Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 2 p.m., Monday, March 13; further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I have been coming to the floor for the past several weeks to highlight my State and the great people who live in it. As the Presiding Officer and everybody in this room and those watching on TV probably know, Alaska is a breathtaking place. In fact, there is no place like it in the world--mountain ranges that seem to go on for eternity, salmon-filled waters and rivers, streams, massive glaciers. People save up their whole lives to come to visit my State. We welcome them. We want them all to come.

As I have also been saying, it is the people who make Alaska truly special, the Alaskans, people throughout my State banding together to form warm communities in cold climates. In Alaska, where the conditions are often extreme, we depend on each other--communities do--sometimes even for survival.

Today I would like to recognize Joyce McCombs, the director of the community library in Delta Junction, AK, as the Alaskan of the Week. On March 9, Joyce will be celebrating 30 years as the library director-- 30. She was also recently named by the Alaska Library Association the Audrey P. Kolb Public Library Service Award winner and received the Public Library Roundtable Certificate of Appreciation for her ``significant, innovative activities'' to improve her library. That award is named after Audrey Kolb, who is a legend in the library world in Alaska, and Joyce has that award as well as our award.

Delta Junction, where she lives, is a beautiful community of about 1,000 residents, surrounded by 3 spectacular mountain ranges. The community is about 150 miles from Fairbanks, in Alaska's interior. It gets cold there in the winter. As a matter of fact, this morning in Delta Junction, it was 26 below zero. And it is home to Fort Greely, which is the cornerstone of our Nation's entire missile defense system, protected by 300 brave soldiers, part of the Alaskan National Guard.

For many in Delta Junction, the library--recognized by the Library Journal as one of the best in the State--is the place where people converge and find warmth and community. It is open 6 days a week, and it only closes when it gets below 40 below zero. They are tough people in Delta Junction.

Joyce, with the support of so many in Delta Junction, including Fort Greely, which supports the library, has made sure that this library stays one of the best in the State and in the country. In her words, Delta's library is the ``community living room.'' In a small town like Delta Junction, such spaces are rare and, indeed, special. Joyce brings all sorts of services and learning to the library, including bands, authors, cooking classes--``what the community wants and needs,'' she said. Sometimes those needs entail sitting someplace warm and reading a book. Sometimes it means Skyping a spouse who might be serving overseas in Afghanistan or Iraq or applying for a job or getting the right form to file their tax returns. Joyce said: ``We're open 6 days a week serving everybody from nursery schools to nursing homes.''

One Delta resident told Joyce on Facebook:

Your assistance to the literary education of now two

generations of children has been an invaluable contribution

to our community that will be paying dividends for years to

come. This statewide honor is only a larger recognition of

what we already know here in Delta--that you are a great

librarian.

After 30 years as the director of the library, Joyce still loves her job, saying she learns something every day from her patrons. Thankfully for all of us, she has no plans to leave.

Congratulations on your award, Joyce. Happy birthday to your grandson, Trek. And thank you--and to the many librarians across our State and across our Nation--for your efforts to provide a warm learning space for all Alaskans and all Americans.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, like my colleague from the great State of Alaska, I also rise in support of the confirmation of Congressman Ryan Zinke to be our Nation's next Secretary of the Interior.

There has been a lot of discussion about Congressman Zinke, and he comes to this job with great qualifications. He is a patriotic and ethical man, from a patriotic and ethical part of America: the American West. He is a Navy SEAL who has dedicated decades of his life to protecting our great Nation. He is a lifelong sportsman. He is a trained geologist. He is a strong advocate for energy independence. He has a keen interest in protecting our environment, while not stymying much needed economic growth.

There is probably no position more important to the future of our great State of Alaska than the Secretary of the Interior, and I think it is great that we will have a new Secretary--in addition to the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, my colleague Senator Murkowski, from our great State. There are no more important positions than those positions. The Federal government owns more than 60 percent of Alaska, and we are a big State. I don't have to come here and talk about how big we are, but we are the biggest by far. Sorry, Texas.

In my State, as with many States in the West, our land is our lifeblood. It feeds us. It is what drives our economy and our culture. Congressman Zinke understands this. He hails from Montana, which has a similar view of how important the land is. He understands that responsible energy development goes hand in hand with robust environmental protections, and he understands the very important point that we as Americans can do both. We can responsibly develop our resources and protect the environment. No country has a better record of doing that than the United States of America.

Congressman Zinke has committed to working with Alaska as a partner in opportunity, rather than acting as a roadblock to success. Why is this so important? This would be an enormously welcome change from the past administration. I served as Alaska's attorney general, as commissioner of natural resources in my great State, and now as a U.S. Senator, and I witnessed, unfortunately, how the former Obama administration tried to stop, stymie, and slow roll literally every economic project in Alaska--every one.

Alaska and so many States across our country have tremendous resources to be developed right now. America is undergoing an energy renaissance. We are once again the world's energy superpower, yet our Federal Government was not helpful in that renaissance at all. It can be now, and we are looking toward a bright future when we have a Federal Government that is going to be a partner in opportunity, not an obstacle. I am hopeful that we are going to see a new renaissance of economic growth and job creation in Alaska and across the country, buoyed by Federal agencies like the Department of the Interior under Congressman Zinke's leadership that want to help us seize opportunities, not undermine them.

Like my colleague Senator Murkowski, I encourage all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote for Congressman Zinke to be our next Secretary of the Interior. He is a man of integrity, a man of patriotism, a man of experience, who in my view, is going to make a great Secretary of the Interior.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I rise in support of Attorney General Scott Pruitt to be the next Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and I think it is important, as we are continuing this debate, to make a couple of things perfectly clear.

We all, like the Senator from Delaware who has been leading the debate, believe in clean water, clean air, how important that is to all Americans, certainly important to my State, which has some of the cleanest water, cleanest air, the most pristine environment in the world. I certainly don't think any of us debate that. We all agree on properly disposing of waste and cleaning up contaminated sites. And just this past year, Congress passed very dramatic legislation, very important--bipartisan, by the way; I am on the Environment and Public Works Committee--the Toxic Substances Control Act, TSCA, which does that. And I think most of us agree that the EPA has an important role in ensuring that we have clean water--within the authority granted to that Agency by Congress. So I think the vast majority of this body agrees with that.

But as I have been listening to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and their criticism of Attorney General

Scott Pruitt, one thing that has not come up over the past 24 hours in this debate--as a matter of fact, on the EPW Committee, on which I sit, the past 2 years, I don't think I heard my colleagues on the other side of the aisle ever talk about this issue, and it is a very important issue for the country. It is the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution.

We have been debating Scott Pruitt's nomination for a while now, but not one of my colleagues has uttered that phrase--not one--even though many of my colleagues are lawyers and former law professors and former attorneys general themselves.

Why is this important? Why is it important to have a debate on the rule of law when we are looking at Scott Pruitt's nomination?

Well, I think it is incredibly important because if you looked at the EPA's actions and activities and focus over the last 8 years--the last 8 years--it has not been an Agency that has focused on the rule of law. In many ways it has been a lawless Agency, a rogue Agency. So when we are having this debate, we need to put the debate of Scott Pruitt's nomination and confirmation in the context of what has happened over the last 8 years.

We have had an Agency in the EPA that does not listen to States, even though it is required to by Federal law; that ignores the rule of law, as evidenced by numerous Federal court decisions rebuking it; and that believes it has the power to regulate every nook and cranny of American life--every economic activity of America. That is literally what we have right now with regard to our current EPA. This is not just one Senator making this claim. It has become the conventional wisdom and the common narrative with regard to this EPA in the last 8 years by a variety of Federal courts and law professors throughout the country.

Let me provide a few examples. A number of my colleagues have talked about the waters of the United States rule, WOTUS, and how this aggressive, far-reaching rule claims authority--the EPA claims authority to regulate literally puddles and irrigation ditches throughout the country, an enormous power grab.

A number of us were concerned about this. In hearings and in letters, I asked the previous EPA Administrator, Gina McCarthy, where she got the legal authority to do this. It was a pretty big deal. It took months to get an answer. States, under the law, are supposed to be consulted on this issue. States like my State, the great State of Alaska, were not consulted. They were ignored.

So what happened? What happened? Thirty-two States--bipartisan by the way, including Alaska--sued the EPA over this law, over this regulation, the waters of the United States. This is a critical point. ``Cooperative federalism,'' another term I have heard very little of in this debate, is the bedrock of environmental laws like the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act. The principle establishes that the States and the EPA are partners. Indeed, under these Federal laws, the States are the primary protectors and implementers of our environmental protection laws.

That is in the law. That is in the Federal law. But for the past 8 years, the EPA has consistently ignored this on major rules. The most dramatic is right here, the waters of the United States. Thirty-two States sued to stop the EPA on this regulation. What happened in the lawsuit? The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals put a stay on the entire rule, expressing serious doubts about its legality. That is one instance and a big deal.

Let's look at another one, the so-called Clean Power Plan. I know the Presiding Officer has talked this, about how it is very concerning for her State of West Virginia. Whatever your views are on climate change and the appropriate response, there should no debate in this body that we have to address this issue in a way that is consistent with the U.S. Constitution and rule of law--no debate.

Again, I never hear anyone talk about the rule of law on the other side. So this rule is promulgated. Once again, the Environmental Protection Agency, in the promulgation of this rule, took actions that the court and commentators across the political spectrum viewed as likely another illegal rule by the EPA.

So, like the waters of the United States rule, numerous States and others sued to stop the Clean Power Plan, in which the Environmental Protection Agency claimed somehow they had the authority to regulate almost the entire U.S. energy sector. Look at the rule. That is what they are claiming, that Congress somehow gave them that power.

In a previous Supreme Court case called Utility Air Regulatory Group, which was a lawsuit against the EPA--at the time I was serving as attorney general for the State of Alaska and was one of the AGs who initiated this suit--the EPA lost that one, and the Supreme Court and Justice Scalia, in writing the majority opinion stated:

When an agency, the EPA, claims to discover in a long

extant statute an unheralded power to regulate a significant

portion of the American economy, we typically greet its

announcement with a measure of skepticism. We expect Congress

to speak clearly if it wishes to assign an agency decisions

of vast economic and political significance.

In other words: EPA, you didn't have the power to regulate a huge swath of the American economy. The Supreme Court struck that down-- Utility Air Regulatory Group v. Environmental Protection Agency--so it was not surprising that with regard to the Clean Power Plan regulation, the Supreme Court of the United States put a stay on that rule. The Supreme Court of the United States put a stay on that rule before any other court, any other lower court, a district court, a court of appeals, had heard the arguments on that rule. Think about that. Do you know how many times the U.S. history that has happened? Do you know how many times in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court that has happened? Never before. It was the first time in the history of the Supreme Court that it saw a rule that it probably felt was so egregious that it put a stay on it before any other court ruled on that rule. It was pretty dramatic, pretty remarkable.

Clearly, the U.S. Supreme Court has serious doubts about whether the EPA is acting in a lawful manner on the Clean Power Plan. If you think it is just conservative jurists and lawyers and Senators who hold that view, you would be mistaken. Here is what Laurence Tribe said about the EPA's authority with regard to the Clean Power Plan.

For those of you who don't know Laurence Tribe, he is a very well- respected constitutional law professor at Harvard but very liberal. He was President Obama's law professor, but he is well-respected. Here is what he said about the EPA's authority on this very important regulation. He wrote in challenging the Clean Power Plan:

Even more fundamentally, the EPA, like every administrative

agency is constitutionally forbidden to exercise powers

Congress never delegated to it in the first place. The brute

fact is that the Obama administration failed to get climate

legislation through Congress. Yet the EPA is acting as though

it has the legislative authority anyway to re-engineer the

nation's electrical generating system and power grid. It does

not have this power.

That is Laurence Tribe. He later testified in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2015 with regard to this regulation:

The EPA is attempting to exercise lawmaking power that

belongs to Congress and the judicial power that belongs to

the Federal courts. Burning the Constitution should not be

part of our national energy policy. EPA is attempting an

unconstitutional trifecta: usurping the prerogatives of the

States, Congress and the Federal courts all at once.

That is Laurence Tribe. That is Harvard professor Laurence Tribe, who believes EPA is clearly acting in an unconstitutional manner.

It is not just losing in court and in the realm of both conservative and liberal leagues of public opinion; it has been the way that the EPA leadership, from the top to its foot soldiers, has treated the American people over the last 8 years--the American people whom the Environmental Protection Agency is supposed to serve.

That treatment can be described in many ways as with disdain. Let me provide a few examples of that. On the eve of another Supreme Court case, which the EPA lost--this is EPA v. Michigan--EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy was asked on a TV show, Did she think she was going to win the case?

She responded as you would think most Administrators would. She said

yes, she was going to win. OK. That is fine. She probably believed it and had good lawyers telling her that. But then she went on to say this:

But even if we don't [win], it was 3 years ago. Most of

[the companies] are already in compliance, investments have

been made, and we'll catch up.

Think about that quote. This is the head of the EPA, essentially saying: Even if we lose, we win. We are the Federal Government. We don't have to abide by the law. Those companies and American citizens who are abiding by the law, who are abiding by the regulations, they have already made investments--hundreds of millions. They are stuck. We win. Heads we win, tails we win. That is a remarkable statement by the leader of a Federal Agency who shows disdain for the law.

Let me give you another example. My colleague and good friend from Colorado came down and talked about the Animas River and what happened there. Clearly it was a mistake. I don't believe that the EPA meant to do that, to spill millions of gallons of toxic waste into a river. But in a hearing in the EPW Committee, I asked the Administrator: Well, are you going to hold the EPA officials who did that to the same standard you would the private sector? In the private sector, in similar kinds of activities, the EPA has actually criminally charged people for doing something like that--negligence--criminally charged them.

She looked at me and said: Senator, not only are we going to hold ourselves to that standard, we are going to hold ourselves to a higher standard.

OK. That is a pretty good answer.

So what has happened on the Animas River, with the EPA holding themselves to a higher standard? Remember, they put people in jail for doing this. Was anyone held responsible? Was anyone criminally charged? Did anyone go to jail?

Of course not. Nothing happened.

In my State, the EPA's disdain for my constituents has manifested itself in a couple of remarkable ways. First, we had the Administrator, former Administrator Gina McCarthy, in Alaska visiting after she came into office.

There was a big Wall Street Journal article on her visit. She was given some gifts by Alaskans, my constituents, the people she serves. When she was given gifts from my constituents on her visit to my State, she was later asked by a reporter what she did with them according to the government ethics rules.

Here is a quote from that story:

[Gina McCarthy] has been surprised by the government ethics

bureaucracy and its gift guidelines. Remarking how officials

chased her down for a dinky North Pole--

That is a community in Alaska--

pin someone gave her at an event as a gift (``I threw the

f-ing thing away,'' she told them).

With regard to another gift she got, a jar of moose meat from a young girl at a hearing in Alaska, she said that gift ``could gag a maggot.''

This was the leader of an Agency serving the people, and yet she was doing it in a way that is clearly disrespectful.

Let me talk about another incident in Alaska, in a place called Chicken, AK, where we have plaster miners out mining--small mining operations, family businesses, mining for gold.

The EPA thought there was going to be some Clean Water Act violations, which they never found. So what did they do? They didn't talk to the local community. They did a raid--body armor, assault weapons--on my constituents, a raid, a military assault to find clean water violations, which they never found, and they never apologized for the raid.

Now, you might ask: What does all this have to do with the nomination of Attorney General Pruitt? My answer is: Everything; everything.

He understands that the EPA needs a serious course correction, that it must get back to listening to the States and following the rule of law and, most importantly, regaining the trust of the American people, which has been lost over the last 8 years due to some of the actions I just described.

The American people see this. They see statements like this, and they know this has been an Agency that has not been acting in their interests and has not been acting according to the law.

Not only does Attorney General Pruitt understand this, he emphasized this during his confirmation hearing--6 hours long, which I sat through the entire thing.

Let me conclude by reading a few excerpts of his opening statement. The American people need to hear this because this is what Attorney General Pruitt is going to do when he leads the EPA. He said his priorities were:

First, under our Constitution, the role the EPA plays in protecting the environment is defined by statute, just as statutes limit every Federal Agency.

Members of this body--the Senate--and the House of Representatives have worked tirelessly over decades to set the balance in environmental policies through laws that have been passed. The EPA's role is to administer those laws faithfully.

As attorney general of Oklahoma, he stated: I saw examples where the Agency became dissatisfied with the tools Congress had given it to address certain issues and bootstrapped its own powers and tools through rulemaking. This, unfortunately, has only resulted in protracted litigation, where the courts suspended most of these rules after years of delay.

In the meantime, we lost the opportunity for true environmental protection as a nation. This approach is not right. So getting back to the rule of law, that is No. 1 for Attorney General Pruitt.

Second, he said:

Cooperative federalism must be respected and applied by the

EPA with regard to our environmental laws. Congress has

wisely and appropriately directed the EPA through our

environmental statutes to utilize the expertise and resources

of the States to better protect the environment, and for the

States to remain our nation's frontline environmental

implementers and enforcers. If we truly want to advance and

achieve cleaner air and water the States must be partners and

not mere passive instruments of federal will. If confirmed, I

will utilize the relationships I have forged with my

counterparts in the States to ensure that EPA returns to its

proper role, rather than using a heavy hand to coerce the

States into effectuating EPA policies.

Cooperative federalism--that is in the law, and he wants to uphold it.

Third, and finally, he said:

It is critical to me that EPA also truly listen to the

diverse views of the American people, and learn from them. If

confirmed as Administrator, I am committed to ensuring EPA's

decisions are conducted through open processes that take into

account the full range of views of the American people,

including the economic consequences of any regulation.

Environmental regulations should not occur in an economic

vacuum. We can simultaneously pursue the mutual goals of

environmental protection and economic growth. But that can

only happen if EPA listens--listens to the views of all

interested stakeholders, including the States, so that it can

determine how to realize its mission while considering the

pragmatic impacts of its decisions on jobs, communities, and

most importantly, families.

Finally, in the closing of his opening statement, Attorney General Pruitt said this:

My time as Attorney General of Oklahoma afforded me the

opportunity to travel my state meeting farmers, ranchers,

landowners, and small business owners of all sorts. These are

good people--hardworking Americans who want to do the right

thing by the environment. They want the air that their

children breathe and the waters in which they swim to be

clean. They want to follow the law. But recently they have

felt hopeless, subject to a never ending torrent of new

regulations that only a lawyer can understand. They fear the

EPA, and that just shouldn't be the case. If confirmed, I

will work tirelessly to ensure that the EPA acts lawfully,

sensibly, and with those hardworking Americans ever in mind.

That is how he ended his testimony.

Scott Pruitt is the right person to lead the EPA. We have gotten to the point, as he noted in his testimony, where millions of Americans, including some of my constituents in Chicken, AK, certainly have come to fear their own Federal Government, especially when it acts in a lawless fashion.

He is exactly the right person, with the right qualifications and the right emphasis to fix this problem, and I encourage all of my colleagues to support the confirmation vote we are going to make on him in a few hours.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, in the past month, I have come to the floor to recognize Alaskans who have generously devoted their time and talents to our State and made it a better place for all of us to live in. It is a great place to live. There is a mystique surrounding my great State--a well-earned mystique. People travel to Alaska from all over the world to discover a part of themselves that craves high peaks, beautiful mountains, streams, and swaths of wilderness.

The real wonders of Alaska are our people--kind and generous people, many of whom have etched warm homes and welcoming communities out of wilderness. One of those people who has helped make my State truly extraordinary is Mona Painter, our Alaskan of the Week.

Mona, who will be 80 years old soon, first visited Alaska when she was just 11 in 1949. She flew, by herself, with others in a tiny four- engine passenger plane to visit relatives. In the 1950s, she moved to Alaska for good and eventually settled in Cooper Landing. Cooper Landing has about 350 year-round residents, but that number swells in the summer. It has some of the best fishing and rafting anywhere in the world--an astonishingly beautiful place.

It has people like Mona, a devoted wife, grandmother, great- grandmother, and someone, who according to one fellow resident, is ``the glue that binds the community of Cooper Landing together.''

She has done so much for this community--volunteering countless hours over the decades to ensure community cohesion in the schools, churches, and various clubs, including the Cooper Landing Community Hall, which serves as the community's unofficial city council.

Since living in Cooper Landing, Mona received an art degree, has taken anthropology classes, and even took a taxidermy class--once practicing her skills on a moose left on the side of the highway.

One of Mona's passions throughout the years has been to keep history alive in Cooper Landing. To that end, she started the Cooper Landing Historical Society and Museum, with which she is still very involved. For years she has devoted her time and energy to collecting bits of history about Cooper Landing and sharing that history with her neighbors, with residents, and with all Alaskans. She is also the founding member of the Kenai Communities Association and helped to spearhead the effort to create a national heritage area in that part of our State.

One of her friends said about her: ``The whole essence of her life has been to make this community a better place to live and to restore the history of the community.''

People like Mona make my State great, and I want to thank Mona for all she has done for Alaska, and thanks for being our Alaskan of the Week.

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

Madam President, these past few weeks, I have had the

opportunity to come to the floor to recognize truly exceptional Alaskans--those who dedicate their time, energy, and talent to strengthening our communities and making Alaska a truly extraordinary place to call home.

My colleagues here, those in the Gallery, those watching on TV, might know Alaska for its natural wonders. We certainly have those in spades. We want you all to come visit. It will be a life-changing experience, I promise.

For those of us who live there, community is everything. Living in one of the most magnificent places on Earth also has challenges. We depend on each other, our traditional knowledge, our ingenuity, our determination to overcome those challenges, particularly as a community.

Today I would like to transport you to the village of Igiugig in Southwest Alaska, and introduce you to an amazing young woman who is truly making a difference in her community. AlexAnna Salmon is our Alaskan of the Week.

First, a little bit about where she lives. Rich in Alaskan Native traditions, her village is home to around 70 residents year-round, growing to more than 200 in the summer months. The name Igiugig comes from a Yupik word meaning ``like a throat that swallows water.'' It is referring to the location of the village which sits where the Kvichak River meets Lake Iliamna.

Western Alaska has been home to thriving, sustainable communities for a millennia, but rising energy costs and overregulations have put the future of these communities at risk. In fact, many of these communities, particularly in rural Alaska, face some of the highest energy costs in the country, which is a bit of a cruel irony given how resource-rich Alaska is, but in typical Alaska fashion, this village, facing these energy challenges, comes together as a community to embrace new technologies and new ways to address these challenges.

At the forefront of this rural revolution and sustainable community is our Alaskan of the Week, AlexAnna Salmon. Raised in Igiugig, AlexAnna has emerged as a leader in her community, now serving as the village council president.

She has had that position since just after graduating cum laude from Dartmouth College in 2008, with a double major in Native American studies and anthropology.

While at Dartmouth, she won a prestigious writing award for her senior thesis on life in her village. When she was done with college, she, along with her sister, came back to her community, to her village, to raise her family. In her words, she stated, ``I felt that I had the greatest childhood here in Igiugig. This is where kids need to be raised.'' She wants their childhood experiences to be as great or even better and meaningful as hers.

To keep her community thriving, particularly with these energy challenges--and to make it even a better place for the next generation--she encourages healthy lifestyles, helps improve local infrastructure, and works tirelessly toward ensuring that people in her village have a sustainable source of food and energy.

AlexAnna has overseen the establishment of community farms and gardens, wind turbines, solar collectors, centralized recycling, building upgrades, weatherization, and most recently helped launch a very exciting hydro project.

For her dedication to the well-being of her community and to all Alaskans and for tackling unique challenges with both creativity and determination, for making the impossible, in some of the most extreme parts of our country in terms of rural living, seem possible, AlexAnna Salmon is the Alaskan of the Week.

Congratulations, AlexAnna, and thank you. Your dedication epitomizes what it means to be an Alaskan, honoring the traditions of our past and seizing the opportunities here and now to provide for a bright future.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I rise today to support the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General of the United States. He is a veteran and an outstanding public servant who has worked tirelessly for decades in service of his constituents in Alabama, in this body, as a U.S. attorney, as Attorney General of Alabama. He is a good colleague and a friend to many of us on both sides of the aisle. He is gracious with his time, his wisdom, his intelligence.

In all nomination processes there is some twisting of facts that goes on and, unfortunately, even some character attacks, but the twisting of his record and the attacks on Senator Sessions, in my view, have been particularly egregious. That is why I was very saddened by what happened on the floor of the U.S. Senate last night.

One of our colleagues violated rule XIX. Here is what rule XIX says: ``No Senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.''

That is the rule. It has been in place for decades, and I don't think you need to be a Harvard law professor to realize that rule was violated last night.

Mr. President, like you, I have been in the Senate for a couple of years. I certainly have tried very hard to work with my colleagues, all my colleagues across the aisle, Democrats, Republicans. I have respect for all of them. I have no problem whatsoever with Senators coming down, and in the last week or so, Senators coming down to the floor of the Senate to debate their views on nominees for Cabinet positions, up- or-down votes on the merits and the qualifications of these nominees. That is what we should be doing. That is our job. We have seen a lot of that over the last several weeks.

Like the Presiding Officer, in the last couple of years, I supported some of President Obama's Cabinet officials, was opposed to others, as is our job, on their merits and qualifications. We can do this in a respectful manner, especially here on the floor of the U.S. Senate. We can certainly do this in a way that does not violate rule XIX by imputing conduct and motives unbecoming of a U.S. Senator. More importantly, we can do this in a way that is respectful of each other. For the sake of the Senate and for the country, I hope we can get back to that tradition that is so important to this body.

Let me try to set the record straight on Senator Sessions, the Senator Jeff Sessions I know. I have gotten to know him over the last 2 years. He certainly has a long, distinguished history of public service. Nobody in this body is denying that. Everybody in this body knows Senator Sessions well, knows that he is a man of integrity, a man of principle. He will support the laws of the land, and he will be a fierce advocate for the rule of law and defending the Constitution.

I wish to spend a few minutes on the broader issue of what is happening on the Senate floor right now. We are not getting a lot of press on it, but it is the unprecedented obstruction that is happening with regard to President Trump's Cabinet. Because of this obstruction-- unfortunately, by my colleagues--more than 2 weeks into President Trump's term, he has fewer Cabinet Secretaries confirmed at this point than any other incoming President since George Washington. That is some pretty serious obstruction. Nineteen days into his term as President of the United States, President Obama had 21 Cabinet Members confirmed. Right now, President Trump has seven. President Obama had three times the numbers we now have today.

I believe most Americans--certainly the Americans I represent, fairminded Alaskans who are desperate to get our country and our economy working again--don't like this kind of obstruction. They see a new President who should be allowed to move forward with his Cabinet in place so the Federal Government can get to work on behalf of the American people. I think Americans are also seeing the reputation of good people who want to serve their country tarnished for political purposes.

I hope the Members on the other side of the aisle understand that the American people are wise. They see through all this theater. We need to get to work. We need to let the Trump administration get to work.

This body has a responsibility to treat the confirmation process with the same courtesy, seriousness, and focus the Senate gave to President Obama when he came into office, and that has not happened right now. It is not happening right now, and we need to move forward on that.

Madam President, today we are going to be voting on the first of what will be many resolutions of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act to roll back the avalanche of Federal regulations that the Obama administration placed on the U.S. economy and, most importantly, the working men and women of this great country.

Nowhere have these regulations been more of a burden than on the energy industry of America, which employs millions, millions of Americans--Democrats, Republicans, good, hard-working Americans, and thousands of hard-working Alaskans, my constituents. So I am particularly pleased that the first of these actions--and we are going to be using the Congressional Review Act a lot because the economy and families in America need relief--in the Senate is to nullify the so- called stream buffer rule of the Department of Interior.

My colleague and friend, the senior Senator from Alaska, Ms. Murkowski, was down on the floor a little bit about ago. She described just how sweeping this rule was in scope and how despite the Federal law called SMACRA, which requires cooperative Federalism, working closely with the States, the Obama administration did not give the States any input--certainly not my State.

But what I wanted to talk about on this rule in particular and why it is so important to have not just Republicans but Democrats--and I am going to encourage my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to please support this resolution of disapproval--why it so important we vote for this resolution of disapproval today is because of the coal miners in America--the coal miners in America, who have been under incredible strain and their families.

The vote we take today is going to offer them the first signs of relief in years. Now, there were projections by the Department of Interior's own contractors--as my colleague, Senator Murkowski, mentioned a little bit ago--that thousands of coal miners would lose their jobs because of this rule--thousands.

A study showed that estimates would be one-third of coal miners, coal-mining jobs in the country were at risk because of this rule. That is a big deal. That is a big deal. One-third. Studies are showing that by the Department of Interior's own contractor. But not to worry, the Obama administration issued the rule anyway. Again, as my colleague Senator Murkowski mentioned, there were concerns--very legitimate concerns in my State--that this rule could literally kill every coal- mining job in Alaska, at the Usibelli coal mine in interior Alaska.

So what was the so-called stream buffer rule really about? What was it? Well, I think we all know. It was the last salvo in the Obama administration's arsenal in the war on coal miners, a war that has left thousands of hard-working Americans out of work, injured, in despair in its wake. That is what happened. Just look at what happened. Look at our own Federal Government going to war against hard-working Americans. That is what happened for 8 years--disgraceful in my view.

Now it is time to fight back. Now it is time to fight back. Now it is time for this body to show coal miners in America that we are actually on their side and not against them and not trying to ruin them and their families. I want to recount a recent colloquy by a bunch of my colleagues from the other side of the aisle from last December--right before recess.

Many of my colleagues--all of whom I respect highly--on the other side of the aisle, my Democratic colleagues, came down to the floor. They were saying how coal miners of America were under siege, how they needed help. They were talking about my good friend and colleague Senator Manchin's bill with regard to protecting coal miner pensions, which, by the way, I am a cosponsor of.

So I agree about protecting our coal miners, but I watched a lot of those remarks. My colleagues were down on the floor for several hours, but what I found very ironic was that I looked at a lot of these Senators and asked: Where were you during this 8-year war against coal miners? What were you doing? I hate to say it, but a lot of them were allies in the Obama administration's assault on hard-working families and coal miners.

I am not saying that about my good friend from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, but there were a lot who were. Heck, some were even leading the charge, but, nevertheless, several were down here on the floor right before the holidays lamenting about what has happened to the coal miners in America. So to my colleagues who were down here shedding tears for America's coal miners in December, I want to offer a challenge to you. Here is your chance. Here is your chance. This is a rule that our own Federal Government has said will put thousands of coal miners out of work. If you really care about the coal miners of America, whether in West Virginia or Alaska, come down on the Senate floor this afternoon when we have this vote and vote for this resolution of disapproval, if you want to help the coal miners, if you want to turn this around so there is no war against them, led by the Federal Government. Its own studies said: Yep. Sorry. You and your families are going to be out of work. If you really care like you were saying in December, then come down to the floor today and vote for this resolution.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I want to begin by complimenting my colleague, the Senator from Ohio, Mr. Portman. He has been the leader in the U.S. Senate on addressing this issue that literally is impacting every single one of our States--whether it is Ohio or Alaska or Indiana where the Presiding Officer is from--and it is a killer.

The opioid epidemic that is happening is something we all have to work together on, but we have hope, as Senator Portman said. I believe we have hope because of communities, because of brave Americans like those he is talking about.

We also have hope because of guys like Rob Portman, and we would be a lot less further along in this country in turning around this epidemic and highlighting it for Americans if it weren't for him. I really want to commend my colleague from Ohio. He has done such a great job and is so passionate about this issue.

Tribute to Andrew Kurka

Mr. President, in the last few weeks I have come to the floor to recognize an exceptional Alaskan--someone who spends time giving back to our community by sharing their time and talents up north. There are thousands of these people, of course, in my great State, and I would love to recognize every single one of them. They do so much for all of us.

We Senators are not humble about our States. I certainly believe my State is the most beautiful place in America. It is probably the most beautiful place in the world. I ask anyone who is watching to come visit us, you will love it--guaranteed.

It is the people that make my State so special--kind, generous people, full of rugged determination, full of patriotism, full of compassion. Many of them are willing to go the extra mile, literally, in some of the most difficult terrain and extreme conditions of the world to help friends and neighbors and use their strength and skills to inspire us all.

I wish to tell you a little bit about Andrew Kurka, an extraordinary Alaskan from Palmer, which is a beautiful community about 45 miles outside of Anchorage. In his younger years, Andrew was a wrestler. He put his heart into it. For his efforts, he was very successful. He was a six-time Alaska State champion in freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling.

When he was 13, he suffered a spinal cord injury in a four-wheeler accident. His physical therapist urged him to keep going, to keep trying, to stay active, and actually paid for his first skiing lesson with a group called Challenge Alaska, a nonprofit Paralympic sports club.

According to an article in the Alaska Dispatch News, Andrew is ``willing to give just about anything a try--bodybuilding, water- skiing, ultra-marathon, handcycling.'' He even raced in the Arctic Man ski and snow machine race in Alaska--a race that is not for the faint of heart. It is one tough race.

It is in sit skiing where he truly excels. He has been a longtime member of the U.S. Paralympic team and has won numerous medals. Just last month, he won three medals, including the Gold for the men's downhill race at the World Para Alpine Championships in Italy--the Gold for the whole world.

His accomplishments are amazing enough, but his willingness to serve and be a role model for others is what makes him a true Alaska treasure. He is involved in numerous organizations for great causes, and he travels all across Alaska and the country, visiting with children with medical problems and urging them to dream big the way he has.

``I have spent my life hoping to be an example to others,'' Andrew said. ``Having the chance and being put in a position where I can make a difference means the world to me.'' That is Andrew.

For his determination against all odds, for his accomplishments, for his compassion, and for making the United States and Alaska proud last month in Italy at the World Para Alpine Championships, Andrew Kurka is this week's Alaskan of the Week.

Congratulations, Andrew, from all of your supporters. You are a great inspiration to all of us.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, Alaska is a beautiful State--the mountains, the seas, the glaciers, the wildlife. Most in this room and many watching on TV have seen my State on TV shows, on reality shows. Almost everybody talks about at least someday coming to visit. We love tourists, like the Presiding Officer does. So please come. You will have a great experience, guaranteed.

But what makes my State particularly special is the people--kind people, tough people, generous of heart, and, yes, people with a lot of opinions. My State is filled with people who are strong-willed and strong-hearted, creating caring communities in some of the harshest environments in the world.

As part of an initiative that I am doing to highlight some of these great Alaskan citizens, I would like to recognize this afternoon Eileen Dubowski as the Alaskan of the Week. She is someone of a strong mind and a strong heart, and she has helped to make her community and our State a better place.

Eileen lives with her husband in a cabin in Salcha, AK, near the Fairbanks area. This year, this area of my State has experienced some brutally dangerously cold temperatures. Recently, it was 59 degrees below zero near Salcha. That is cold, 59 below zero. Yet, in my State, people work in such weather, they give to their communities, they reach out and watch over their neighbors.

Eileen has been both a special education and regular education teacher for almost 40 years. She is currently at University Park Elementary School. To better communicate with her students, she went to night school to learn American Sign Language. She is active in her church and particularly active in Interior Alaska high school wrestling helping dozens and dozens of students. She has been so involved over the past 40 years in this important activity that she was recently elected into the State of Alaska Wrestlers Hall of Fame. An article in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner quotes her as saying: ``Wrestling can take any sized kid and they can be successful.''

Congratulations, Eileen, for helping dozens and dozens of kids of all sizes in Alaska and making them successful.

She stated: ``When you help each other it makes living up here easier,'' in the colds of Alaska. The same could be said about anyplace in America.

So thanks, Eileen, for helping make life easier, for your service, and for being this week's Alaskan of the Week.

Mr. President, I wish to talk a little bit this afternoon about the way my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are, unfortunately--and with no reason--delaying and delaying the confirmation of heads of critically important agencies, Cabinet Secretaries, for our country.

Now, we have differences of opinion in this body. That is often a good thing. We debate, we share ideas, we agree, we disagree, we give the voters the very best we have, and then we let them make their own decisions, which they do at the ballot box.

On election day, the American people chose President Trump and Vice President Pence. The American people did so knowing they would appoint a new Cabinet and be focused on the issues they ran on, but the American people did not vote for delay and they did not vote for obstruction. They voted for action and they voted for a smooth transition, which is what this body has traditionally done.

It has been a longstanding tradition of the U.S. Senate, working hard, to confirm Cabinet nominees of a newly elected President in a timely fashion, particularly when it comes to the President's national security team.

For example, in 2009, upon the election of President Obama, 7 of his Cabinet members were sworn into office on the first day, 5 more were confirmed by the end of the first week--14 Cabinet officials inside of a week.

Where are we right now? Two Cabinet officials and one CIA Director. That is not what the American people expect. That is not the tradition in the Senate. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle have a responsibility to the American people to put a government in place and to treat the confirmation process with the same courtesy and seriousness the Senate gave to President

Obama's Cabinet-level nominees, and that is not happening right now. This is serious business, particularly on national security issues.

I am hopeful my colleagues on the other side of the aisle can start getting serious and show this administration the same courtesy that Republicans showed President Obama's administration when he came into office.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Madam President, I want to talk a little bit about Alaska this afternoon. Alaska is a beautiful State. Anyone who has visited knows that. Those who have watched any of the numerous television shows featuring my State know that. We have the mountains that seem to go on forever, fish-filled rivers and streams and oceans, miles and miles of beautiful tundra, calving glaciers.

People save their whole lives to take a trip to Alaska, to see the wildlife, to see the bears, the salmon in the wild. There is no doubt Alaska is physically beautiful, but for those of us who live there, the true beauty of our State comes from our people. From our urban areas to the hundreds of smaller towns and small villages that dot our State, we have so many great citizens doing so many great things throughout all of our communities.

What I want to do is to recognize some of our citizens and tell their stories. So every week I will be doing that. Every week I will be recognizing an Alaskan who has made a special contribution to our great State and great Nation. For the kickoff of the Alaskan of the Week, I think it is appropriate to recognize a storyteller.

Narratives keep the people in my State connected to one another. They keep history and culture alive in our great State. That is what Juneau resident Professor Ernestine Hayes does for us in her writing. Professor Hayes was recognized by the Alaska Humanities Forum and the Alaska State Council on the Arts as the current Alaska State Writer Laureate.

The recognition is well deserved. Professor Hayes teaches writing at the University of Alaska Southeast and is the author of two extraordinary award-winning memoirs, the ``Blonde Indian,'' and the ``Tao of Raven.'' Her books chart her unique experiences of growing up in Juneau as a Tlingit at a time when Alaska Natives were denied basic rights and ``No Native'' signs were common on storefronts.

Her career as a writer and a teacher began in her fifties. Living the principle that learning should be a lifetime passion, she graduated from the University of Alaska Southeast--magna cum laude, I might add-- when she was 55 years old. In between, she moved to California, where she struggled to find purpose, and, as she put it, she was determined to go back home to Alaska or die facing north.

Thankfully, for us, she made it back home. In the ``Tao of Raven,'' she weaves in the story of Raven and the box of light. Professor Hayes writes about the importance of giving back to the community. ``Although Raven could well have decided to keep light and luster and blinding brilliance for only his own pleasure,'' she writes, ``he knew that to keep riches to oneself guarantees their decline.''

I congratulate Professor Hayes for being chosen as our State's Writer Laureate and our first inaugural Alaskan of the Week. Thank you, Professor Hayes, for sharing your blinding brilliance.

I yield the floor.