ms. ayotte: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. ms. ayotte: mr. president, i want to thank our leader and thank senator casey for introducing and pushing to pass this very important legislation. this legislation which i was proud to be an early sponsor of, the protecting our infants act, which will help address the increasing number of newborns born with opioid dependency. i also want to thank all of the additional members, including the chairman of the help committee and ranking member murray, for helping get that through that important committee new hampshire is facing a public health epidemic. in fact, the heroin and prescription drug addiction crisis is the single-most urgent issue facing my state right now. so many families have come to me, mr. president, who have lost children. the other day i was buying something, and the woman behind the counter said to me, keep working on this issue. and i asked her why? she said i lost my granddaughter. too many families are experiencing losing their loved ones. there are family members struggling with a

ms. ayotte: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. ms. ayotte: madam president, i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. ayotte: thank you, madam president. madam president, i come to the floor today to ask for an extension of a very important program to my state, the land and water conservation fund. and because of that, i ask unanimous consent that the energy and natural resources committee be discharged and the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. 2101. i ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. ms. ayotte: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. ms. ayotte: thank you, madam president. i'm very disappointed that last night the land and water conservation fund expired and lapsed. and i just offered

ms. ayotte: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. ms. ayotte: thank you, madam president. i come to the floor today to urge my colleagues to permanently reauthorize the land and water conservation fund. this has been a very important program for preserving our outdoor spaces and the beauty of our country and particularly to my home state of new hampshire, where this fund actually comes from leasing revenues of -- from oil and gas, and so these are dollars that are supposed to be designated for this purpose since the law was passed in 1965. and i'm very disappointed that this body has allowed lwcf's authorization to expire. we have a bipartisan bill. senator burr, senator bennet, myself, the burr-bennet-ayotte bill that is one that i'm going to in a minute seek unanimous consent on, that is -- has a number of cosponsors. this is very bipartisan. we have cosponsors from senator tester, senator shaheen, senator alexander, senator collins, senator king, and this would permanently reauthorize the land and water conservation fund. we know from