperson has to say. we want to put the president under oath. >> back now with our panel. does anyone think this is actually going to happen, or do you think this is just a gimmick, or do you think it's a legal maneuver? >> i think it's a gimmick, but it's also possibl

fischer. >> thank you mr.hairman and welcome gentlemen to gear this back to the trends we are facing as a country i know in the posture review it was stated that russia mistakenly assesses the threat of nuclearse escalation for first use would serve to d escalate a conflict with terms favorable to russia referred to as the escalate to de-escalate strategy. and that is disputing that assessment denying that russia has such a strategy do you agree with the npr assessment to de-escalate the strategy with that doctrine. >> and has been for some time and i understand we cannot discuss in great detail how you arrived at that conclusion but is it fair to say the is with senior leaders and those capabilities? >> with the overarching what they think of the nuclear triad to the deterrent strategy that is the same triadd it is the escalate to de-escalate or escalate to dominate and the strategy is a strategic cause you are back into talks and discussions and with that situation their national n vital interest russia prop

mr. chair. >> thank you, senator fischer. senator wicker. >> thank you. i guess members of the panel realize that many members of this committee have two other hearings scheduled at the same time. so we've been coming in and out. thank you for your patience and being here. let me just observe generally, we've had some pretty explicit statements on the part of the committee chairman. and also the ranking member. and i understand the testimony today has not been particularly encouraging about our ability, our collective ability, to have this requirement fulfilled by the end of the year. i do think the chairman and ranking member's statements indicate that on behalf of the congress, they're trying to say that patience is running out. and, i mean, clearly we're going to try not to shut down train traffic around the country. at a date certain. but we need whoever to understand that they need -- we need to get the attention of those responsible. and get a timetable that will work. and avoid, if i might say, a train wreck coming, either figuratively or literally

fischer. >> thank you mr. chairman. welcome gentlemen. if we could gear this back to some friends we are facing as a country. i know in the recently released nuclear pot ash nuclear posture review it was stated that russia mistakenly excesses the threat of nuclear escalation or actual first use of nuclear weapons would serve to de-escalate a conflict on terms favorable to russia. that is referred to as an escalate to deescalate strategy. from the documents release the russian government in in particular have disputed the assessment and deny that russia has such a strategy. i would ask you do you agree with the assessment that the escalate deescalate strategy reflects russian values? dir. coats: that is part of their docket for some time. >> since we are in an unclassified form we cannot discuss in great detail how you arrived at that conclusion, but in general is it fair to say the strategy is reflected in their military exercises, statements to senior leaders and development of military capabilities? in terms of what they think about wit

fischer reports. crown prince thank you very much take it again thank you mr president actually the relation to saudi arabian research merits all the relation we have all this ally for us of america and the middle east right for more than eighty five months and big interest politically economically and security. in different area lot of areas and the condition of the relation it's really huge and . while these were all agreed when donald trump was in saudi arabia and many came back in saying look it was a great trip he liked the way that they treated him he thought he'd established a connection particularly with the crown prince and it's odd that in the oval office that donald trump would take this approach but this is really playing to the domestic audience he's saying look we're friends with saudi arabia and this is why we're friends with saudi arabia we're friends with them because they're spending millions of millions of dollars on our arms industry and that is creating jobs for walkers for our people and while he's doing this just across time in the senate they're debating how the united states

controlled the region let's get more now from our correspondent alan fischer who's on the turkey syria border just walk us through what else mr erdogan has been saying today allan. speaking in ankara just in the last hour and he said that he expects to see turkish troops in the center of aspirin probably by the end of whedon's the and that would fit in with the time scale that he was talking about at the weekend remember he said then that if turkey didn't care for humanitarian issues then it could be just three days before their troops were in the center of our friend but he said they were going to make sure that the plight of the people in the city were among his top concerns and what we're hearing now is that the turks have actually established a humanitarian corridor at the south of the city to let people leave and some people have already taken advantage of that they started to do so late on tuesday in a number of other people have moved on wednesday now the offensive in african continues and certainly we had that in the early hours of this morning turkish air strikes hit a number of checkpoints that have been established

mr a said. well stefan de mistura is essentially confirming for the security council what we're hearing from our reporters like alan fischer on the ground that the situation not only in eastern guta but throughout the country is continues to be precarious this was an meeting where the special envoy was supposed to update the security council on implementation of their resolutions particularly twenty four zero one which called for a cease fire across syria and as we can see is not being implemented the one bright spot de mistura mentioned was duma where a shaky cease fire has held for the last six days but in terms of the impact of the ongoing fighting on civilians he described a very grim picture. with civilians continuing to be and harm's way despite the action of the security council calling for the cease fire he also updated the security council on efforts to restart political talks under u.n. auspices to bring a political solution to push that forward and he had very little progress to report there as well he talked about a stock where the ministers from iran turkey and russia are meeting and that there is a commitment

control alan fischer al jazeera on the talk to syrian border the us president says north korea's government is holding its missile tests ahead of donald trump's meeting with kim jong un mr trump are speaking at a rally in pennsylvania where he prays china and south korea for helping to build a dialogue with north korea there's been no official comment so far from pyongyang on the proposed meeting or on tests mike hanna has more from washington. throughout the day president trump was upbeat about the proposed face to face meeting with the north korean leader he tweeted about phone calls he made with various world leaders including the prime minister of japan the president of china the president of france getting international support for this unprecedented meeting also in the course of the day he tweeted that north korea had not carried out any missile test since the twenty eighth of november indicating that he believed the assurances that were passed on to him by south korean mediators this theme he returned to during a campaign speech in support of republican candidates in the course of the evening they're not going to send missiles or think of it they're not sending m

mrs. fischer: mr. president, i have eight -- the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mrs. fischer: i would ask that it be vitiated, please. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. fischer: thank you, mr. president. i have eight 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: duly noted. mrs. fischer: mr. president, i rise today to pay tribute to a great public servant who passed away last night, former member of congress and nebraska governor charlie thone. i think the omaha world herald summed up his life as well. his first name is listed as charles but nebraskans knew him better as charlie, the unpretentious farm boy who adoptedaccentuate the possible as his theme song. he was born near hardington, nebraska. he served our country in the united states army infantry during world war ii. while serving in the house of representatives, then then-congressman thone fought on behalf