Floor Statements

Mr. President, the Nation watched the President's outstanding Supreme Court nominee last week, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, testify before the Judiciary Committee.

They saw Chairman Grassley guide the committee with gracious, strong leadership and an incredible amount of patience. The chairman deserves our gratitude, as do all of the committee staff, whose hard work and dedication made it possible for Senators to thoroughly examine Judge Kavanaugh and review more pages of documents pertaining to his career than were produced for the last five Supreme Court nominees combined.

The American people also saw an extensive extremely impressive nominee. Judge Kavanaugh was candid and forthcoming, within the ethical constraints that exist for judicial nominees. He demonstrated the intellectual brilliance and thoughtful temperament for which he is so widely known. He showed exactly why he is universally acknowledged as a leading legal mind and exactly why he will make a phenomenal Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

Unfortunately, not everyone performed as admirably or as professionally last week. Some of our Democratic colleagues repeatedly interrupted Chairman Grassley, behaved rudely toward the nominee, and hauled out one dishonest partisan attack after another to try to distort his record and smear Judge Kavanaugh.

Now, this is a nominee who Lisa Blatt, a prominent litigator and self-described liberal Democrat, testified as ``unquestionably qualified by his extraordinary intellect, experience, and temperament.''

This is a nominee who prominent liberal law professor Akhil Amar praised as ``studious and open-minded.'' This left-leaning academic described Judge Kavanaugh's nomination as ``President Trump's finest hour.''

This is a nominee whose record and reputation have revealed Democrats' partisan attacks to be futile and silly and dishonest. At this point, dishonest attacks and half-truths are all that is left for our colleagues who made up their minds long ago that they were going to oppose Judge Kavanaugh no matter what--no matter what.

You don't need to take my word for this. The Washington Post's Fact Checker called out one of our Democratic colleagues and assigned her shameless misrepresentation of Judge Kavanaugh's testimony four Pinocchios--the strongest condemnation. This particular Senator cherry- picked from a sentence where Judge Kavanaugh was paraphrasing one side's argument in a case that came before him, stripped his description of its content, and held up the party's position in that case as though it was Judge Kavanaugh's own personal opinion.

But by trying to slime Judge Kavanaugh, the Democrats are only underscoring one of his most impressive skills--his widely acclaimed talent for thinking through all parties' perspectives and engaging fairly with the full range of views, regardless of his personal beliefs.

This and all other specious attacks that were trotted out said absolutely nothing about Judge Kavanaugh's actual record. They said a great deal about the Senators who were willing to resort to them in order to appease the far-left special interests, but I suspect that everyone who listened fairly to Judge Kavanaugh and the other witnesses came away seriously impressed with his qualifications for the Court, and I look forward to voting to confirm him here on the Senate floor in the coming weeks.

Mr. President, on another matter, later this afternoon, the Senate will vote to advance the nomination of Charles Rettig to serve as Commissioner of the IRS. Mr.

Rettig's nomination comes at a crucial time, as the Federal Government continues to implement once-in-a-generation tax reform.

Recent memory reminds us just how important it is that all Americans get a fair shake from the agency that oversees the Tax Code. This historic new law makes it all the more important that the IRS continue to modernize and improve its technological infrastructure.

So I look forward to this nominee's getting to work on behalf of the American taxpayers.

Mr. President, we will then turn back to appropriations. This week we will vote to approve the conference report that will fund energy and water, military construction and the VA, and the legislative branch.

This week's bills contain $147 billion for projects ranging from waterways infrastructure to military family housing, to nuclear security and much more. This legislation equips the Army Corps of Engineers to carry out harbor maintenance, inland waterways restoration, and critical flood damage reduction efforts. It enables the Department of Energy to support groundbreaking research in computing systems and energy efficiency and to step up the security of our Nation's nuclear arsenal.

The Military Construction and VA title funds overdue maintenance to operational facilities, as well as nearly $2 billion in support for military family and personnel housing, and it expands resources for in- house VA medical services and broadens community options for veterans seeking vital treatment through funding of the VA MISSION Act.

These are national priorities with local impacts that will be felt in every one of our States.

In my home State of Kentucky, hundreds of millions of dollars will go toward training facilities at Fort Campbell and Fort Knox, infrastructure improvements in Appalachia, and environmental cleanup efforts in Paducah.

I know all Senators can tell similar stories for their own States. So we are looking forward to taking another step forward on regular appropriations and passing this conference report this week.

I want to thank Chairman Shelby and Senator Leahy for all they have done to keep this process going forward.

Thanks also to the subcommittee chairmen, Senator Boozman and Senator Daines; Senator Alexander, who chaired the conference; and all of my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee.

So let's pass this legislation and keep making progress together.

Mr. President, on one final matter, the pain that opioid addiction and drug abuse has inflicted on families across America is almost unfathomable. Every day, 115 more American lives are lost to overdose. Synthetic opioid deaths nationwide skyrocketed six- fold from 2014 to last year alone.

Sadly, the Commonwealth of Kentucky is all too familiar with these statistics. More than 1,500 Kentuckians died from a drug overdose in 2017, and Kentucky has ranked among the top 10 States for opioid fatalities for several years.

The tragic medical trends are only one of the ways this crisis is crippling communities all across our country. These drugs eat away at economic opportunities, they erode our labor market, and they make it even harder for distressed communities to get back on their feet.

So this is nothing short of a national emergency, and that is why Congress has already passed major legislation to address it, and very soon we will take significant new action by passing the legislation that has been shepherded by Senator Alexander and his committee colleagues. This landmark package combines work from 5 different committees and 70 different Senators.

I am proud that two of my bills are included--the CAREER Act, to help individuals in recovery transition back into the workforce and access housing services, and a second provision that will step up accountability on Federal efforts to combat addiction among pregnant mothers.

These are just two pieces of this comprehensive package.

It will cut the supply of illegal drugs that pour over our borders, make it easier for communities to invest in recovery efforts, extend a helping hand to families and caregivers, and provide for the longer term medical innovation we need to put this crisis in the rearview mirror.

I am pleased to have played a part in developing this landmark response.

I am grateful to Chairman Alexander and his colleagues, and I will be proud to vote for this legislation very soon.

Mr. President, on one final matter, it has been a rough week for our Democratic colleagues who claim that the Republican policy agenda wouldn't lay a good foundation for a strong economy, but it has been a great week for America's workers and middle-class families.

The evidence keeps piling up. Tax reform and regulatory reform have helped create the conditions for one of the best economic moments the American people have seen in recent memory, and some measures are at their best levels in decades.

Here is just a small sample:

``U.S. job growth accelerated in August and wages notched their largest annual increase in more than nine years.''

Another headline reads: ``Job openings hit record high.''

Another: ``Small business optimism surges to highest level ever.''

This economy is literally flying through all-time records faster than I can come to the floor and discuss them. Many of these numbers are unprecedented. They are exactly the opposite of what some gloom-and- doom Democrats insisted would happen if this unified Republican government put our opportunity agenda into effect.

Fortunately, my Republican colleagues and I know that getting Washington, DC, out of the way helps make good things happen for the American people, and that is exactly what we will continue to do.

Mr. President, I ask that the Chair lay before the Senate the conference report to accompany H.R. 5895.

Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk for the conference report.

I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call be waived.

Mr. President, I thank my friend from Mississippi. I will be brief.

For the information of our colleagues, these will be the only rollcall votes during this week's session.

Mr. President, I would like to take a moment to celebrate one of the great public educational resources in my home State of Kentucky. This month, we mark the 50th anniversary of Kentucky Educational Television, KET, which has provided a vital service to the Commonwealth. It is my privilege to take a look back at the distinguished history of this organization and its impact on Kentucky families.

When KET officially signed on the air in 1968 under the leadership of its founding director, University of Kentucky professor O. Leonard Press, it did so during school hours on the second largest land-based network in the world. Its first instructional program was ``Kentucky is My Land,'' which directly addressed KET's mission to deliver quality educational programming for all levels and to explore the beauty and heritage of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. That original goal has animated the remarkable educational and public affairs programming of this network for half a century.

During its first decade on the air, KET continued to expand and provide important services to its viewers, which included the debut of consequential Kentucky journalists such as Al Smith and KET's first nationally distributed instructional series, ``Universe & I.'' In addition, the network began its televised coverage of the proceedings of the Kentucky General Assembly, providing unprecedented access and public transparency to our State's legislature and a valuable civic education to our citizens.

As an affiliate of the Public Broadcasting Service, PBS, KET also brings nationally treasured programs into the homes of thousands of Kentuckians. Programs such as Julia Child's ``The French Chef,'' ``Masterpiece Theatre,'' and many of Ken Burns's historical documentary series have made an indelible impact on our country. As KET has grown, it has expanded its programming around the clock to provide educational opportunities to Kentuckians 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Throughout the years, KET has also grown its public affairs content, delivering news of the day and critical information to viewers. Staffed with top-notch journalists and featuring interviews with well-known Kentuckians, these programs are an important part of the network's overall mission. Throughout my career, I have enjoyed both viewing and periodically joining these programs to discuss vital issues to the future of Kentucky.

Keeping faith with its educational goals, the network has developed important partnerships with educational institutions and universities in Kentucky. In fact, Morehead State University began offering KET distance learning courses for dual credit, and the KET Fast Forward program has excelled as a learning system for GED test preparation.

I commend KET's 50 years of award-winning service to my home State. It is my privilege to congratulate the network on its success, and I look forward to many more years of quality programming in our Commonwealth. I urge my Senate colleagues to join me in celebrating KET's exemplary work.

Mr. President, on behalf of myself and the distinguished Democratic leader, Mr. Schumer, I send to the desk a resolution on documentary production by the Select Committee on Intelligence, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. President, the Select Committee on Intelligence has received a request from the Department of Justice in a pending criminal case against Paul J. Manafort, Jr., for a copy of a transcript of an interview that the Committee staff conducted of a witness named W. Samuel Patten in January 2018.

In response to this request, this resolution would authorize the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, acting jointly, to provide a copy of the interview transcript, under appropriate security procedures, to the prosecution, which intends to share it with the defense under a protective order entered in the case.

Madam President, day 2 of Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings proved to be a marathon session. For 13 hours, Judge Kavanaugh was grilled by our colleagues on the Judiciary Committee. Through that testing, the Senate got to see exactly why the American Bar Association deemed this nominee to be unanimously ``well qualified,'' which is the highest possible rating, a distinction that many of our Democratic colleagues in the past called the gold standard.

We saw precisely why he has earned such praise from accomplished legal figures, like Lisa Blatt, a self-described liberal and a leading Supreme Court litigator who proudly introduced Judge Kavanaugh before the committee; and Neal Katyal, the Obama administration's Solicitor General who said: ``It's very hard for anyone who's worked with Judge Kavanaugh, appeared before him, to frankly say a bad word about him.''

Judge Kavanaugh was patient and professional. His answers showed total command of everything, from the fine details of case law to the principles upon which our Founders built the Constitution.

In July, one of Judge Kavanaugh's former Yale Law School professors explained that he is ``an avid consumer of legal scholarship. He reads and learns.''

It certainly shows. Judge Kavanaugh's widely acclaimed temperament was on full display. He gave thoughtful, expansive answers, while also respecting the independence of the judiciary. Even as some of our Democratic colleagues seemed to forget--seemed to forget--that we are examining a potential Supreme Court Justice and not interviewing a superlegislator who will be writing his own policy preferences into law, Judge Kavanaugh remained very gracious and spoke at length about his past jurisprudence and his understanding of the role judges play in our Republic.

It was striking to contrast Judge Kavanaugh's poise, on the one hand, and professionalism with the continued unhinged--literally, unhinged-- antics of the far left, which once again resorted to yelling and screaming and interrupting the hearing with nonsensical protests. The Capitol Police deserves all of our gratitude for keeping order, as does Chairman Grassley for keeping the proceedings moving smoothly.

Perhaps it is finally dawning on the far left that Judge Kavanaugh is an impressive, mainstream, and brilliant nominee who almost any objective observer would agree is more than qualified to serve on the Supreme Court. Maybe that is why they are resorting to futile attempts to disrupt the proceedings. Maybe that is why no fewer than 66 individuals were removed from the hearing room for interruptions.

I will be perfectly clear about this. Hysterical stunts are not going to stop the U.S. Senate from completing its business. There is no heckler's veto here. I look forward to more excellent testimony from Judge Kavanaugh today.

Madam President, I want to say a few words about a loyal and valuable public servant as he reaches a remarkable milestone. Over the past 50 years, Members of Congress have come and gone, but all the while, Dr. Walter Oleszek has been on hand at the Library of Congress to answer Members' and staff's toughest questions about the inner workings of American government.

Walter arrived in Washington in the summer of 1968 from Upstate New York. He signed on with the Legislative Reference Service, now the Congressional Research Service, and has been serving ever since.

Over five decades, Walter has grown into an institution unto himself. He is not only the longest serving CRS team member but also a dedicated and integral part of its operations, while also finding time to teach and lecture on the side.

Alan Frumin, the former Senate Parliamentarian, was actually one of Walter's students at Colgate University years ago. According to Alan, ``If there's anything about Congress that Walter does not know, then that thing doesn't exist.'' In my experience around here, the Parliamentarian is usually the smartest one in the room. So that is especially high praise, and Walter has earned it.

Today, on behalf of the Senate, I want to thank this scholar, author, internationally sought adviser, and dedicated steward of the U.S. Congress. We congratulate him on his career thus far and look forward to continuing to work alongside him.

Madam President, pursuant to the order of August 28, at 1:45 p.m. today, the Senate will proceed to executive session to consider Calendar Nos. 693, 731, 778, 779, 782, 838, 839, and 893, as under the previous order.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 1013.