host: augustus is up first from shreveport, louisiana. democrat. caller: what is the difference between lobbying and bribing? legbal. bbying is -- is legal. bribery, not so much. there is a role to be played for industries that are affected by legislation to have a voice. one of the things that president trump ran on was this idea of, we need to drain the swamp. there are various elements of that. contributions, a regulatory state that hasn't been expert -- that exercises a lot of influence. is illegal.t augustine's -- augustus? swamp up. steered the calling.nk you for write that almost every business is involved now. consider the cost of doing business? guest: you will see industries newly emerging maybe not understand the value of that. you think a lot about the technology of things. google and facebook. they didn't really have that much of a washington presence five years ago. and then there was talk in washington about regulating these companies, and then they beef up their lobbying presence. alphabet, the parent company of google. they have se

audiences mind ok so smoking cigars i mean six years earlier he had been busted on the runway in shreveport louisiana with thirteen thousand five hundred pounds of c. four plastic explosive. on his way to mexico so there's a big difference between thirteen thousand five hundred pounds of plastic explosives and smoke and cigars and think. and here you think they have casing is what makes these. yeah this guy. the director doug lehman is the son of the house majority counsel to the kerry commission that looked into iran contra they never got to the bottom of the contra cocaine thing but but his dad was generally looked upon as a good guy but i do research into personally he's the guy that made oliver north famous ok it was it was as a result of his inept questioning that oliver north became america's hero and then i find out that this guy his father also was a personal attorney for henry kissinger personal attorney for robert becka personal attorney for michael milken and the list goes on and you know we have a mutual friend out in oregon who has told me that he thinks. american jealousy the cia is rea

[applause] >> our third panelist from my home state of louisiana, congressman mike johnson from shreveportwe have a couple of people from louisiana here. i've known mike since he was a mere lad in law school. you are a constitutional lawyer. you ended up defending religious freedom, working with the alliance defending freedom and others. did you ever envisioned, back when you are a law school, that we would be condensing desk contending for the very right to exercise our -- contending for the very right to exercise our freedom of religion? onwe would go into churches sunday, to pulpit service and expect to the church all around the country that this day was coming. 20 years ago, people would go, i don't know, guys, it seems like a bit too much. now, everything that we saw coming down the pipeline is here, right before our eyes. we are in an all-out fight for our most fundamental freedoms. and everyone in this room recognizes that. that's why you are here and we are so grateful that you do what you do and you support frc and everybody that is on this front line. because we are in the fight

[applause] >> our third panelist for my home state of louisiana, congressman mike johnson from shreveporthave known mike since he was a mere lad in a law school and i want to ask you this, might, because you're a constitutional and you end up up in your professional career defending religious freedom and working with alliance defending freedom and others. did you ever envision back when you were in law school that we would be contending for the very right to exercise our first amendment freedom of religion? >> we saw it coming. for about 20 years i was doing that work and defended frc and a number of our allied organizations and worked with ads for all those years and we were going to churches on sunday and dugas pulpit service and we would explain to the church all around the country that this day was coming. twenty years ago people would say i don't know guys, that seems a bit too much. now, everything that we saw coming down the pipeline is here right before our eyes. we are in an all-out fight for our most fundamental freedoms and everyone in this room recognizes that and that's why y

. >> our third panelist from my home state of louisiana, congressman mike johnson from shreveport ande. i've known mike since he was a mere lad in law school and i want to ask you this, mike, you're a constitutional lawyer. you ended up in your career defending religious freedom, and working with alliance defending freedom and others. did you ever envision, back when you were in law school that we would be contending for the very right to exercise our first amendment freedom of religion? >> we saw it coming. you know, for about 20 years i was in the courts doing that work and defended frc and a number of our allied organizations and worked for all of those years and we would go into churches on sunday and do guest pulpit service and explain to the church and around the country this day was coming and you know, 20 years ago, people would go, i don't know, guys, it seems like a bit too much. and now, everything that we saw coming down the pipeline is here for our eyes, and we're in an all-out fight for our most fundamental freedom and everyone in this room recognizes that and that's why

louisiana this could mean building a new bridge through lake charles. it would mean widening the interstate in baton rouge. it could mean closing the gaps in i-49 between lafayette and shreveport and new orleans. we've neglected our highways and bridges for far too long, mr. president, and this is our chance to use tax reform to catch up, to boost our international competitiveness, to lower costs for consumers, and to put our economy back on track to 3-plus percent growth, which the american people expect and deserve. thank you, mr. president. i suggest the absence of a remain q. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. without objection. quorum call: the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of scott l. palk of oklahoma to be united states district judge for the western district of oklahoma, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quo