A resolution designating July 26, 2017, as "United States Intelligence Professionals Day".

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 222 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, for several years now I have regularly come to this floor to publicly acknowledge the contributions made by our great Federal employees. This is a tradition I inherited from one of our former colleagues, Senator Ted Kaufman of Delaware. Senator Kaufman, who had been a longtime staffer himself before he served as a Senator, would come to this floor on a regular basis to acknowledge and celebrate the tireless work and occasional heroics performed by many of our Federal employees. When Senator Kaufmann left this body, I gladly picked up that mantle and since then have come to the floor to draw attention to the extraordinary contributions of many of our Federal workers.

Over the past few years, this recognition has included a Social Security executive who eliminated a claims backlog to more quickly meet the urgent needs of thousands of Social Security recipients with grave terminal illnesses. We have also celebrated the work of a Department of Homeland Security official who saved taxpayers $750 million by streamlining her agency's procurement processes, and we proudly highlighted the work of a group of engineers at NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia, who, in 2010, designed a capsule that proved to be crucial in saving the lives of 33 Chilean miners who were trapped underground.

Too often, our Federal workers are disrespected and demeaned by those who would attempt to use them as scapegoats for all that is allegedly wrong here in Washington. In reality, thousands of our Nation's dedicated civil servants work tirelessly every day to make our government work for and by the people.

Today, I wish to focus for a moment on one such group of outstanding Federal employees--those who work across our Nation's intelligence agencies to keep our Nation safe. Most of these professionals work in anonymity. Many risk their lives far away from the limelight. That is how it should be, for they are sworn to secrecy, even from their families and loved ones.

Over the last decade and a half, our intelligence professionals have increasingly been deployed overseas into war zones and other high- threat environments. Regrettably, some have made the highest sacrifice--laying down their lives for their country.

For their service, the risks they take and the sacrifices they make every day and because they do not hear this nearly enough, let me say ``thank you'' to the intelligence community.

As a Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia, I am proud to represent thousands of current and former members of the intelligence community who live, work, or retire in our great State. I am also proud to represent these individuals in my current capacity as vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

My colleagues and I on the committee have again submitted a resolution that marks July 26 as ``United States Intelligence Professionals Day.'' It was on that day 70 years ago that President Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, which laid the foundation for today's U.S. intelligence community. It was earlier in my statement that we passed that resolution. In recent years, our committee has had success, as we try to protect our intelligence community, with greater intelligence sharing and interoperability and because of investments in people and systems.

Many challenges remain--from the constant barrage of leaks to the security of the supply chain, to outdated processes for security clearances. I hope that this year's intelligence authorization bill will begin to address some of these issues.

Yet today it is the people in the intelligence community whom I want to acknowledge--their professionalism, their dedication to duty and country, their silent service, their sacrifices.

The men and women of the Nation's intelligence agencies deserve our respect and our thanks. They do not deserve to be belittled, disrespected, or threatened, and certainly not from their Commander in Chief.

To the men and women of the intelligence community--these great Federal employees--I conclude with this: We, simply, do not say it enough, but thank you for your service. Thank you for your dedication, and thank you for the great work you do--often unheralded.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, in accordance with rule XXVI, paragraph 2, of the Standing Rules of the Senate, I ask unanimous consent on behalf of Senator Isakson, chairman of the Select Committee on Ethics, and for myself as vice chairman of the committee, that the rules of procedure of the Select Committee on Ethics, which were adopted February 23, 1978, and revised November 1999, be printed in the Record for the 115th Congress.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.