Mr. President, I want to take another opportunity to pay tribute to Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced yesterday that he will retire from active service and assume senior status at the end of July. Justice Kennedy deserves our sincere…
Mr. President, I want to take another opportunity to pay tribute to Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced yesterday that he will retire from active service and assume senior status at the end of July.
Justice Kennedy deserves our sincere thanks for his service and our congratulations on a truly remarkable career. He served our Nation on the Federal Bench for 43 years, 30 of which he spent as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
His contributions to American jurisprudence have been many. In particular, he has earned our gratitude for his steadfast defense of the vital First Amendment right to political speech.
We congratulate Justice Kennedy, his wife Mary, and their entire family on this well-earned retirement. We wish them every happiness during the additional time they will get to spend together in the years ahead.
Filling the Upcoming Supreme Court Vacancy
As I stated yesterday, the Senate stands ready to fulfill our constitutional role by offering advice and consent on President Trump's nominee to fill the vacancy that Justice Kennedy's retirement will create. The Senate will vote to confirm Justice Kennedy's successor this fall.
This is not 2016. There aren't the final months of a second-term, constitutionally lame duck Presidency with a Presidential election fast approaching. We are right in the middle of this President's very first term.
To my knowledge, nobody on either side has either suggested before yesterday that the Senate should process Supreme Court nominations only in odd-numbered years. The situation today is much like when Justice Kagan was confirmed in 2010 and when Justice Breyer was confirmed in 1994 and Justice Souter in 1990. In each case, the President was about a year and a half into his first term.
So just as on numerous other occasions, the process to confirm Justice Kennedy's successor will take place this year. As in the case of Justice Gorsuch, Senators will have the opportunity to meet with President Trump's nominee, examine his or her qualifications, and debate the nomination. I am confident Chairman Grassley will capably lead the Judiciary Committee
through the confirmation process that lies before us.
The President's nominee should be considered fairly and not subjected to personal attacks. Unfortunately, far-left special interest groups are already calling on Senate Democrats to oppose anyone--anyone--on President Trump's long list of potential nominees. The ink wasn't even dry on Justice Kennedy's resignation letter before my friend the Democratic leader seemed to echo that right here on the floor--that none of the exceptional legal minds on this list would be tolerable to him.
Think of that. These are 25 Americans from all over the country who have excelled in their professions. The idea that any of them--let alone all of them--would be automatically unacceptable is totally absurd.
Unfortunately, I am afraid this may just be a precursor of all the unfair attacks to come, both from inside and outside the Senate.
Fortunately, we have every reason to expect an outstanding selection. President Trump's judicial nominations to date have reflected a keen understanding of the vital role judges play in our constitutional order: interpreting the law fairly, applying it evenhandedly, setting aside personal preferences, and assessing what the law actually says. These traits have characterized the excellent nominees the President has sent to the Senate. I look forward to another such nomination.
Mr. President, on another matter, we hope to wrap up our consideration of the farm bill, a victory for American agriculture. All week, I have highlighted some of the ways this important legislation will support the family farmers whose harvest feeds America and supplies the world.
It is an understatement to say this bill comes at an opportune time. American farm communities need stability, and they need predictability--and they need it urgently.
The industry is filled with uncertainty. There are volatile world markets. There are persisting low commodity prices. There are natural disasters beyond their control. All of these things make it harder for our growers to go about their business. They depend on the kind of long-term certainty that this legislation will provide.
This subject is extremely important to me, as the proud senior Senator from the Commonwealth of Kentucky and as a Member who has served on the Agriculture Committee since my first day in office. Agriculture is in the bones of our State. It is a huge part of who we are. From soybeans and corn to hay and tobacco, to poultry and livestock, Kentucky agriculture encompasses a multibillion-dollar industry that supports thousands and thousands of good jobs in nearly every corner of the Commonwealth. Kentuckians know as well as anyone just how important American agriculture is, and we understand as well as anyone all of the unique challenges it faces.
That is why I am pleased to support this bill, which will bolster the safety net programs for our producers. It will also enhance infrastructure investment in rural communities on everything from local water projects to broadband internet, to helping curb the drug epidemic in rural America. And it gets Washington out of farmers' way in areas where bureaucracy is holding them back.
One such area is industrial hemp. Consumers across America buy hundreds of millions in retail products every year that contain hemp. But due to outdated Federal regulations that do not sufficiently distinguish this industrial crop from its illicit cousin, American farmers have been mostly unable to meet that demand themselves. It has left consumers with little choice but to buy imported hemp products from foreign-produced hemp.
Fortunately, this farm bill will change that. It builds on the success of the pilot program I initiated 5 years ago and will break down the major Federal barriers that prevent American farmers from fully exploring the burgeoning hemp market. When this becomes law-- subject to proper regulation and oversight--U.S. producers will no longer be barred from this legitimate U.S. market.
I am also proud of how this farm bill has come about. The chairman and ranking member, Senators Roberts and Stabenow, assembled it through an exemplary bipartisan committee process that included 73 amendments. Here on the floor, 18 more bipartisan amendments were adopted in the substitute amendment. It was my personal hope that we could have had even more amendment votes, but the Senate is a consent-based institution, and Members have the ability to object. Nevertheless, the transparent and open leadership of Chairman Roberts and Ranking Member Stabenow has been commendable.
Now the time has come to deliver. The farm bill is too important a subject to keep our farmers and their families waiting. After all, the groups charged with advocating on their behalf overwhelmingly support it. More than 500 industry groups and advocates representing agriculture, food, nutrition, hunger, forestry, conservation, faith- based and research interests have already publicly backed the Senate bill. Nearly 70 such groups had this to say in a recent letter to Congress: ``During a prolonged recession in agriculture, failure to pass a farm bill on time would undermine the financial security of America's food, fuel, crop and fiber producers.''
The Senate must not fail that test. It is time to pass the farm bill.
Tax Reform
Mr. President, on another matter, it has been a little over 6 months since this Republican Congress passed historic tax reform legislation. Already, we have seen big headlines: millions of worker bonuses, plans for thousands of new jobs, and billions of dollars being invested here in the United States; individual companies announcing billions in new American investments; small business optimism at its highest level since President Reagan's first term.
But these national headlines don't tell the whole story on their own. This week, I have discussed how tax reform is already transforming American families' kitchen-table conversations: how lower rates and larger deductions are letting them pocket more of their hard-earned money and how our new corporate tax structure has already started paving the way for higher wages.
If you pick up a local paper in almost any State, you will find yet another angle to this story. From Montana to Florida, Americans are paying less to keep the lights on. That is right. Despite warnings from our Democratic colleagues that tax reform savings would never reach consumers, utilities all across America are already making that happen.
In my home State of Kentucky, the new Tax Code led to announced rate cuts of up to 6 percent for Kentucky Utilities and Louisville Gas & Electric customers.
Just this month, Idaho Power announced a 7-percent rate cut for consumers.
In Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Edison is one of 17 utilities that is planning to deliver rate savings, thanks to the new tax law. On July 1, more than half a million customers in Philadelphia can expect their electric bills to drop by as much as 8 percent.
Help with the monthly bills, higher take-home pay, and new job opportunities because American enterprise is thriving are what tax reform means around middle-class kitchen tables. This is why Republicans passed this historic law.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.