ms. murkowski: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: i request the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: mr. president, we are on day two officially of the second tranche of an appropriations package. we have before us the interior subcommittee appropriations bill, the financial services, the t-hud, transportation, housing, urban development, and agriculture. so it's a good combination. it's a good package. it's a strong package. it is a series of appropriations bill that moved through the full appropriations committee several months back. most of these bills advanced either unanimously as the interior can subcommittee appropriations bill did or with a strong, strong bipartisan show of support out of committee. for those who have fald the appropriations process over the years, you know that is somewhat unprecedented, to be able to advance these spending bills through the full committee process, much less to do so i

ms. murkowski: mr. president? the. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the following amendments be called up en bloc and reported by number -- schatz number 3407 and kennedy number 3430. i further ask consent that following the remarks of senators baldwin, durbin, schatz, and kennedy, the senate vote in relation to the schatz and kennedy amendments in the order listed and that there be no second-degree amendments in order to the amendments prior to the votes. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. ms. murkowski: for the information of all senators, we expect -- the clerk will report the amendments by number. the clerk: ms. murkowski for others proposes amendments number 3407 and 3430, en bloc, to amendment number 3399. ms. murkowski: mr. president, for the information of all senators, we expect these votes to occur shortly after 6:00 p.m. the presiding officer: the senator from wisconsin. ms. baldwin: mr. presid

ms. murkowski has said she will consider a nominee's views on the abortion rights views but that it aloneld not be a litmus test for her choice." joining me now is journalist erin carmone, co-author of the notorious rbg. she's got a piece in the "washington post" sayinger, conservatives will try overturn roe versus wade. and leon wolfe, managing editor 69 blaze. leon, let me start with you. i've been following with interest your reaction to this court opening. the republican party is an anti-abortion party almost entirely, that's a sort of consensus view. the legal stars of the conservative movement in the republican party are opposed to abortion. many think that roe was terribly decided and sloppy. and then awful a sudden everyone gets bizarrely quiet when the opportunity is up for a supreme court justice who would presumably provided fifth vote to overturn roe. and i don't quite get it. is it just politics? is it fear of the politics of it? >> well, look, chris, i'm in my early 40s, and i remember the robert bork confirmation hearings. anybody who's my age or older which includes everyb

ms. collins, miss murkowski, this is on you. won't accept these nonsense excuses because he said he was in favor of precedent, this won't count, no, it has to be all out on the ground in those states, those women have to be put under a glaring light so that they finally have to make a choice that goes against their par party unless they were phony pro-choice women all along which is distinctly possible. >>> coming up, amid the backlash over the trump administration's cruel immigration policies, the movement to abolish i.c.e. is picking up steam. oh, you brought butch. yeah! (butch growls at man) he's looking at me right now, isn't he? yup. (butch barks at man) butch is like an old soul that just hates my guts. (laughs) (vo) you can never have too many faithful companions. that's why i got a subaru crosstrek. love is out there. find it in a subaru crosstrek. burning, pins and needles, of diabetic nerve pain these feet... ... made waves in high school... ... had a ball being a dad... ...and built a career in construction. but i co

ms. murkowski: mr. president, i rise to reluctantly to reserve the right to object. i will object to amendment 3424, which would permanently authorize the revenue collection and deposit of the land and water conservation fund. and i -- i want to thank my colleague from north carolina, i want to thank my colleague from colorado. i too know here and understand the passion that you have expressed not only at this time but that you have for quite some time about your support for this important conservation program. it is something that i think we, as americans, have much to be proud about. now, i have expressed some of my concerns about how historically certain aspects of the land and water conservation fund have shifted from -- from less to state-side acquisition and more to federal acquisition. i would like to see some of that reallocated, rebalanced. but in concept what we have designed with the lwcf is something that has brought strong and good benefit to our states and really to -- to conservation throughout -- conservation efforts throughout the country. and so whe

ms. murkowski: mr. president, as we are working through the remaining issues as they relate to the various appropriations bills before us, i wanted to take just a few moments this afternoon to speak about a friend of mine, a friend of alaska, a gentleman, and a leader. alaska lieutenant general michael h. shields who is retiring from the u.s. army after 35 years of service. and i wanted to thank mike on behalf of my senate colleagues and the people of alaska for his outstanding service as he retired from active duty. mike received his commission through the army reserve officer training corps at norwich university in 1983 and like so many of alaska's best and finest citizens, we've just kind of adopted him. he came to alaska to serve. he came to love our state, and we just loved him right back. i first came to know mike as colonel shields when he was commanding the 172nd striker brigade combat team known as the arctic wolves at fort wainwright and he led the brigade during the height of operation iraqi

times focusing on susan collins as lisa murkowski, key moderates on the republican side in the senate. activists have launched a campaign to nail coat hangers to mscollins and miss murkowski, the only pro-choice republicans in the senate. both votes would be needed to defeat a nominee. susan collins voted last year for neil gorsuch but she also supported both the president obama's nominees who are entrenched on the liberal wing. back to your calls, florida, line for democrats. thing, i think the same roe v wade, i think it should be overturned. you're killing innocent kids. i understand people get raped. give your kid away, god will forgive. he forgives people. as far as immigration, they should not be separated. that would be like if you came and they separated you. come on. they're coming over here because it is bad in their country. people are killing people, they are murdering their kids. it is wrong. to get them over here, get them over here. this is wrong. they've got to straighten out the prison system. they have got so many people locked up for misdemeanors and they are making money off of the prisons. they have got to give felons the rig

ms. murkowski: mr. president, at this time i ask unanimous consent that privileges of the floor be granted to my second session summer interns nathanial bering, tanner bay, janet taylor, piper cooper, bridget sterling begin grip, michael mccambridge, alockbox ander bender, jonathan slyfe for the remainder of their session in july. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: thank you, mr. president. i am most pleased to be here today to manage consideration of this appropriations bill package. this includes the fiscal year 2019 bills for the subcommittee on interior, environment, and related agencies, financial services, and general government, agriculture, rural development, food and drug administration, and related agencies as well as transportation, housing, and urban development and related agencies. to distill it down, this evening we're taking up interior, financial services, ag, and t-hud or transportation, housing and development. so the opportunity to move forward with a package of