Floor Statements

Mr. President, as part of National Drug Court Month, I want to honor a program that has directly and indirectly benefited so many Americans and American families.

In my hometown of Marietta, GA, we had the good fortune of having a driving under the influence, or DUI, court program, established nearly 10 years ago in 2008. Since that time, the Cobb County DUI court program has saved our Cobb County Sheriff's office more than an estimated $3 million in incarceration costs alone.

However, these accountability courts have saved much more than just money. For example, there is the little girl who was living with parents in active addiction who now has a sober father who was able to gain custody of her and raise her in a stable home environment. We have seen parents, children, and entire families saved through recovery and restored through the healing work of counseling.

More than 300 individuals have been saved from addiction, crime, recidivism, unemployment, and incarceration by the structure, accountability, and tough love approach of the DUI court program. These individuals have been able to move forward with their lives as productive, tax-paying citizens. Through drug and DUI court programs, the cycle of probation and addiction is broken and history rewritten. The number we can't count is the number of lives potentially saved from fatal accidents and other tragic events that were prevented through participants' recovery.

It is such a special opportunity for me to write to many of the graduates of the drug and DUI court programs in our State and think of the strength of these individuals who are turning their lives around to live free of drug and alcohol addiction. I applaud their efforts, and I always remind them that, while getting off drugs or alcohol may be the hardest thing they will ever do, it is also the most important thing they will ever do for themselves and their families.

On May 2, 2017, the Cobb DUI court program hosted its 30th graduation ceremony. Graduation day is such a special one not only for these graduates, but for the staff who work tirelessly in trying to save lives. That is the day where they see the long hours, the countless emails, the midnight phone calls, and the reams of paperwork pay off. They can look at where a defendant used to be and see how that man or woman's life has changed. On graduation day, lives are reformed and new ones begin.

I applaud all those fighting to change lives for the betterment of all.

Mr. President, today I would like to remember two brothers from my hometown of Marietta, GA, James and Joe Pratt, whose lives were cut short in a tragic accident on April 24, 2017.

James and Joe were upstanding students in their community and at Lassiter High School, where they were both members of the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps. They were loved by their family, and they were beloved by their friends, advisers, and coworkers.

James, called ``Jim'' by those who knew him, was 18 years old and just a few weeks shy of high school graduation. He was the JROTC unit's morale and wellness officer, and Jim had already enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was looking forward to beginning boot camp in a short time and later to attending Kennesaw State University.

Joe was a 14-year-old freshman and, in addition to attending school, served in the JROTC unit and was known for helping keep his friends' spirits lighthearted with his knowledge of trivia and sense of humor.

Their unit of the JROTC, the Lassiter-Pope-Kell Navy JROTC, armed exhibition drill team has performed annually at our Georgia congressional delegation's Military Academy Day. Out of respect for these young men, their unit did not perform at this year's event, held last Saturday, April 29, and instead, we held a moment of silence in their honor.

Lassiter High School and our community is in mourning over the loss of these fine brothers. My deepest condolences go out to the entire Pratt and Lago families and to our community, and my wife, Dianne, and I hold them in our prayers.

Mr. President, first of all, I have a rare opportunity to follow Jon Tester, who is a great farmer from Montana, a great ranking member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, and a man who knows agriculture well.

I grew up picking up pecans off the ground on my grandfather's farm. I know a little about it. I know the salt-of-the-earth people who grow our food and our fiber who make our country work. I doubt if many people have had the opportunity to be a U.S. Senator, but I know this; that very few have had the opportunity to be a U.S. Senator and serve with the cousin of an ag commissioner, because the Presiding Officer who is presiding over this vote is the cousin of Sonny Perdue, the man we are going to confirm as Secretary of Agriculture under Donald Trump's administration. I am pleased to be the senior Senator from Georgia to brag about all of the Perdues whom I know in my State and all they have contributed to our State and how important Sonny Perdue is going to be to us as the Secretary of Agriculture.

If one looked in Webster's Dictionary--and if it were a picture dictionary and every word were described not by words but by a picture--if one looked up ``Ag Secretary,'' you would see Sonny Perdue's picture.

Think about this for a second. He grew up on a row crop farm in Bonaire, GA, which is an ag community in our State. He was in the fertilizer business and the grain business. He was a partner in a storage and shipping business with his cousin, the junior Senator from Georgia, David Perdue. He graduated with a doctorate degree in veterinary medicine from the University of Georgia--one of the preeminent veterinary medicine schools in the country. He presided as Governor of the State of Georgia after he was speaker pro tempore of the senate of the State of Georgia. He was the president pro tempore in the senate when he was a Democrat. He was the Governor when he was a Republican. He did not switch parties for any reason except that he wanted to do right, and when one party went in the wrong direction, he took the party in the next direction and took them to lead our State to bigger and higher heights. He presided over a State that has 42,000 farmers and a $75 billion farm gate product. Georgia is agriculture and knows agriculture.

I served in the legislature with him in the State senate. I served under him when he was our Governor. I served with him as the Governor when I was in the U.S. House, and later in the U.S. Senate. We worked on agriculture business and port business. We worked on the Port of Savannah. We worked on everything that was in the interests of Georgia. Sonny Perdue knows that there is one way to do a job, and that is the best way he knows how: Do it right the first time, and you never have to apologize.

President Trump has made a great decision for our State. He has made a great decision for our country. He has picked the finest person you could find available in the United States to be the Secretary of Agriculture for the United States of America.

He graduated from the University of Georgia, was in the farm business himself, served as a Governor, served as the speaker pro tempore, and married the prettiest woman in Georgia--and I will get in trouble for classifying her that way, but it happens to be the truth, and I never lie on the floor of the Senate.

I am going to be proud tonight when I cast my vote for Sonny Perdue as Secretary of Agriculture, along with the Presiding Officer and everybody else. I commend our President on a great selection, I congratulate our State on a great favorite son, and I commend the Senate Committee on Agriculture for the nomination of a great Agriculture Secretary, as well as Senator Roberts.

I commend my brother and my friend, my fellow Georgian, Sonny Perdue, to the Senate today, and I urge all of my colleagues to vote in favor of his nomination.

I yield the floor.

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

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, today I wish to thank COL Scott Jackson for his exemplary service and outstanding leadership as the chief of the Army's Senate Liaison Division. During his tenure with the Office of the Chief Legislation Liaison, Scott was able to bring more than 24 years of experience in various leadership and staff positions to provide superior support to the work of the U.S. Senate. Additionally, I congratulate Scott on his recent selection to command the Army's first Security Force Assistance Brigade at Fort Benning, GA.

In support of the global war on terror, Scott has deployed to Iraq three times, for a cumulative 41 months. In 2003, he served as the lead operational planner for the First Cavalry Division, writing the initial counterinsurgency campaign plan for Baghdad; subsequently assigned as the executive officer for 2nd Battalion 7th Cavalry Regiment and participated in its assault into Najaf, Iraq, August 2004, and Fallujah, Iraq, November 2004. In 2006-2008, he served as the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, First Cavalry Division, deputy brigade commander with duty as the deputy team leader, Diyala Provincial Reconstruction Team, where he was the governance team leader and senior coalition adviser to the governor of Diyala, providing daily coaching, mentorship, and liaison to the provincial governor.

In April 2008, Scott assumed command of 1st Battalion 5th Cavalry Regiment and deployed his battalion in January 2009, assuming responsibility for coalition operations in the Baghdad districts of Adamiyah, Rusafa, and Taji. During this deployment, his battalion executed the coalition withdrawal from the cities and transition of responsibility to the Iraqi Security Forces.

Following command, Scott was selected to be the assistant chief of staff, G3, Operations and Plans, for the First Cavalry Division and subsequently selected as an Army War College fellow at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory. While at Lincoln Laboratory, Scott focused his research on how technology enables the application of strategy, producing an original research project entitled, ``An Operational Design Concept for Wide Area Persistent Biometric Surveillance.''

Following the War College, Scott served as the 3rd Infantry Division, Rear chief of staff, while the headquarters was deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He then went on to assume command of the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, SPARTANS, at Fort Stewart, GA, from 2013 to 2015.

Scott's humble character rarely does justice to his accomplishments and accolades. However, he does speak very proudly of his wife, Valerie, and their sons, Benjamin and William. Military families are true testaments of both strength and pride. They are constantly challenged by deployments, changes in duty stations, and uncertainties. These hurdles create resiliency that the Jackson family patriotically embodies. Scott's family are his pride and joy and will equally be missed by everyone they have inspired during their time here.

While we will miss having Scott's support and counsel here in the Senate, I know that he will be moving on to greater things. I want to again thank Scott and his family for their service to our great Nation and congratulate him for his selection to command the Army's newest brigade at Fort Benning.

Mr. President, I will be brief. I also want to make sure I don't take advantage of the personal privilege I have as a United States Senator, but I am going to anyway.

I want Senator Coons from Delaware to pause for just a second.

I want to thank every Member of the Senate, Republican and Democrat, and the staff of the Senate for the many kindnesses they have extended to me in the last 4 months during my injury and my recovery. I am on the way back home, in large measure, because of the support of the Members of the United States Senate. I am very grateful for that and the staff who have allowed that to take place. I say thank you very much.

Notwithstanding what your politics are or what your partisanship is or anything else, this is a great institution and a great body because it is made up of great people.

To that end, my friend Senator Coons from Delaware made an excellent speech, which I am going to adopt as my speech, since I don't have the strength to stand as long as I would like to, to talk about an issue so important. We do need to open all our minds and our hearts in the days ahead to make sure we know what direction we are going as Members of the Senate, regardless of our party and notwithstanding our partisanship.

Neil Gorsuch, from everything I have seen--and I probably have seen more than anybody because I have been watching it on TV while I have been recovering. You guys have had to do it in debate. I have seen the real thing.

His record, his testimony, the way he presented himself, the way Senator Grassley and Senator Feinstein allowed that hearing to go forth, I know we have a good man as a nominee to be a Supreme Court Justice of the United States, but the issues and the divide on the cloture, on a simple majority, and the rule change of 2013, and what has happened in the past, now has us in a position where we slowly but surely are moving to be a body that is another House of Representatives, not the United States Senate.

The majority rule is a great philosophy. The majority winning is always a great philosophy, but I used to have a teacher who taught me. She said: If four equals the majority, three equals zero, but you always need to listen to the other three because sometimes they may be right. I think that is a good lesson for us today, and that was a grammar school teacher.

If there are seven voting members, four does equal the majority, but three doesn't equal zero because the rest still count.

As we move forward in the days ahead and judge other issues, whether they be partisan issues in terms of regular debate and general legislation, whether it be issues over the confirmation of judges or Secretaries or whatever it may be, let's be thoughtful, so that, not as a criticism of the House, but as a compliment to our Founding Fathers, we don't become a second House and later a unicameral body, majority rule and mob rule, and eventually waive rules, where passions overrule common sense and all of a sudden you find yourself digging your way out of a hole that you have created, rather than building the dreams you have always wanted to do.

I commend the leadership of both parties for exercising their political and partisan desires. I commend each Member for being here to take part in this debate today and being a part of it. That is what America is all about.

Somewhere down the line, there is going to be something that is going to happen that is going to cause a resurrection of the debate that we have had today and another road to cross on which way we go in the future. The more we move away from a Senate that is a deliberative body, that is a dignified body, to a body that makes sure it knows where it is going before it moves forward, we won't be better off. If we move toward a body that is a rubberstamp of the House or a unicameral government of legislation, we will never be the United States of America our Founding Fathers intended us to be. That is what I believe, and that is what I think the end of this will be.

To all our Members, I compliment them on everything they have had to say and have done.

Judge Gorsuch, I am so proud to have someone like that who will hopefully serve on the bench of the U.S. Supreme Court with distinction.

To all of us, our job is not finished. I look forward to being here and being a part of it.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I want to make a statement that has not been heard much around these Halls or these Chambers in a couple of years. But on February 7--this month--the Veterans' Affairs Committee reported by a vote of 17 to 0 the name of David Shulkin to be the next Secretary of Veterans' Administration. That is a unanimous vote. Nine Republicans and eight Democrats--everybody voted for this man to be Secretary of the VA. I am going to ask each Member in the Chamber today: Let's do it as an entire body and find one person, one thing we agree upon.

They are not Republican veterans or Democrat veterans; they are American veterans who went to the battlefield and fought for us. It is time we fought for them.

Dr. Shulkin is the right man at the right time for the Veterans' Administration. On March 15, 2015, we hired him to come in and take over and be Under Secretary of Veterans Health. The President looked around to find the best man to run the VA and found him in David Shulkin.

David Shulkin is committed to the following: fixing the problems at the Veterans' Administration, making sure the Choice Program works, making sure every veteran gets the care they deserve, the care we all want them to get, and seeing to it they get it from us.

I am going to ask each Member to cast their vote today for David Shulkin but also cast their vote for our veterans. This is a time for us to send a message to them: We don't want to privatize the VA. We don't want to reorganize the VA. We want to make the VA work, to give our veterans access to every bit of care they can possibly get, and follow in the line of the great leaders who have been in the Veterans' Administration before.

I am very pleased to serve with Jon Tester of Montana as my ranking member. We have worked together as a team--Democrats and Republicans-- to make this happen.

I yield the remainder of my time to Jon Tester of Montana on the nomination of David Shulkin to be Secretary of the VA.

Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Montana and urge every Member of the Senate--Republican, Independent, Democrat--to cast their vote for our veterans, cast their vote for our country, and cast their vote for David Shulkin to be the new Secretary of the Veterans' Administration.

I yield back the remainder of our time.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that these answers to four questions that have been raised in the last few days in the media be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I would also like the Record to reflect that I have never been to Montana. I have been to Delaware, but I respect anything either one of these Senators would say about any physician in Delaware or any physician in Montana. They have never been to Georgia. I have been to Georgia for 72 years. I have lived there for 72 years, and for 30 of those years, I served with Tom Price in the State legislature, in the same neighborhood organizations. He has been my friend. He has been my doctor. He is a great individual, and my knowledge of him is firsthand. I am not going to read to you something that somebody told me Tom Price was or is or did or was accused of. I am going to tell you about the man I know who has been nominated for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

I have known Tom, as I said, for 30 years. He is a great family man. He and his wife Betty are great members of our community. He is a great churchman. He is active in his church in his community. He started out working in neighborhood organizations, graduated to the State legislature, and became the first elected Republican majority leader in the history of the Georgia State Senate. He went from the Georgia State Senate to the Congress to replace me. He raised the intellectual component level of that seat tremendously when I got out and when he came in. He has done a tremendous job here in the seven terms in this Congress, representing the people of my State.

Now, I don't know much about medicine, except that shots hurt, and I don't want to go to the doctor unless I absolutely have to. Tom knows everything about medicine because he has delivered it for 30 years. He knows about the affordability of health care. He knows about the needs of senior citizens. He knows about the innovations that are necessary to help all of us stay healthy for the rest of our lives.

Tom Price is a committed public servant who has worked diligently and hard for the State of Georgia and people of Georgia.

There have been a few things said about Tom that I want to address, not because I want to waste my time talking about things that are just allegations that are put together in some fashion or form to make him look bad. I want to just make the record straight.

First of all, it has been said that Tom is for taking funds away from Medicare. That is ironic to me because last December, Tom and I were called on by AARP, the representative of the senior citizens of America, to go on the road and talk about how we were going to save Medicare and save Social Security--not cut and rob it. So we represented the organization AARP at their request. We wanted to save Social Security and save Medicare. We have never spent a minute of our time talking about taking it away from anybody. If there is anybody who is going to be able to make sure Medicare works for the senior citizens of the 21st century, it is Dr. Tom Price, of Georgia, and he is going to do it as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the United States of America.

Secondly, there have been a lot of things impugning Tom and his investments--the investments he has made.

I introduced Tom to the Senate Finance Committee. I introduced Tom to the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. I went through his application. I have seen everything on it. Everything that he is being accused of doing, he disclosed in his report. They are just using a technique that trial lawyers use called desperate impact, where you take two facts, put them over here, and put them together to make them a negative, rather than a positive. It is all in how you explain it and how you describe it. It is not how the act took place.

As the chairman of the Ethics Committee and the one that administers the STOCK Act for this body, I know what we have to submit and make public; I know what we don't. Every single thing he has been accused of doing is from information taken out of his own disclosures, which anybody who owns a computer can get today to make him look like he is bad and a bad guy.

In fact, I told the Senate Finance Committee when I went to introduce him there--after listening to Chuck Schumer on the Sunday shows for 2 weeks talking about Tom Price--that I felt like I was going to have to be a character witness for a convicted felon at a sentencing hearing. That is not right for us to do that to people.

Tom Price is a great man. He has done a great public service. He has done a great job, and he will do a great job as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

I am proud to have introduced him. I am proud to know him as a friend, and I am proud that he is going to be my Secretary of Health and Human Services. America and all of her citizens will be better off because the doctor will be in the house.

I urge a vote for Tom Price and yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following my 5 minutes, the distinguished senior Senator from New Hampshire, Mrs. Shaheen, be recognized for 5 minutes; and following Mrs. Shaheen, the distinguished whip of the Republican Party, Mr. Cornyn, be recognized.

Mr. President, I come to the floor with a labor of love before the U.S. Senate. We are talking about confirmations of people for Secretary positions on the Cabinet of the new President. We are talking about all kinds of things. We are in a budget period of time. We are talking about this year having two budgets--one we are going to use early and one we are going to use late.

The truth is, since 1980, we haven't passed all 12 appropriations bills in the year but twice. In other words, in the last 37 years, we have only twice done our job that we ought to do every year. So 2 years out of 37 we did it; 35 years we did not do it.

I am joining with the distinguished Senator from New Hampshire, a great Governor of that State and now a great Member of the U.S. Senate, to propound for the third Congress in a row an idea that is so simple and so great that it works and it works for all the American people. It is called a biennial budget process. What it does is it embraces a discipline for how you budget to bring about the right solutions in terms of what you do budget.

What the biennial budget process does is it says this. We would be far better off if we had more oversight of spending, more authorization projects, and more discipline in the way we spend money we are already spending before we start appropriating more.

Therefore, in every even-numbered year, we ought to do oversight of our spending, we ought to do accountability in our spending processes, we ought to do accountability in our spending process, and we ought to do no appropriations.

In our odd-numbered years, the nonelection years, is when you appropriate. Every other year you are spending, and then every other year you are doing accountability. What that causes is the cream to rise to the top. All of a sudden in 1 year, instead of departments coming to say we don't have time to oversight, we have to authorize more, they come to you and say: Here is how we spent our money, here are the savings we have found, and here is how we want to move forward in a more efficient way.

It is a little bit like my kitchen table and my family. All the way through my 49 years of marriage, my wife and I and our kids have sat around the kitchen table, decided what our family priorities are, from our vacations to our jobs, and then we budget our money for that year so we can pay our bills, enjoy the time we had together, and end up not being broke at the of the year.

What happens when you don't do that and you are a government is you end up owing $19 trillion and don't know how to pay for it. We cannot continue to spend at the escalated rate that we are spending without more accountability on the process so I think the biennial process is the right way to go.

There is some documentation for that. The distinguished Senator from New Hampshire was a Governor of her State who had a biennial budget, but 19 of the 50 States have biennial budgets already. They work, and they work fine. They give them the luxury of doing what we don't do in Washington, they give them the luxury of having the time to study their appropriations, find savings in existing taxation before they start raising anybody's taxes or appropriating anymore.

It is a simple, disciplined way to go about the business of spending the people's money in the same way they make their determination.

I ran a pretty large company for 19 years and was in business for 35 years before I came to Congress. I know that running a business is hard, but it is not hard because it is complex; it is hard because it is tough. Prioritizing your appropriations is tough business.

Somebody has to do it, and the people who are elected to the Congress of the United States are elected to do that job.

I am proud to join Senator Shaheen on the floor today and urge all Members to vote for a biennial budget process in the Congress of the United States. I remind everyone in the room that we had this vote a few years ago as a test vote on an all-night vote-arama on the budget, and we got 72 votes, if I remember correctly, in favor of the biennial budget. We have had past Budget Committee chairmen vote in favor of the biennial budget.

We have had people from the majority and the minority vote for it. The fact is, it is a good idea whose time has come. I am pleased to join Senator Shaheen from New Hampshire and plead to the Members of the U.S. Senate to do what we ask the American people to do. Let's prioritize the way we spend our money, find savings where we can, and run a more efficient, more honest government, and a more transparent government for all.

Mr. President, I yield to the distinguished Senator from New Hampshire.

Mr. President and chairman of the Banking Committee, I appreciate the time and the recognition. As the chairman knows, I am a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and a former chairman of the African Subcommittee, and I have traveled to both of those continents for many years. I have seen resource-rich and poverty-poor countries where they have a natural resource investment and wealth, but they never reinvest in their people.

I think transparency is important in seeing to it that the resources they receive for selling those natural resources are made available to their people so that the resources go to the benefit of the people and not the government.

Are you also aware that I am not a big supporter of the Dodd-Frank disclosure bill, but I also have concerns that simply vacating the rule implementing the Lugar-Cardin amendment without providing for a replacement would create a setback for U.S. leadership in anti- corruption efforts around the world?

Because of what we have done in transparency and anti-corruption, countries like the United Kingdom, the EU, Norway, and Canada have followed our lead, and I do not want to lose that. Therefore, I wish to ask the chairman of the Banking Committee a couple of questions to ease my fears about this question.

First, I would like to direct a couple of questions to the chairman. It is my understanding that this joint resolution does not--underscore not--repeal section 1504 of Dodd-Frank law; is that correct?

I thank the chairman for that answer.

I would like his commitment to work with me and other members of the caucus who are concerned and who want to be assured that the SEC will move forward with the implementation of this replacement provision as soon as possible.

I thank the Chair.

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

Mr. President, I yield back the remainder of our time.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I want to thank my partner, Senator Perdue, for arranging this colloquy today. I want to join him in expressing sympathy to the families of those who were lost in Georgia and to the thousands and thousands of Georgians who have been injured or hurt and who lost valuable property.

My wife Dianne sends her wishes as well. This part of Georgia is very close to me. I grew up as a young boy working on a farm in Fitzgerald, GA, not far from Albany. I know what these people are like, and they are salt-of-the-earth folks. They don't deserve something like this happening, but they do deserve and they do merit everything we can do to get them aid.

I am so happy Secretary Kelly called yesterday to offer the services of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Governor Deal has done a great job of arranging the disaster area, and the Georgia emergency management people are already in place.

So my heart goes out to the injured. My heart goes out to my State. My prayers go out to the families of those who were injured and are in the hospital and those who have passed away and perished from the terrible tornadoes.

Mr. President, the Committee on Veterans' Affairs has adopted rules governing its procedures for the 115th Congress. Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 2, of the Standing Rules of the Senate, on behalf of myself and Senator Tester, I ask unanimous consent that a copy of the committee rules be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I am delighted to follow the distinguished minority leader, who is a gifted orator, a brilliant legislator, and an expert in something called disparate impact. Disparate impact is where you take two facts that are extraneous and put them together for an appearance of an irregularity or an impropriety without any fact being true.

The statements made about the CBO estimate were accurate in what he said but wrong in the implication. He is accurate that CBO did say it would cost money if we didn't have a replacement for ObamaCare, which is the replacement being worked on as we speak right here today. Both are facts, but when put together the way he put them together, it makes it look as though we are spending money that we are not, in fact, spending at all.

The CBO estimate also does not include the impact of legislative and administrative action to stabilize individual markets. In the absence of making that consideration, of course it is going to be more costly. Those are both extraneous facts that, when put together, make the appearance of a crime, which just isn't there.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about my friend, Dr. Tom Price. In a way, I am glad the minority leader brought up Representative Price and brought up specific allegations that have been made against him so I can hopefully put some light on the misperception that those allegations made and, in fact, shine some positive light on a great nominee to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.

I have known Tom Price for 30 years of my life. He and his wife Betty are dear friends. Their son Robert is the age of one of my sons. He is a fine young man. Tom is a leader in our community, a leader in the Roswell United Methodist Church, the first-ever elected Republican majority leader of the State of Georgia Senate, the chairman of the Budget Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, former president of the study committee in the House of Representatives, and an all- around terrific individual who has a litany and liturgy of recommended approvals and improvements that have made the United States of America legislatively and legally much better.

Tom is a family man. I mentioned Betty and his son Robert. He is an accomplished professional. He is an orthopedic surgeon. He and his wife Betty met during their residencies at Grady Memorial Hospital. She is an anesthesiologist. Tom is an accomplished orthopedic surgeon.

Tom is one of those orthopedists who came together with a number of other orthopedists to form what is known as Resurgens Orthopaedics, the largest orthopedic practice in the Southeastern United States--one of the finest anywhere in the country.

Tom has worked tirelessly in the Republican Party, tirelessly on the Democratic-Republican bipartisan agreements that have been made, and tirelessly on behalf of his community.

He is a fine individual and is uniquely qualified to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services. This is an agency that will spend $1 trillion of the taxpayers' money on an annual basis. You want a man who has been chairman of the Budget Committee. You want a man who understands finances. You want a former legislator who knows how to get the job done. Tom Price is that man.

In fact, I am particularly well qualified to introduce Tom to this body and recommend him as Secretary of HHS because he replaced me when I left the House when I was elected to the Senate. He has been reelected six times. He served 6\1/2\ terms in the House of Representatives, and he has an extensive legal background, an extensive legislative background, and an accomplished background of conservative leadership for the United States of America. Most importantly, he has done so on many issues dealing with medicine, and why not? He is an expert in medicine.

I know a little bit about real estate. I authored legislation on real estate. That is what you do when you are in a profession and know a little about something Congress is looking at. But the allegations made by Senator Schumer--and being echoed in some of the media and papers around town--are just another example of taking disparate impact.

I want to talk to you a little about what Senator Schumer was talking about. He was talking about the purchase of Zimmer Biomet stock, 26 shares, worth $2,674. That is what he was talking about. The two disparate facts that he put together to make a wrong were this: The purchase was made without Tom's knowledge because his account is managed by Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley. They manage his account. They make the decisions about what to buy. Tom doesn't make them. Tom found out about it and documented it on April 4, even though the purchase was made in March. He didn't even know the purchase had been made on his behalf until it was disclosed, which he did as he is required to do by the STOCK Act.

Every single fact brought up by the distinguished minority leader is a fact that is a required disclosure of the rules of the U.S. Senate to the Ethics Committee under the STOCK Act. So don't make this look like some sinister thing, and let's take it at face value. If you take it at face value, it was a purchase Tom didn't make; it was made on his behalf. It was a purchase we documented that he didn't know about until the 4th of April; the purchase was made in March. The purchase did not work to his benefit because the decision was not made by him.

He is like every other Member of the Senate and House who makes required disclosures of their activity because of the STOCK Act. Tom obeyed the law. Tom did what was right. What was done is right and is being made to look wrong only because of appearance but not because of fact. That is the wrong way to take on the consideration of any nominee of a President of the United States to be a Secretary of any part of the Cabinet.

I reiterate: Who else would be better to oversee $1 trillion in spending than Tom Price, chairman of the Budget Committee, former member of Ways and Means, an accomplished legislator who put together the largest orthopedic practice in Atlanta, GA, and the State of Georgia? He is well qualified and eminently qualified. This body should overwhelmingly confirm his nomination to be U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services in the United States of America.

I am proud as his friend, I am proud as a former associate and legislator, I am proud as the person he succeeded in the U.S. House of Representatives, and I am proud as an American citizen to know that our President has picked someone who is eminently qualified, who has an impeccable record of success in his legislative jobs, who is a fine family man, a member of his church, a disciplined member of his political party and, most importantly, a man who loves his country and is volunteering to sacrifice his time and his knowledge to make America's Department of Health and Human Services better.

Lastly, there is a little rumor going around that he is not for extending Social Security. That is ironic to me. Let me tell you what he and I did in November and December. We traveled throughout Georgia on behalf of AARP, presenting ways to save Social Security. Day in and day out, Tom Price is on the record of the State of Georgia, fighting to preserve Social Security for those who have it and for those who will get it in the future. So don't take this disparate impact of extraneous facts someone put together to try to make a wrong out of a right. Instead, look at the record of an impeccable legislator, a dedicated family man, a great American, and the next Secretary of Health and Human Services of the United States of America, Dr. Tom Price.

I commend him to every Member of this Senate and hope you will confirm him when his vote comes before the Senate.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.