meeting today to work on two executive tomorrow nations at 9:30 confirmation vote on nomination of patrick pizzellato be deputy labor secretary and then vote to limit debate on the nomination of andrew wheeler to be deputy epa administrator. both approved by party line votes in the committees that held their confirmation hearings. judicial nominations on the schedule tomorrow and possibly into the week. live now to the senate floor for live coverage of today's session. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. most high god, our heavenly father, your loving kindness fills our hearts with gratitude. we are grateful for this oprt

vote on nomination of patrick pizzella to be deputy labor secretary and then vote to limit debate on the nomination of andrew wheeler to be deputy epa administrator. both approved by party line votes in the committees that held their confirmation hearings. judicial nominations on the schedule tomorrow and possibly into the week. live now to the senate floor for live coverage of today's session. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. most high god, our heavenly father, your loving kindness fills our hearts with gratitude. we are grateful for this opportunity to work in our government's legislative branch, striving to contribute to the progress of this great nation. lord, we thank you for our lawmakers and for those who support them. bless our senators with your wisdom enabling them to make decisions that will benefit our nation and world for generations to come. we ask you also eternal god, to bless the american people. place your shield of protection around them, providing the

this morning, we confirmed patrick pizzella, the president's highly qualified nominee to fill the number two job at the department of labor. mr. pizzella brought a sterling reputation and an impressive resume. it includes time at g.s.a., the small business administration, the department of education, the federal housing finance board, and o.p.m. even with eight years as the assistant secretary of labor for administration and management and four years as a senate-confirmed member of the federal labor relations authority, this dedicated public servant saw his confirmation process play out in a manner that's become all too familiar. months of waiting on the senate calendar. months of obstruction by our democratic colleagues. months of needless vacancy in this critical agency position. after this morning's vote, mr. pizzella can finally get to work, but the same story of obstruction applies to the next nomination on the slate as well. andrew wheeler, he is ready and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, to clock in as the deputy administrator of the e.p.a. his qualifications are beyond question

the clerk: department of labor, patrick pizzella of virginia to be deputy secretary. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i come to the floor today as we as americans continue to see the reminders, the regular reminders that the world is a very dangerous place. the horrendous reports out of syria over the weekend show us that there are leaders in the world who will test the rules that define civilized nations. they will exploit any crack that they see in our resolve. well, president trump has consistently responded to these kinds of challenges by showing that he is resolute and he is unshakeable. he has a foreign policy that always puts america first. to continue to do this, the president needs to have a full national security team on the job and working for america. the secretary of state, mr. president, is a very important part of that team. tomorrow the foreign relations committee is scheduled to meet to have a hearing on mike pompeo's nomination to do this very important job. mike pompeo

patrick pizzella chose not to fight for workers, but for corporations. these efforts aren't just counter to the mission of the department of labor. they are counter to our national values. and the rest of mr. pizzella's record shows he has taken equally extreme positions throughout his career. for example, his radical record as the sole employee of the conservative action project which is a far-right group funded by billionaire donors like the devos family, or his record when he last served in the department of labor, under his leadership the department of labor cut its budget in part by cutting down its own employees' collective bargaining rights and decreasing official time. then there is his long record championing antiunion policies and argue to limit collective bargaining rights. and at the federal labor relations authority, pizzella not only ruled consistently against workers and unions, he repeatedly broke with long-standing policy by calling out the names of individual workers in his decisions. he chose to call out defendants by name and put them

patrick pizzella has been nominated to the number-two job at the department of labor, and nothing in mr. pizzella's resume tells us that he meets the description of being on the side of workers. in the 1990's, mr. pizzella lobbied with jack abramoff to exempt the mariana islands from labor laws. that's what allowed companies to run sweatshops while slapping made in america labels on their products. later when mr. pizzella was in charge of data management and other operations at the labor department, the government accountability office found that the wage and hour division was egregiously mishandling wage theft complaints, consistently leaving vulnerable low-wage workers out to dry because of faulty data systems and other operational failures. and after leaving the department, mr. pizzella went to work for secretive far-right donor groups like the conservative action project, which secretly planned out the 2013 government shutdown to sabotage the affordable care act and undermine many workers' access to health care, all while mr. pizzella was its highest paid employee. the deputy secr

patrick pizzella and john ring. they spent their careers -- think about this. they spent their careers working to strip workers of their rights, to defending corporations which are accused of mistreating workers and trying to undermine collective bargaining rights. mr. brown: mr. pizzella worked for disgraced lobbyist and convicted felon jack a abermoff. tre tried to keep workers from being protected by federal labor laws. this is the candidate for president of the united states that talked about empowering workers, talked about being on the side of workers yet the two people he's nominated, one for the department of labor, one to the national relations board, have been busy through their professional careers and very well paid during it, mr. president, trying to keep workers from being protected by federal labor laws. i know everybody -- everybody is entitled to representation, but when you devote your life to keeping workers from having collective bargaining, keeping workers from working in a safe workplace, keeping workers -- keeping -- defending companies w