Floor Statements

Mr. President, today I wish to recognize the important contributions of the Sikh community in New Jersey and across the country. New Jersey is enriched by the diversity of its residents who have promoted a climate of social tolerance and intellectual pluralism that has sustained our State throughout its history. Since first immigrating to the United States from Punjab, India, over 100 years ago, the Sikh community has played a critical role in enhancing and contributing to New Jersey and our Nation.

This month, Sikhs in New Jersey and across the country will celebrate their most significant annual event, Vaisakhi, the Sikh New Year; providing the Sikh community the time to remember history, celebrate collectively, and recommit to their religious traditions.

The New Jersey Sikh community has demonstrated a strong commitment to public service. Every Gurdwara, the Sikh place of worship, has a Langar, a free community kitchen that serves all visitors regardless of religion, caste, gender, economic status, or ethnicity. The Langar instills the notion of equality and the brotherhood for all. Every November, the New Jersey Sikh community expands on this tradition and organizes the ``Let's Share a Meal'' event that distributes meals to homeless shelters in the area. In 2017, 275 Sikh community members prepared, packed, and delivered meals to 84 shelters over 2 days. This served more than 15,000 New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania residents.

New Jersey also recently welcomed three Sikh Americans as new public officials. On January 1, 2018, Ravi Bhalla became Hoboken's 30th mayor and the State's first Sikh mayor. Bhalla had previously served two terms on Hoboken's city council. Although Bhalla experienced periodic hateful attacks during his mayoral campaign, voters resoundingly rejected such divisive rhetoric when they elected him mayor.

In addition to electing its first Sikh mayor, New Jersey also elected Balvir Singh as a member of the Burlington County Board of Chosen Freeholders, making him the first Sikh American to win a countywide election in New Jersey. Singh, who served for nearly 2 years as a member of the Burlington Township Board of Education, was sworn into office on January 3, 2018.

New Jersey is also home to the Nation's first Sikh State attorney general, Gurbir Grewal. Grewal had previously served as the Bergen County prosecutor. The State Senate unanimously approved his appointment by a 29-0 vote on January 16. Grewal will enforce the law in a manner that protects all New Jersey residents.

The broad support that these three individuals garnered is a testament to New Jersey's culture of inclusion of individuals of all ethnicities and religious backgrounds.

However, we know that Sikh Americans across the country continue to endure discrimination and hateful attacks, from school bullying to verbal assaults to violence.

I invite my colleagues to join me in recognizing the important contributions of the Sikh community across the country as it celebrates its New Year festival. May we join with Sikh Americans in rejecting discrimination of any kind and embracing the rich diversity that makes each of our States strong and whole.

Mr. President, I was necessarily absent for the votes on the

confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 539 and the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 728.

On vote No. 65, had I been present, I would have voted yea on the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 539.

On vote No. 66, had I been present, I would have voted nay on the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 728.

Mr. President, I appreciate the remarks of my senior Senator from New Jersey. His passion and his commitment to this issue, not just after this mass shooting, has been consistent in fighting for commonsense gun safety for years, and I am grateful for his leadership as my senior Senator.

It has now been 2 weeks since a gunman took the lives of 17 children, teachers, and school administrators in Parkland, FL. In the days and weeks since, we have seen young people from that community lead a movement for change that is growing in our country, standing up to special interests, standing up to the small minority of folks who seem to want to let the status quo continue, standing up to the NRA and the gun industry and making clear the fierce urgency of now, of this moment, of this day. These young people are showing what true courage is. They are showing it at a time of great grief, of great pain in their lives.

I know what they are fighting for. It is not a fringe issue. I know what they are fighting for. It is not representative of some small minority; they are fighting for the majority of Americans who agree with them, the majority of Americans who want commonsense gun safety in America. Those folks who own guns and those who don't want background checks for all gun buyers, including those between private dealers and gun shows.

The majority of Americans don't want people who are suspected terrorists to be able to go to a gun show and go to a private seller and drive off with a trunkful of weapons. The majority of Americans know that we should be keeping people with a history of domestic violence from getting their hands on a gun. The majority of Americans want to choke the pipeline of illegal guns that are flooding American communities from sea to shining sea, from the Great Lakes to the gulf coast.

The overwhelming majority of Americans know that we can do more to prevent gun violence. Sure, we can't stop everyone, but we can do things that will reduce the violence, reduce the

number of deaths, and save lives. These are commonsense things that the majority of Americans--gun owners, non-gun owners, Republicans and Democrats--a majority of Americans support these policies that are proven.

For example, we know it is true that in States like Connecticut, when they instituted commonsense background checks, they saw firearm homicides drop by 40 percent. And we know that States that implement laws blocking perpetrators of domestic violence from getting guns see a significant reduction--upward of 10 percent--in homicides by people's intimate partners.

We know that between 2009 and 2013, States that have required background checks on handguns saw 35 percent fewer gun deaths per capita than States that didn't.

This is fact. We know that commonsense gun safety, supported by over 80 percent of gun owners and over 90 percent of Americans, will save lives.

Dr. King once said--and I am paraphrasing here--that morality can't be legislated, but behavior can be regulated; that the law can't make someone love me, but it stop them from lynching me; that the law can't change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless.

We know we have the power to make the change.

This is no panacea. These ideas will not solve all of the problems, but they can make a difference, and they can save lives.

The time to act is right now. To not act is to be complicit in the continued levels of violence in our communities.

Every day that passes with no action--every single day we see, on average, 96 Americans in this country killed by a gun, including children. Every day that we do not act in this body, dozens and dozens of our American fellow citizens are dying due to gun violence, much of it preventable. Too many families in this country, too many fellow Americans know the pain and the grief and the agony of what we see in the faces of the children from Parkland.

Gun violence isn't just manifested in uniquely horrifying mass shootings in our schools and in our churches and in our movie theaters; it is a pervasive, everyday public health epidemic. It is an everyday reality for Americans across the country. It is an everyday reality for women in America. Fifty women every single month are shot to death by intimate partners in this country, making the United States the most dangerous country in the developed world when it comes to gun violence against women. We know that over half of all women killed by an intimate partner are killed with a gun. We know that when a gun is involved in a situation of domestic violence, a woman is five times more likely to be killed. We can do something to lower this kind of carnage.

Gun violence is an everyday reality for children and for young people in this country. On an average day in America, 7 children and teens will be killed with a gun, and 40 more children will be shot and survive, often being crippled or severely wounded, often costing American taxpayers millions of dollars for their healthcare. We can lower this rate of carnage.

Gun violence is an everyday reality for people living in cities, like where I live. In the last year there was a shooting on my block. We know that for Black Americans living in a city or urban area in this country, they are almost 500 times more likely to be killed by gun violence than they are by terrorism. This is an urgent problem. It is an everyday problem. This is pressing on us every single day to act, and every day that we don't, our inaction will cost lives.

Since the tragedy in Parkland, in New Jersey alone we have seen children, young people, the elderly, women, Black and White Americans killed by gun violence. I have a stack of examples of this right here-- news reports of the violence in my State.

One week ago, it was a 10-year-old boy. Yovanni Banos-Merino was killed with a gun, and his mother was wounded in Asbury Park, NJ.

The day before that, on February 20, an elderly man killed his wife-- domestic violence. He killed her with a gun and then took his own life, a suicide.

Just 6 days ago, a teenager in my city of Newark, NJ, Ishmail Anthony, was killed with a gun.

Every single day we do not act, dozens and dozens of Americans are killed.

Look at this chart. We can't even read the font. Look at these American citizens--young people, old people, Black people, White people, men, women, Republicans, Democrats.

Look at this chart. We know that right now, in the past 2 weeks since the tragedy, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which compiled this list from news reports, 477 Americans have been killed with a gun--in the past 2 weeks alone, 477 American citizens.

This government was formed with a purpose. It says clearly in our founding documents ``for the common defence.'' In 2 weeks, there were 477 people who we did not defend--477 people whom we could have done more to save. Again, 477 people, 2 weeks since Parkland, and we have a nation that speaks to the purpose of ensuring life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They lost their lives.

We may not have the power to stop all gun violence, but gun owners and non-gun owners, Republicans and Democrats, and our Nation as a whole agree, with a chorus of consent, that we should do things like commonsense background checks. Our inaction, our unwillingness to do the will of the people is costly, not just to the integrity of this body, not just for the purpose of this body, but it is costly in the most grievous of ways every day. Every day, dozens die; in 2 weeks, 477.

We must do better. We can do better. With the help of God almighty, we will.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I think we have just witnessed here what the problem is. This should not be a situation where Americans are being hurt, and right now Americans are being hurt. We have heard it from the Senator from North Carolina. We have heard it from my colleagues from Connecticut, from Ohio, and from Hawaii. We all agree that Americans right now are getting hurt. We don't have to do that, but we have just heard one Senator--and I imagine other Republicans agree--reject a simple idea.

Let's not hurt folks. Let's stay here for 3 days and just extend the U.S. Senate. We can stay in our seats and get this work done and work something out. It is an easy way to go forward, and nobody gets hurt. That was objected to.

We said 1 day, a 24-hour period. Let's do 1 day. That was rejected.

The Senator from North Carolina made a suggestion that maybe we stand up straight. I love that suggestion. He suggested that we stay through the night instead of having people stressed and worried and some people missing work and missing paychecks. Let's stay here all night. Let's make everybody feel uncomfortable. I would work on that unanimous consent as well. But it seems the Senator from North Carolina has rejected his own idea.

This is what I don't understand, because I agree with the Senator from North Carolina, who keeps commenting about the military, when the military itself--the Secretary of DOD, through the spokesperson--has said a 4-week CR, if I remember the quote exactly, would be wasteful and disastrous. So military leaders are saying what we are doing is wrong.

Let's not kick the ball down the road for four weeks and instead stop hurting people and get the work of the Senate done. I am willing to stay here all night. It is not like the Senator from North Carolina is not willing to stay here all night.

So we stand together today to say: Let's minimize the damage of this. Let's do what we can to not hurt people.

That brings up the unanimous consent that I would like to propound. If 3 days is rejected, if 1 day is rejected, if just staying here through tonight and working on this as a Senate, facing discomfort, facing exhaustion is worth it, then let's take some of the worried people in the U.S. off the table.

That is why I have an amendment to permanently extend the Children's Health Insurance Program and provide funding for community health centers. The reason why I say this is because, somehow, our children-- the most vulnerable children in our country--have been pushed into a political debate, which is a political debate because nobody denies that they are in favor of providing healthcare for our children.

This program expired 112 days ago. For those of you who think that this is

going to cost us money to provide health insurance for children, it doesn't cost any money. The CBO actually said it saves the government money. Why? Because it is something that every one of the 100 of us knows--that when you protect children, neonatal children, babies, when you give them healthcare, you actually save long-term healthcare costs.

So here is something that would provide millions and millions of dollars of savings and take vulnerable children and States who are worried about providing for those children and that anxiety out of this political debate. If we can't do something for our most vulnerable children, I don't know what that says about our body. This is a moral moment. It was 112 days ago that this bill expired and, somehow, suddenly, that has been put into a 4-week CR at a time of a political debate. It seems to me that we are trying to use our children as a political pawns.

There are so many kids that are being affected by this--9 million nationwide, 159,000 kids in New Jersey, about 47,000 in Hawaii, and about 197,000 in Ohio.

I believe this is something that is just common sense. It should be a matter of just conscience.

So I would like to make sure that the children in this political fight are not hurt. I would like to make sure that our community health centers in both rural spaces and urban spaces, all over our country-- our community health centers that serve 25 million people nationwide, 300,000 veterans--are not hurt. We are concerned about the military, and we should also be concerned about our veterans, and 7.5 million children in our community health centers.

Let me say again that America's community health centers serve 7.5 million children. Let's fund them both, move them off the table, not inject them into a political debate to be used as pawns for leverage to do something that the U.S. military and the Department of Defense has criticized--what we are doing right now, what the proposal is, four weeks.

So I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 36, H.R. 1301; that the Stabenow-Casey- Brown amendment at the desk, providing for permanent extension of the Children's Health Insurance Program, a 5-year extension of the community health centers program, and extensions of other expired Medicaid, Medicare, and health extenders, be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Will the Senator yield for a question?

The Republicans control the White House with Donald Trump, they control the Senate, and they have the majority of the House. You have had much more experience than I have. For 112 days, this program serving our children has lapsed--112 days since the month of September, since the program lapsed. States have had to take action. There have been crises. There have been problems.

I simply ask this. In your experience, if the Democrats were in control of this body, would that bill have come to the floor probably before 112 days?

Mr. President, I was necessarily absent for the votes on the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 389, the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 435, and the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 435.

On vote No. 7, had I been present, I would have voted yea on the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 389.

On vote No. 8, had I been present, I would have voted yea on the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 435.

On vote No. 9, had I been present, I would have voted yea on the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 435.

Mr. President, I was also necessarily absent for the vote on the motion to proceed to the House message to accompany S. 139.

On vote No. 10, had I been present, I would have voted nay on the motion to proceed to the House message to accompany S. 139.

Mr. President, I was necessarily absent for the votes on the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 371 and the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 389.

On vote No. 5, had I been present, I would have voted yea on the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 371.

On vote No. 6, had I been present, I would have voted yea on the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 389.

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

Mr. President, I rise today because earlier on this day, the Trump administration and Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Justice Department's policy known as the Cole memo.

The Cole memo is a policy issued under the Obama administration instructing prosecutors to shift away

from a focus on nonviolent marijuana crimes and toward more serious crimes that threaten our communities. This memo was a critical step and a move in the right direction, undoing some of the catastrophic damage that has been caused by the failed War on Drugs. It was a step forward for the Federal Government in mending our broken drug policies that have so hurt our Nation in so many ways. I believe it was a step forward that the vast majority of Americans who believe the War on Drugs failed agree with. It was a step forward that improved Americans' safety, saved money, and better aligned our laws with our most fundamental values of fairness, equality, and justice. Yet, today, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has instructed the Department of Justice to not just double down on failed policy but to turn back the clock and undermine the well-being of our country.

The policy change actually goes against what Jeff Sessions promised elected officials in this body before his confirmation. We already heard from the other Cory in the Senate--Republican Senator Cory Gardner--that he had a commitment from the Attorney General before his confirmation that this is not what he would do.

This is an attack on our most sacred ideals and the very purpose of the Department of Justice, which is to protect Americans, to elevate ideals of justice, and to do right by people. It is a failure of this administration, which said--our President said during his campaign that he would honor what States are doing. It is a betrayal by our Attorney General, who gave a commitment to at least one Republican Member of this body. But most significantly, it will hurt America. It ignores the fact that there is a growing bipartisan consensus that the War on Drugs has failed. It sacrifices our critical, urgently needed resources in our communities, violating our values and destroying families, and has failed to make us safer.

Let me walk through those four points one by one--first, this massive waste of public resources that are urgently needed in other areas. In the last four decades in this country, we have spent so much on these policies at the same time that we are disinvesting from public education, from our public colleges, disinvesting from investments and innovation, investments in science and research. Yet we have spent trillions of dollars on this failed War on Drugs.

We have created a nation that says we are the land of the free, but we are the incarceration nation on the planet Earth. One out of every four incarcerated people on this planet is imprisoned here in the United States of America. One out of every three incarcerated women on the planet is incarcerated right here in the United States of America.

Between the time of 1990 and 2005, we have devoted so much of our resources to building new prisons. During that time, we were building a new prison in the United States every 10 days to keep up with the massive amount of people who were being driven into our prisons. One new prison was being built every 10 days as our infrastructure and our roads and bridges crumbled.

We have sidelined the resources of our law enforcement officials. I know this, having been a former mayor. The precious time, resources, and energy of our law enforcement officials have been sidelined, redirecting them to marijuana enforcement, and for what?

At a time when we have real issues to deal with in our country, such as a drug epidemic; at a time when people cannot afford treatment and when there are waiting lists for treatment because we don't have the resources to deal with this opioid epidemic, we are instead using our resources to enforce marijuana laws.

The Centers for Disease Control, the CDC, reported last year that 91 Americans die every single day from the opioid epidemic in this country. Meanwhile, according to FBI data from 2014, one American is arrested every single minute for marijuana possession--one American every minute for marijuana possession. That is about 1,700 Americans being arrested every day for marijuana possession, using police resources, resources to put people in jail, to hold them, to feed them, court resources. All that can be used better and invested in our society to deal with the ravages of the opioid epidemic. Police resources that could be used to chase after violent offenders are instead being used for marijuana possession. It is somehow crazy that we think we can arrest our way out of a problem.

Doubling down on these failed efforts makes no sense. It is a massive waste of our precious resources as a society.

No. 2, it is also perpetuating injustice in our country. We believe that everyone in this Nation should have equal justice under the law. Those are the words written on the Supreme Court. But we know this War on Drugs has not been a War on Drugs, it has been a war on people--and not all people but certain people, the most vulnerable people. It has been a war on people, a war on mentally ill people. It has been a war on people of color.

The unequal application of marijuana laws has created a justice system where outcomes are often more dependent upon race and class than dependent upon guilt or innocence. In privileged communities and places all across this country, marijuana is being used with little fear of consequences and openly spoken about and joked about with little understanding of the painful fact that the War on Drugs in America has scarcely affected their lives but the War on Drugs, because of the unequal application of the laws, is affecting people in other communities.

I have seen this personally. I went to Stanford and to Yale, and I watched drug use being done openly--marijuana use. There are no FBI investigations, no sting operations set up to go after the privileged in this country.

There are people in this body who openly admit to using marijuana with no consequence. But if you are poor or vulnerable in the United States of America, they are coming after you, and there will be consequences. I have had countless conversations with elected officials about their own personal drug use because it is outrageous to me, this outrageous hypocrisy that they could flaunt drug rules while poor people and people of color suffer as a result of our marijuana laws.

The facts are clear. The disproportionate enforcement of marijuana laws has helped to create a system of massive injustice in our country, and it is obvious. There is no difference in America between Blacks and Whites using marijuana, no difference between Blacks and Whites selling marijuana. Blacks are 3.7 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a White person is. This is a targeting of certain communities, a targeting of low-income people who are having their lives devastated by this unequal application of the law. Jeff Sessions' announcement today will make the problem worse.

People don't understand what it means to have a felony conviction for marijuana possession. Most people have no understanding that this is a lifetime sentence in America. It not only affects the individual's ability to get a job, you can't get a Pell grant if you have a felony conviction for marijuana usage, which many people in this body have done. You can't get a business license with a felony conviction for marijuana. You can't get food stamps. You can't get public housing.

It devastates individuals economically, but it devastates their families as well. It destroys the lives of children when suddenly the earner in their family, who is guilty of no more a serious crime than some of my colleagues--suddenly they have to pick up the pieces after one of their parents is sent away to prison. Missing 1 or 2 days of work often means losing your job, not being able to make your car payment or rental payment. We know that for children, where their father is in prison, they are more than five times more likely than their peers to be expelled or suspended from school.

This marijuana enforcement is devastating families--the fundamental building blocks of communities--and it is devastating communities. These laws weaken our overall economic health. One study found that if it weren't for the mass incarceration explosion as a result of the War on Drugs, the poverty rate in this country would be 20 percent lower.

We have a self-inflicted wound by wasting the resources--police resources and financial resources--of this country, and we have another self-inflicted wound by destroying families and communities economically.

It also has hurt our safety as a country. There are communities all across this Nation that worry about the safety of their children, the safety of their families, and the safety of their neighborhoods. By taking these critical resources away from law enforcement, this is a sacrifice of our efforts to make communities safe and strong.

In 2016, more Americans were arrested for marijuana possession than for all violent crimes combined. How many unsolved murders are there? How many unsolved assaults? How much violence and crime should our police be investigating as opposed to dealing with marijuana prohibition? We have fewer police resources, fewer officers. We have occupied our prisons with more marijuana arrests than for rape, murder, aggravated assault, or even the unsolved robberies alone in our country because we are spending our precious police resources on marijuana prohibition. Our history shows this is true.

Historians now attest to the complete and utter failure of another prohibition in this country, which is the prohibition of alcohol. It arguably made people less safe. It led to more drinking and was a blow to our economy and the ability of our officers to do their job. It was even a blow to officers' safety and security.

If we are serious about making our communities safer or stronger, families more secure, we should be focusing on how to undo the catastrophic damage of marijuana prohibition, not double down on it.

I say all of this as someone who ran a police department in Newark. It was under my authority as mayor. My officers would talk about the churn of people they arrested again and again on nonviolent charges-- which, by the way, many of our law enforcement officers may have engaged in and people in positions of authority, like Senators and Presidents, have done themselves, deepening the distrust between officers and the community.

I saw firsthand how the disproportionate enforcement of our drug laws made communities of mine overcriminalized and underprotected-- overcriminalizing possession of marijuana and underprotecting them on serious crimes.

This is an issue which I know too personally. I have seen this from walking privileged and elite communities like universities or here in Washington, and I know it because I may be the only Senator who, when I go home, I go home to an inner-city community. I go home to a community where my census track is about $14,000 per household. I love my neighborhood. I love my community. I love my neighbors, but it is outrageous to me that communities like mine and all over this country have seen the vicious impact of the War on Drugs, while other communities--elite communities--can brag and joke about their marijuana usage.

I am proud that I spent most of my adult life working with the people of Newark, NJ--a city that is rich with culture, that is rich with art, that is rich with civic engagement--but I know, from Camden to Paterson, to Passaic, to Newark, there are communities like mine that, every single day, are getting the devastating blow of this prohibition--this war on marijuana.

I see the anguish people feel about the unjustness and the unfairness of it all and having lives upended for getting caught with small amounts of marijuana. I have seen countless people who couldn't find a job or a decent place to live to support their families.

I will never forget, as a city councilman in Newark, waiting in line at the DMV. A guy came over and told me the story that he was issued a uniform. He finally had a job that had a pension. He could support his family and move out of a bad neighborhood into a better one. He was so excited. They ran his record, and 18 years earlier he had a nonviolent, marijuana-related charge, and they took it all away from him. Think about that comparison to the highest office in the land, where marijuana users have occupied with no consequence--the hypocrisy of it all.

These aren't just a few people. These are hundreds of thousands of Americans who are bearing the brunt of nonviolent charges for marijuana. They have had their lives destroyed. They have that lifetime sentence of, time and time again, having to check a box about a marijuana arrest, having their uniforms taken away, opportunities closed.

I have seen how these laws make us less safe. When are we going to get back to this understanding that we--all of us as Americans--put our hand on our heart and we make a pledge; we swear an oath that we will be a nation of liberty and justice, not for the privileged, not for the elite, but we will be a nation of liberty and justice for all.

Countless people have talked about equal justice under the law. They have talked about these ideals and principles from this floor. They talked about it in the suffrage movement. They talked about it in the civil rights movement. It goes all the way back to slavery. Frederick Douglass, on the 24th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, made a statement that was as true then as it is now. He said:

Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where

ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel

that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob

and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be

safe.

Well, this is the War on Drugs. This is the marijuana prohibition. It has been a systematic oppression of poor people in our country. It has destroyed and devastated individuals, families, communities, and cities. It has bled our national treasure. It has filled our jails to the point where we had to build more and more of them. It has taken away resources from investing in drug treatment or education, which we know not only drives down drug use but empowers people economically.

This is the War on Drugs. This is the war on marijuana. Attorney General Sessions' policy rescission today will only make these problems worse, at a time that the majority of the American public agrees with me--agrees that this prohibition must end. The majority of the American people understand that this policy makes our communities less safe, wastes taxpayers' money, makes it more difficult for police officers to do their jobs, and ultimately hurts the struggling folks at the bottom of the economic ladder most. It disproportionately affects Black and Brown Americans. They are the ones who are bearing the brunt of our failure to get rid of this prohibition.

Let's be clear about what this setback is. The American people know the War on Drugs has failed. They want change. Republicans and Democrats and Independents in States all across our country are making change at their legislature, at the ballot box--voting in a repeal of these awful, unfair, wasteful policies all across this country. In red States and blue States, Americans are marching, are standing up, and are fighting to change these laws.

We know States that have legalized marijuana have seen a massive increase in revenue and decreased rates of serious crime. Crime is going down in those communities. They have been able to put more resources to use to address urgent public needs like education and infrastructure.

In Colorado, arrest rates have decreased and State revenue has increased. Washington State has seen a 10-percent decrease in violent crime over the 3-year period following legalization.

It is time for Congress to step up to the plate. It is time for us to once again live up to our oath. It is time for us once again to fight to make our country a place of liberty and justice for all.

I know right now Attorney General Jeff Sessions and President Trump are standing squarely on the wrong side of history. I know what our ancestors have taught us about the arc of the moral universe bending toward justice. I know this is not a matter of if but a matter of when we will have sane marijuana policies in this country and end the prohibition that is destroying neighborhoods. I know these things.

How long will people suffer? How long will we waste resources? How long will we make ourselves less safe? How long? This fight is more than about a substance--a plant. It is more. It is about the soul of our Nation. It is about our ideals. It is about justice. It is about justice for veterans who rely on medical marijuana to treat their PTSD. They fought for us, they stood for us, and now, according to Jeff Sessions, with the use of medical marijuana to deal with their PTSD, they are criminals.

That is not the America I believe in. It is about justice for the man who has

a criminal record for doing something that three out of four Presidents have done--who now can't get a job, can't get a business license, and can't move his family to a better home.

This is not justice. This is not the America I know we are. This is about the mother I stood next to with her child who had Dravet syndrome--who fell into seizure after seizure multiple times a day--who was a marijuana refugee, leaving a State that didn't end prohibition to go to a State that had medical marijuana laws. According to Jeff Sessions, she is a criminal.

This is not our America. This is not the land of truth and justice to treat a parent like that--like a criminal. This is about families and communities that too long have been fractured by the inaction of this body to address the overcriminalization of our country. This is about the very values people fight for and stand for. This is about who we will be. We cannot fall into this Nation where the privileged and the elite have certain laws and the poor and the struggling have others.

What Jeff Sessions did today is unconscionable, unacceptable, and I will fight against it because when I go home, I see the communities in struggle. I can't turn my head and not understand that there are millions of Americans who are hurting from this decades-long War on Drugs.

This is a self-inflicted wound that goes deep to the bone of our country. It undermines our health and well-being, and too many suffer because of it. We have to fight. I feel this sense of hopefulness because around this country, Democrats and Republicans on the State level are making changes. They are marching forward. They are undoing past wrongs. I feel a sense of hope and promise, and even though today we were delivered a painful blow by our Federal Government to cast a shadow against every American citizen who is using medical marijuana-- every American citizen who is doing things Senators have done--I still know that truth will go marching on. I still know we are a nation of justice. I know we are better than this, and I know what our future holds.

I ask my colleagues to reject this action by the Attorney General, to speak out against this devastating reality. There are Senators here who represent States where the people have spoken. It is now time we speak for the people. It is now time we speak for our country's ideals. It is now time we don't just speak the words of our pledge but we make this country, in truth, a nation of liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I want to thank all my colleagues who have spoken today. I really want to thank Senator Durbin, who has been a friend and a mentor of mine since I came to the Senate almost exactly 4 years ago. I thank him for his leadership right now--really leading us on both sides of the aisle, as a central focal point for the Dreamers-- and for his words. I thank him for his leadership today and throughout this effort, making sure we don't leave for the holidays, leaving thousands of children in our country who know no other country--young adults--in a purgatory where they are anxiously waiting to see if this body will act.

This is a time where we have seen incredible activism. I cannot tell you how many times I have been stopped by Dreamers who drove for over 24 hours--drove across this country to come to the Capitol to make their case known. They love this country. They serve this country. They only know this country. They were here before they could even speak. They and their fellow American allies have been struggling and toiling and fighting for recognition. It reminds me of generations of Americans in the past who were fighting and toiling and struggling for recognition as citizens when citizenship was denied them.

I know stories from my own family, African Americans, who, literally, like many of these Dreamers--900 of these Dreamers--have served in the military. I know these stories from my family--people who served in war, served in World War II, served in Korea, like my father, and came back to a country that did not recognize their citizenship rights.

Women, Jews, Irish--so much of the story of America is Americans struggling and toiling and fighting, often coming to the Capital of the United States of America, fighting for recognition of their citizenship rights. They are patriots.

The young people I have encountered in my home State and the young people I have encountered here in the Capitol are patriots. Patriotism is love of country. I am one of these folks who believe that love of country is better seen than heard. I am telling you right now, the Dreamers I have encountered, their service, their sacrifice, their contributions to this country should resonate.

We know the data. Billions of dollars of our economy is being fueled by Dreamers who are here serving in every imaginable capacity--there for their neighbors, there for their community, there for other children, there for America.

I sat across from Dreamers in New Jersey who now, because of the inaction here in Washington, because of the uncertainty, these folks-- for whom we have collectively contributed to their education, contributed to their success, and are enjoying the fruits of their success--are now suddenly withdrawing from schools. They are feeling nervous that they are going to be ripped away from family members-- younger siblings who are already recognized citizens--as they fight for their citizenship rights. I have seen the pain. I have seen the anxiety. I have shared the tears as they continue this fight, hoping this body will act.

There are folks like Liz. She is a Dreamer from Ridgefield, NJ. She literally created a startup business that employs over 800 people. She is a job creator, an entrepreneur, an innovator whom people rely on for their jobs, and we are going to turn around and say to Liz: You have to leave the United States of America, the only country you know.

What about people like Jesus Contreras? He was the paramedic from Houston who worked for 6 straight days, pulling all-nighter after all- nighter after Hurricane Harvey hit. Here is a guy who, when we faced a crisis and people's lives were on the line, stepped up. That is patriotism. That is love of country. You can't love your country unless you love your country men and women. The way you show you love your country men and women isn't just through the songs you sing and the pledges you make, it is the actions you take. In a crisis, he was there reaching out to American hands with his hand that is worthy.

Dreamers have been a gift to this Nation. They are hard-working patriots deserving of our respect. They come from a long tradition of people who have served this country, fought for this country, struggled for this country, who battled for respect from this country. They look up and say: I, too, am an American. Don't judge me by a piece of paper that says so. Look at my deeds. Look at my actions. Look at my life.

This, our wealth; this, our natural resource; the genius created in the image of God; we are going to cast these folks out of our Nation, and for what?

I believe that the opposite of justice is not injustice; it is inaction. It is indifference. It is apathy. This body has not acted. It has not shown a level of compassion to patriots. It has rewarded the service of these Dreamers and the sacrifice of these Dreamers with nothing but silence and inaction.

As other days before it, today I am glad that I stand with colleagues who will not be silent. This tradition in our country of solid citizens, of patriots who fought, who loved, who contributed to this country, this tradition that runs deep in my family, that runs deep in the families of so many here--when they were told they were not citizens, did not have equal rights--from suffragettes to civil rights activists--this body finally got it right and finally responded.

This is the dream of America. These young people are called Dreamers. This is the dream of America.

There was a man who talked about being denied his citizenship rights and who wrote a powerful poem that is as appropriate today as it was when he wrote it. His name is Langston Hughes. As these Dreamers struggle to be recognized for what they are--citizens of this country-- as they put forth a dream that is no more precious or no more worthy than the dreams of my family, of your family, may the words of Langston Hughes speak to our spirits and our souls and motivate us. Langston said:

There is a dream in the land

With its back against the wall

By muddled names and strange

Sometimes the dream is called.

There are those who claim

This dream for theirs alone--

A sin for which we know

They must atone.

Unless shared in common

Like sunlight and like air,

The dream will die for lack

Of substance anywhere.

The dream knows no frontier or tongue,

The dream, no class or race.

The dream cannot be kept secure

In any one locked place.

This dream today embattled,

With its back against the wall--

To save the dream for one

It must be saved for all.

Mr. President, I tell you this with all of my heart: I have met these young

Americans. I have seen their service. I know their sacrifice. They have worn our uniforms, from our military uniforms to the uniforms of first responders. They have taught our children. They have benefited from our public schools--from our kindergartens, to our eighth grades, to our high schools, to our colleges, and to our universities. We have invested in them, and that investment is paying dividends. They are the American dream. They represent the best of who we are and who we aspire to be.

They collectively, with the other young people of this Nation, are our greatest hope for the future. If we cast them out, if we send them into the wildernesses of lands that are strange to them, to places where some of them don't even speak the tongue, it will be a sad day, a tragic day for them but even more so for us.

What does it say about a nation that turns its children away for no other reason than they came here when they were 2 or 3 and weren't born here? We are better than this. We are greater than this. Our Nation's ideals are loftier than this.

So in the same spirit that this body was slow to move to grant full citizenship rights to enslaved people, in the same way that this body was slow to move to finally grant citizenship rights to every woman in our country, and in the same spirit that this body was slow to move to grant full citizenship rights and voting rights and civil rights to African Americans, I hope we may summon in this generation, in a cause that is noble, the courage to do the right thing and not be stuck in inaction.

It is time for us to act as a body. It is time for us to recognize the full citizenship rights of those who have proven themselves already through the greatest actions one can do--service to another, service to our country, service to the ideals that we have.

Mr. President, thank you.

Mr. President, I have a motion at the desk.

Mr. President, my motion to instruct the Senate conferees would simply insist that the final conference report does not increase the number of individuals who do not have health insurance and does not increase health insurance premiums.

It has been stated on this floor by my colleagues on this side of the aisle that this bill is a blow to our deficit, that it is a blow to our budget, and that it is going to hurt families, particularly in States like mine, with the elimination of the State and local tax deductions. We also know that it could be a bill that could literally threaten the lives of Americans as well.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said that it will increase premium costs by 10 percent and cause 13 million people to lose their coverage, increase premiums and hurt people.

We know that this bill as it is currently written threatens Americans who rely on Medicaid, including children, people with disabilities, and seniors in nursing homes, because of the bill's potential to impact a State's ability to access funds for its Medicaid Program--again, the State and local tax deductions.

It is also going to possibly trigger cuts to Medicare. Because the bill that passed the Senate would possibly add $1.5 trillion to the deficit, it could trigger automatic cuts to government programs, including an annual cut of $25 billion to Medicare. A cut that size will significantly limit Medicare beneficiaries' access to essential health services in everything from cancer screenings to chemotherapy.

I urge my colleagues to support my motion. The Senate conferees must insist that the final conference report of this harmful bill at the very least does not contain any provision that would increase the number of Americans who do not have health insurance or that would increase health premiums for already cash-strapped American citizens.

Thank you.

Mr. President, I yield back my time.

Mr. President, I intend to offer the following motion to H.R. 1, and I ask unanimous consent that it be printed in the Record.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

If you look at the United States of America today compared to when my dad grew up, we have seen very disturbing trends in our economy. In fact, right now, we do not have the same economy--the same bargain-- that we had in my parents' generation.

Someone who had a minimum wage job back in the fifties or sixties made the equivalent of over $20 an hour today. The bargain in the United States of America was that if you were willing to work hard, willing to sweat, struggle, and sacrifice, you could make ends meet, and you could make it work.

What we have seen, disturbingly, over the last few decades is that economy twist and contort. We have seen massive disparities in income come about in our Nation, with the wealthy getting wealthier and wealthier, doing better and better, compounding and doubling down on their privilege, but we have seen the middle class shrinking in the United States of America and the poverty trap, where people are playing by the rules, where people are working hard. They see their wages stagnate while the cost of everything is going up, such as prescription drug costs, the cost of food and child care, the cost of college. The bargain in our country is not working now, and we need to do something to change this.

At a time when American families are feeling the burn and the challenge of high taxes, low incomes, and high costs, we could be targeting middle-class Americans, and we could be targeting low-income earners in a bipartisan tax bill that would not only help those who are struggling in America, but when we give a tax break to those folks, that money gets reinvested in our economy because people spend that money, and we literally have a turbocharge boost to our overall economy. But that is not what we are seeing right now.

As the Republicans scramble for votes, we are on the verge tonight of doing something completely counter to what evidence, facts, and logic would tell us to do if we were going to devise a tax plan to truly help the middle class, truly help working Americans, truly help those struggling, wondering why they are not doing as well as their parents did.

Understand this: 90 percent of baby boomers in America, by the time they turned 30, were doing better than their parents economically. That has now been cut in half in the United States of America. If you are a millennial, born in the eighties, it is now half who are doing better than their parents because of the challenges I am describing, because of the economic hardships. The bargain isn't working. Everything is going up, but wages are stagnant.

We know factually that for the past 40 years, while workers' wages have failed to rise alongside increased productivity--workers are getting more and more productive, but for 40 years now, workers' wages have failed to rise alongside of that increase in productivity. What we have seen is that corporations' profits have reached a 60-year high.

In our country, it is disturbing when we see indices of social mobility--the ability for someone born poor to make it out of poverty-- we see other nations, from Canada to classist England, doing better than we are in increasing social mobility. We see other countries ``out-Americaning'' us, taking what is the very idea of the American dream--that every generation should do better than the one before--and showing more progress toward that dream than we are.

Social mobility, which is integral to our country, is disappearing. Wages are stagnating. Corporate profits are at an alltime high. Costs are skyrocketing. Everyone here knows it. I live in the Central Ward of Newark, NJ. I see it in the faces of families at grocery stores, hard- working families who are working full-time jobs, sometimes dual earners, finding it hard to make their money stretch to meet their families' needs, often finding themselves with more month at the end of their money than money at the end of the month. Families all across America, sitting at their kitchen tables, are finding it hard to balance their budgets. Parents who are working two jobs are trying to figure out how their kids are going to get to college and come out without tens of thousands--over $100,000 worth of debt.

The bargain is not working, and we should be working in this body to figure out a way to empower the overall economy and empower middle- class workers. We are not doing enough to help American workers' incomes grow. We are not doing enough to make the bargain work. We are not doing enough.

I will tell you this: The tax plan that seems to be moving to the floor today will not help restore that American bargain. It will not help reinstate the American progress. It won't get us back to those days. It won't help American workers. It will actually make things worse over the long term.

We can debate philosophies about tax codes all we want, but we cannot debate facts. The fact is that this plan is not pro-growth; it is anti- middle class. It is not pro-worker; it is an even more severe violation of that bargain between American workers and this Nation that created our modern economy. It is an affront to the idea of hard work and earning a living wage in America.

This plan is not investing in the success of American workers. It is not a plan to give hard workers a break or a boost. It isn't going to make our economy more fair. The bill is poorly designed and devised by the President of the United States and by Republicans in Congress to give a tax cut to those who need it least, on the backs of those Americans who need it and deserve it most.

Again, this is not partisan rhetoric. A recent nonpartisan report from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation found that, on average, Americans earning less than $75,000 will face a tax increase over the next 10 years under this plan. Remember, adding insult to that injury, the corporate tax provisions of this plan are permanent, but the individual tax provisions are not. In other words, this plan actively targets the folks who are struggling the most. It targets them with a tax increase and a sunsetting of the provisions that were intended to help them.

Meanwhile, on the other hand, the biggest corporations and the wealthiest individuals will receive a massive tax cut, and they will receive that tax cut--this is not free money. This is borrowed money. The $1.5 trillion added to our deficit is borrowed money that we will have to pay for over the long term. It is a massive giveaway to the wealthiest of people in our country and corporations, all under the theory that somehow this is going to benefit the average American worker. It will blow up the deficit and pump more money to the wealthiest in our country at a time that wealth disparities are already greater than they have been in a century.

Some of my colleagues are going to argue that this bill giving $1 trillion to corporations will somehow result in a trickling down of things like raises for workers and somehow create new jobs, but that is a fantasy. I am a believer that you look at facts and you look at

history, and we don't have to look that far. This fantasy has been disproved, this idea of giving it to the wealthiest and it somehow trickling down, of giving it to corporations and it somehow trickling down to job creation. This has been disproved time and time again by economic data, historical data, and by the words of corporate leaders themselves.

Listen to the facts. A new survey found that the majority of small business owners--these are the people who are the backbone of our economy, who create jobs--oppose this plan. Six in ten think it benefits wealthy corporations the most. Well, that is not just them thinking that; those are actually the facts of this plan.

Take the word of leading economists. The University of Chicago's IGM Forum--a collection of many of the top economists in this country from a range and a spectrum of political philosophies--recently surveyed its members, asking ``If we pass a bill similar to the one being considered by Congress, will the U.S. GDP be substantially higher a decade from now than it is currently under the status quo?'' Will this bill help our economy grow? Of the 42 respondents, 41 said: No, it will not. There was only one dissenter.

These are some of the world's preeminent economists. We didn't invite them to the Senate to hear their opinions. We didn't have hearings. We didn't have an open process where we brought in the best economic minds from both sides of the political aisle, from both sides of the political spectrum. We did not have a process that brought in the best and the brightest to inform the investments we are making--$1.5 trillion. And what they are saying now is that this will not do what Republican leaders say it will do.

Senate Republicans wrote a budget to free up $1.5 trillion--that is what this will do to our deficit--to create these tax cuts. They can distribute these resources any way they see fit, and somehow they have managed to create, astonishingly, a tax bill that will increase taxes on low-income and middle-income people, especially in States like New Jersey, by getting rid of the State and local taxes provisions. This is why Republican Congresspeople in my State are against this, because this plan has been devised to hurt middle-income families, doubling down in States like mine.

They have created a bill that small businesses don't like because they know that the benefits are largely going to the wealthiest and the biggest corporations, and the kicker is that economists say it won't even spur economic growth. Then when major corporations see their earnings go higher or get an influx of capital, what is going to happen? Well, it is far more likely that their executives and shareholders--not their frontline workers--will benefit.

Don't take my word for it; look at what has happened over the last decade. We have seen record corporate profits, and what is happening with those profits? Eighty, ninety percent of those profits are not being invested in hiring more people or increasing pay; the overwhelming majority of the profits that corporations are seeing are going to paying dividends and doing stock buybacks. That is what happens when corporations get more resources.

Don't take my word for it; look at what corporate leaders themselves are saying. They have made it clear time and time again that increases in profits will not trickle down to workers. Major American companies have said point blank that they will not use their huge tax windfalls to raise wages for workers. Companies from Cisco, to Pfizer, to Coca- Cola, to Vanguard have said that their tax breaks will go to dividends for shareholders, not wages for workers. According to Bloomberg, on an earnings call in reference to the tax plan, one CEO said: ``We'll be able to get much more aggressive on the share buyback.'' That is where corporate profits have been going for a decade or more, creating more wealth for the wealthiest and not for the average American worker, who has seen decade after decade of stagnant wages. This shouldn't be surprising. Corporate profits are at a record high right now, and we see wages at a record low. That is a fact. And to double down on what we know is not factual, that we know is not happening now--it is just a fantasy.

Corporations are making more money today than they have in over 80 years, but the average worker's wages are at their lowest point in six decades. This plan gives more wealth to corporations and not direct tax relief to middle-class workers and low-income workers.

We could have gotten rid of carried interest--something even the President of the United States talked about on the campaign trail--and targeted the child tax credit or the earned-income tax credit, but that is not what this plan does. This tax plan is a fundamental and costly misdiagnosis of the problems facing American workers across the country, and the right way to go about addressing them is not being done.

So here is an idea: Instead of giving massive tax breaks to corporations and hoping it somehow gets to workers, let's just give the money directly to workers by giving the lion's share of this tax break to middle-class, working-class, and low-wage earners. This is not complicated. We don't need some fancy system of hoping things will trickle down. Let's cut out the corporate middleman. That is a bill I would support.

We should have been discussing in bipartisan meetings and hearings how we can empower American workers and the middle class, because the problem with the economy today is not that the rich are not getting richer, it is that middle-class workers are not seeing their wages grow. We should be discussing what we can do to break up this culture amongst financial institutions across the country that prioritizes short-term returns over long-term worker investments, that is making CEO after CEO focus on stock buybacks that manipulate their stock prices up and increase their incentivized pay but are doing nothing for the corporation's long-term strength or the workers who are on the frontlines doing the work and actually earning the profits.

Right now, despite record profits, investing in the long-term success of their companies and employees through things like pay raises, pathways to promotion, innovation--that has become the exception in American society and not the rule for too many corporations.

We have a problem, and this tax bill doesn't address it. It will make it worse.

There is no evidence that suggests that the Senate tax plan, which hands 80 percent of that $1.5 trillion borrowed from the Chinese and other countries that own our Treasury bonds--80 percent of that $1.5 trillion is going to corporations and business owners and the top 0.1 percent of the wealthiest estates. There is no evidence to suggest that this will somehow reverse the trend and increase wages for workers. This is insanity. This is folly. This is fiction being foisted upon the American people.

Too many employers are failing to hold up their end of the bargain when it comes to fair wages, safe workplaces, and workforce investments, and now Republicans in Congress want to reward them with $1 trillion and more. This is bad policy. This is unfair. This is bad faith. This is going to worsen the erosion of the American dream and the American bargain that people who play by the rules, who work hard, who sacrifice for their families can get ahead. It is not going to stop the trend of stagnating wages. It is not going to stop the trends of everything going up but our salaries. It is not going to be the change that we need.

No matter how it is disguised, trickle-down economics doesn't work, and Republicans' attempts to camouflage it as tax reform is offensive and won't work for American workers. We have proven that we are a country and a society that can create wealth. We have that covered. What we haven't proven and what this tax bill fails to do is to show that we can be a society that creates great wealth and great opportunity for all.

We have gotten off the tracks from where we have been generations before. We have to get this train back moving in a direction that takes all of its cars--all of the American people--to the promised land where this country needs to be, must be, and was designed to be. This is the challenge before us right now--to stop a tax bill that will make our problems and the disturbing

trends worse and design one that is directly targeting middle-class Americans, working-class Americans with enlightened policies that will help our Nation to be one that fulfills its promise and its dream.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, today I wish to express my gratitude for a community of individuals who are unfailing in their commitment to protecting the public health in my home State of New Jersey, across the United States, and abroad. From preventing chronic disease to responding to pandemics, epidemics, and natural disasters, to ensuring our Nation is prepared in the event of bioterrorist attacks, to reducing health disparities in ways that promote access, participation, and opportunity, the extraordinary and diverse contributions of public health professionals have profound impacts on American lives.

The breadth of functions for which public health departments are responsible and the depth of expertise the public health workforce possesses are truly remarkable. Among their many responsibilities include Zika response and awareness; ensuring restaurants, local parks, and other venues are safe and clean; monitoring air and water quality; tracing and containing disease outbreaks; conducting health screenings; providing health education; investigating potential cancer clusters; fielding questions on everything from animal welfare to newborn screening, and the list goes on.

The importance of public health research and practice is clearly evident as neglected diseases of poverty emerge and spread in the U.S. While these bacterial and parasitic infections primarily affect low- and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, they are increasingly evident in the U.S. In fact, illnesses including Zika, toxoplasmosis, and Chagas disease have collectively impacted millions of Americans. Despite significant gaps in awareness and resources, our public health workforce has made great strides in monitoring and preventing these diseases; their efforts benefit both Americans and communities across the globe.

Placing a high priority on public health not only improves quality of life, it helps drive economic growth. By preventing disease and promoting healthy behaviors, we can reduce both direct healthcare costs and economic losses due to reduced productivity. The fiscal benefits of public health are clear--according to the American Public Health Association, every dollar we spend on childhood vaccinations saves $16.50 in future health costs. Additionally, an estimated 75 percent of health spending in the U.S. is related to preventable chronic diseases--investing in community health initiatives that reduce the rates of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes saves both money and lives.

It is with gratitude for their invaluable contributions to the health and security of communities across New Jersey, our Nation, and the world, that I recognize Public Health Thank You Day on Monday, November 20, 2017.

Mr. President, I was necessarily absent for the votes on confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 300, the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 313, the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 314, and the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 313.

On vote No. 277, had I been present, I would have voted nay on the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 300.

On vote No. 278, had I been present, I would have voted yea on the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 313.

On Vote No. 279, had I been present, I would have voted yea on the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 314.

On Vote No. 280, had I been present, I would have voted yea on the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 313.

Mr. President, I was necessarily absent for the votes on confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 463, the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 383, and the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 300.

On vote No. 274, had I been present, I would have voted nay on the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 463.

On vote No. 275, had I been present, I would have voted nay on the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 383.

On vote No. 276, had I been present, I would have voted nay on the motion to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar No. 300.