Floor Statements

Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Ohio for his statement and his concerns, and I am here today to join him on the floor to oppose Chad Readler's nomination to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

I call on every Republican who said they were going to fight for families' healthcare coverage, protections for people with preexisting conditions, to prove they meant it by joining us.

I have heard my Republican colleagues claim time and again that they care about protections for people with preexisting conditions. I have heard

them say they want to tackle those skyrocketing healthcare costs. I have heard them say they want to help people get the care they need, but when push comes to shove, I have yet to see them join Democrats and actually vote to make that happen. In fact, they do have a long track record of working to move us in exactly the opposite direction.

People across the country have not forgotten how they had to speak up and stop Republicans from jamming through that awful TrumpCare bill, which would have spiked premiums and gutted Medicaid and put families back at the mercy of big insurance companies that could jack up prices for people with preexisting conditions.

Those people also will not forget if Republicans decide to ignore them again and rally around this judicial nominee, who wants to do the same damage.

Let's be clear. Chad Readler's nomination is the latest test of whether Republicans are serious about fighting for people's healthcare, and every Republican who supports him is failing yet again.

Make no mistake--Chad Readler has not only championed some of President Trump's most alarming steps, such as his travel ban, his family separation policy, his efforts to undermine protections for LGBTQ people and more; he has also been President Trump's right-hand man when it comes to undermining healthcare for people in this country.

When the Trump administration decided to abandon protections for people with preexisting conditions in court and throw its weight behind a lawsuit that would strike them down, Chad Readler signed on to the brief defending the decision. It is a brief that three other Justice Department officials refused to sign, and one even resigned over it. But Chad Readler led the Trump administration's legal argument for striking down protections for people with preexisting conditions, which will increase costs and throw healthcare for millions of people into utter chaos.

It was an argument one of my Republican colleagues, as you just heard, called ``as far-fetched as any I've ever heard.'' I agree. It is farfetched, which is why it is also farfetched for any Republican who votes to confirm Readler to continue pretending they care about protections for people with preexisting conditions or helping families get affordable healthcare.

The choice, to me, is pretty simple and straightforward. You cannot be for protections for people with preexisting conditions and for making someone who wants to strike them down a circuit judge. You cannot fight for families' healthcare and vote to empower the very people who have been leading the charge to undermine it. You can't vote for Readler and stand with those families.

People across the country are watching this vote closely. They know, despite Republicans' promises to fight for their healthcare, when it matters as it does here, when the care they need is truly on the line, Republicans have not come through for them.

I hope that changes today. I hope, instead of breaking their word and voting once more for President Trump's agenda of chaos and healthcare sabotage, they will live up to the promises and join us and people across the country and oppose Readler's nomination.

Before I wrap up, I want to talk about the larger issue here because Readler is not the only alarming judicial nominee from President Trump.

Just this week, in fact, Republicans jammed through Allison Rushing. She is an incredibly inexperienced circuit court nominee who has voiced some incredibly alarming ideological views, especially for women and the LGBTQ community.

Later this week we expect a vote on Eric Murphy. He is another nominee who has taken extreme positions on women's healthcare, from endorsing misinformation by signing on to briefs that cite false-- false--claims about women's health to standing in support of laws that were found to unconstitutionally infringe on women's reproductive rights and against laws to increase access to contraceptive care.

People across the country have been absolutely clear that they do not want to see our courts lurch to the far right. They know this is a threat. It is a threat to women. It is a threat to our workers and our families and our environment and so much more.

So Democrats are here. We are going to keep standing up and fighting back every time President Trump and Senate Republican leaders try to move us in that direction, and I hope some Republicans will do the right thing and stand with us.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that both Senator Menendez and I be permitted to speak for up to 5 minutes each prior to the roll call vote on the Desmond nomination.

Mr. President, I am delighted to join the Senator from Michigan today, to add to her comments about the replacement for now- Justice Kavanaugh after he was confirmed to the Supreme Court last year, and I want to remind my colleagues about the people who spoke up during Justice Kavanaugh's nomination and the critical issues that they spoke about.

Women stood up. They rallied. They marched. They made clear they do not want to go back to the days before the Roe v. Wade decision affirmed their right to make their own healthcare decisions.

Incredibly brave survivors, such as Dr. Ford and so many others, said they wanted to be heard and believed, not silenced.

Families across the country said they wanted a Justice who would interpret the law fairly and objectively, without partisanship--someone whose priority is the Constitution and people across the country, not President Trump and his extreme agenda.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, it is clear that President Trump and Republicans in Congress aren't listening to women or survivors or families, because the next nominee for the DC Circuit Court fails on each and every count I just listed.

As we speak, Neomi Rao is enacting the Trump agenda in her role as the head of the Agency that reviews and approves the Trump administration's changes to regulations impacting so many people in communities who stood up to oppose Justice Kavanaugh's nomination.

Under Ms. Rao's leadership, the Trump administration finalized a rule that prevents healthcare providers from even informing patients who come to title X-funded health centers about where to go to get safe-- safe--legal abortions and places new, burdensome, medically unnecessary requirements on title X-funded health centers, designed specifically to prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving these funds, meaning millions of patients may lose a source of quality, affordable, basic healthcare they trust.

Ms. Rao has helped put forward rules that would make it harder for members of the LGBTQ community and women to get the care they need by allowing providers to turn them away simply because of who they are or because they want birth control.

I also want to take a few minutes to address Ms. Rao's deeply concerning comments about rape and sexual assault. While in college, she wrote that ``a good way to avoid a potential date rape is to stay reasonably sober.''

Let's be clear. It is never a survivor's fault, ever, that someone raped or sexually assaulted them.

Ms. Rao was given an opportunity to explicitly reject those comments and failed to do so. She then sent a letter attempting to walk them back, but her actions speak louder than a letter sent during a nomination process, and her actions on this issue have been harmful.

In her role within the Trump administration, Ms. Rao has helped Secretary DeVos to roll back protections that help survivors get justice when they are sexually assaulted on campuses. In other words, at the same time that Ms. Rao claims her views have changed on sexual assault and consent, her actions are aligned with those who believe what she wrote in college. To the survivors I hear from and those who bravely spoke out against Justice Kavanaugh and so many others, Ms. Rao's actions are what matters.

Ms. Rao is also listening to corporate lobbyists instead of scientists when it comes to climate and our public health and is advancing rules that would allow more discrimination in our Nation's housing programs. Unfortunately, it seems that on many issues, where President Trump wants to do damage and hurt families, Ms. Rao is right behind him with a rubberstamp, just like Justice Kavanaugh and so many others President Trump has nominated to the bench.

We need judges who will do what workers and families expect of a judge--to interpret our laws according to the Constitution and what is best for our country, not according to politics and what is best for President Trump. That is why I am strongly opposing her nomination, and I hope all of our colleagues will join us in doing so.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, I am here joining my colleagues on the floor to sound the alarm because right now, this Senate is being steered down a very dangerous path. I spoke last night about this and laid out my case, and I am here again to make it one more time.

Republican leaders are now barreling toward a confirmation vote on a Ninth Circuit nominee--a flashpoint that, if it succeeds, will mark a massive departure from the longstanding bipartisan process that has been in place for generations. It is a bipartisan process that has helped this Senate put consensus nominees on the bench for as long as we have all been here. This is wrong, and it is the American people who we represent who will be hurt.

Let's recap the facts. Neither I nor my colleague Senator Cantwell returned a blue slip on the nomination of Eric Miller to serve on the Ninth Circuit court. I have deep concerns about Mr. Miller's work fighting against Tribes. Despite our objections, Republicans went ahead with Mr. Miller's confirmation hearing during a Senate recess when just two Senators--both Republicans--were able to attend, and the hearing included less than 5 minutes of questioning. It was a sham hearing. It was simply done to check the box.

For this Senate to go ahead and confirm this Ninth Circuit court nominee without the consent of or true input from both home State Senators and after a sham hearing--that would be a dangerous first for this Senate.

This is not a partisan issue; this is a question of this Senate's ability and commitment to properly review nominees.

The only logical conclusion I can draw as to why we are here at these crossroads is that Republican leaders are hoping that most Americans won't notice, that they are doing everything in their power to pander to President Trump and in doing that are trampling all over Senate norms in order to move our courts to the far right.

We are standing here today because this is too important and because the short- and long-term consequences of letting any President steamroll the Senate on something as critical as our judicial nominees are far too important.

Abandoning the blue-slip process and instead bending to the will of a President, by the way, who has demonstrated time and again his ignorance and disdain for the Constitution and rule of law is a mistake. At a time when we have a President whose policies keep testing the limits of the law--from a ban on Muslims entering the United States, to a family separation policy at our southern border, to declaring a national emergency without a real emergency--it is now more important than ever that we have well-qualified, consensus judges on the bench.

This new precedent of my Republican colleagues turning a blind eye to the blue slip and shunning longstanding bipartisan processes should stop every one of my colleagues, Republican or Democratic, in their tracks because today the two home State Senators left holding their blue slips are me and my colleague Senator Cantwell, but in the future, it could be any Member of this body. Today it is Washington State families who are getting cut out from an important process. It is their concerns about Eric Miller's long history of fighting against Tribal rights that will be cast aside. But tomorrow it could be the concerns of any of your constituents and any of your home States that get tossed aside for a President's crusade to reshape our courts and satisfy their political base, and it could be your constituents and your home States hurt by Senate leaders unwilling to stand up for norms and precedents and our constitutional duty.

Again, I am here today to urge my colleagues to truly think about what moving ahead with this nomination means and to ask themselves, are we still able to work together in a bipartisan way and find common ground for the good of the country and the people we serve? Can we still even engage in a bipartisan process to find consensus candidates to serve on our courts, or will our work in the Senate be reduced to partisan extremes and political gamesmanship? Will Republicans accept simply being a rubberstamp for their leader in the White House? Will my colleagues be complicit in allowing our courts to be taken over by ideology alone, abandoning pragmatism and a commitment to justice for all? That is a choice every Senator faces now and, I sincerely hope, a choice for which every Senator will be held accountable.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.

Mr. President, I am on the floor to talk about a vote that simply should not have taken place this evening. It was a vote on yet another attack from our Republican colleagues on women's health and their right to access safe, legal abortions--this time in the form of an anti-doctor, anti-woman, anti-family piece of legislation that medical experts strongly oppose. Republicans have spread a lot of misinformation about this bill, so let's be clear what it is not about and what it is actually about.

This bill is not about protecting infants, as Republicans have claimed, because that is not up for debate, and it is already the law. This bill is also not at all about ensuring that appropriate medical care is delivered, because it would make it harder for healthcare providers to provide high-quality medical care that their patients need and deserve.

The leading nonpartisan organization of OB/GYNs in our country has said this bill should never become law. It calls it ``gross legislative interference into the practice of medicine'' and ``part of a larger attempt to deny women access to safe, legal, evidence-based abortion care.'' In fact, 17 top health and medical organizations wrote to Congress to insist that Democrats and Republicans vote this bill down.

Since this bill is not about infants or appropriate medical care, I am sure many people are wondering what exactly it is about. What would this bill really mean for women and families and healthcare providers?

If you are a woman, this bill would mean, if you were one of the very, very few women who needed an abortion late in your pregnancy, you could be legally required to accept inappropriate, medically unnecessary care--care that may directly conflict with your wishes at a deeply personal, often incredibly painful moment in your life--because politicians in Washington decided their beliefs mattered more than yours.

If you are a medical provider, this bill would supersede your years of medical training and your oath to deliver the best possible medical treatment to your patients. It would apply a one-size-fits-all set of requirements that does not reflect the reality that every pregnancy is different, and it would subject you to criminal penalties if you were to choose to let medical standards, not politics, drive the care you offer to your patients.

For families who struggle with the painful reality that the children they had hoped for could not survive, as is tragically the case in many of the cases we are discussing, this legislation would take precedence over families' wishes as they grieve.

This bill is government interference in women's healthcare, in families' lives, and in medicine on steroids. As I said, it is anti- doctor, anti-woman, and anti-family. It has no place in becoming law. Its proponents claim it would make something illegal that is already illegal. So why are we debating this legislation that would take women backward when there are so many ways we should be advancing medicine, improving women's healthcare, and supporting families? As far as I can tell, it is because this bill is about something that Republicans care about more than almost any other priority; that, unfortunately, is the rolling back of women's constitutionally protected rights and trying to take us back in time before the Roe v. Wade decision.

Since day No. 1 of the Trump-Pence administration, this party has pulled every possible stop to appeal to its extreme anti-abortion base. Just last week, the Trump-Pence administration put forward a rule that would prevent healthcare providers at clinics that are funded through the title X family planning program from so much as informing patients about where to get an abortion even if that patient directly asks them for advice. This rule means trusted medical providers across the country may not be able to serve women and men who rely on them for contraception, cancer screenings, and more--all because Republicans are determined to make abortion impossible in the United States. That is just one of many examples.

To recap, this bill is completely unnecessary. It is harmful to women and families, and it would criminalize doctors. It is intended to do nothing except to help Republicans advance their goal of denying women their constitutionally protected rights. I am against it in the strongest terms. Everybody who cares about women, families, and doctors and about upholding the Constitution should be too, so I am glad the Senate voted tonight to stop this anti-doctor, anti-woman, anti-family bill from going a single step further.

The next time Republicans want to have a conversation about protecting infants and children, I am happy to talk about the babies and children who have been separated from their parents at the border or about improving access to early childhood education or about making sure coverage for maternal healthcare and preexisting conditions is not taken away. These are problems that do exist and that do need to be solved, and we are just as ready and willing to work on those as we are to stand up and say ``absolutely not'' to this harmful bill.

Mr. President, I come to the floor this afternoon to express my deep opposition to the nomination of Mr. William Barr to be our Nation's next Attorney General.

His nomination comes at a very trying time for our country. As our own President frequently twists the truth and constantly pushes the limits of the law, the American people deserve to know that the Attorney General--the top law enforcement officer in the country--is committed, above all else, to seeking truth, defending their civil and constitutional rights, administering justice on their behalf, and safeguarding our country against threats to our democracy.

I wish Mr. Barr were the person who could right the ship and stand up for the American people no matter what. I wish he were the person who could help guide our country through this critical juncture when questions about illegal payments involving both the Trump campaign and the Trump inaugural committee and Russia's interference in our elections and its attempts to influence millions of our friends and families must be fully explained to the public.

We know this is an administration that finds it so difficult to follow the law that it is being investigated in multiple jurisdictions at the Federal level--all of which would be overseen by Mr. Barr.

Sadly, it has become abundantly clear that Mr. Barr is incapable of being the impartial Attorney General people in communities across our country need and deserve and someone who stands up to the President when he is wrong.

Based on what I have seen over the past 2 years and despite the critical time we are in, I don't expect many of my Republican colleagues to join me on the floor today in order to defeat this nomination. Although people across the country have been raising red flags on this nomination, my Republican colleagues have been busy building the glidepath for Mr. Barr's nomination. In fact, just last week, the majority leader, standing here on the Senate floor, left little doubt about whether the majority would try to get this nomination sewn up. The leader referred to Mr. Barr as a ``tried and true public servant'' and a ``proven professional'' who was applying for the same job he got in 1991 under President George H. W. Bush. The job description, the majority leader said, ``remains exactly the same as it was years ago.'' But that is the problem. Senate Republicans are still operating as though it is the early 1990s, as if the world around them has not changed, as if what we have experienced for the past 2 years is normal.

Well, on behalf of the American people, I urge us all to wake up. For the past 2 years, we have had a President whose only consistent agenda items are self-preservation and self-dealing, whether that means flouting the law or disregarding ethics, acting with impunity, violating norms and destroying relationships with our allies, firing those who challenge him and bullying those he can't, threatening jail time for political opponents, or changing Federal policy by tweet and based on his current mood.

On top of all that, President Trump faces a number of investigations, including serious questions about whether he has obstructed justice in order to make the special counsel's investigation into Russia's meddling in our elections go away. That is the same special counsel investigation that has already resulted in 34 indictments or guilty pleas to date. Despite what the President would like us to believe, that is far from a witch hunt.

When President Trump's first choice to be the next Attorney General is someone with highly questionable

views on Executive power, we have to be on alert.

When that nominee, Mr. Barr, can't adequately explain why, out of the blue--out of the blue--he sent a memo to the White House in order to criticize the special counsel investigation, absolve the President of questions about obstruction of justice, and make a case for less accountability with this President, we ought to be on alert.

When Mr. Barr writes that President Trump has ``complete authority to start or stop a law enforcement proceeding,'' we ought to be on alert.

Mr. Barr's memo makes no sense unless it was an audition for this job, and that is absolutely not how any President should select an Attorney General.

When we know that, if confirmed, Mr. Barr would be in charge of the special counsel investigation and would decide what, if anything, the public gets to know about the findings on Russia's 2016 election meddling, we ought to be on alert.

Someone who has written such an obviously flawed analysis of the investigation should not be put in charge of overseeing the investigation. That is just common sense.

People across this country sent us here to Congress not to shield the President from the law but to help restore integrity and independence to the Federal Government and to provide a check on the Executive branch, as outlined in the Constitution. And the idea that any Member of this Senate would support an Attorney General nominee who has openly and unequivocally advocated for less accountability when it comes to President Trump--that is just wrong, and the American people will not stand for it.

So to any of my colleagues who plan to support this nomination, I have a message: Seize this opportunity while you can to make it very clear to Mr. Barr and the Trump administration that you believe the American people deserve to know for sure that the findings on Russia's 2016 election meddling will be made public in order to get them the answers they deserve and that any attempt to cover up or hinder or otherwise muddy the waters around the Mueller investigation would be a serious disservice to the people we represent and will only lead to the further erosion of trust in our institution and our ability to work on their behalf.

The President is not above the law--not in the White House, not in New York, not anywhere. So Mr. Barr may be the Attorney General this President wants--someone to shield him from serious questions about abuse of power, someone who believes the President should be able to do more or less whatever he or she wants--but Mr. Barr is certainly not, in my opinion, the Attorney General this country needs, which is someone who will stand up for the rights of everyone else.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, we have laws against infanticide in this country. This is a gross misinterpretation of the actual language of the bill that is being asked to be considered, and, therefore, I object.

Mr. President, the fact that the United States is debating and voting on this bill attacking women's healthcare right now is an absolute disgrace.

We are 27 days into President Trump's completely unnecessary government shutdown. Workers are not being paid. Families are huddled around their tables, wondering which bills to pay and which expenses to cut. Our national security is being impacted. Our parks are filling up with trash. Our economy is losing billions of dollars. The list goes on. It needs to end.

I urge my colleagues, vote no against this bill today that would erode women's healthcare and take away our constitutionally protected rights. Demand that Republican leaders let us vote to open the government, and then let's get back to work getting our country back on track.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.

Madam President, I come to the floor today with a number of my colleagues on the 26th day of this deeply damaging and completely unnecessary Trump shutdown. We are here today to lift up the voices and stories of the people who are being hurt by President Trump and his Senate Republican allies and to once again call on Republican leaders here in the Senate to finally allow a vote and work with us to end this manufactured crisis. While President Trump is very focused on his political game, actual people, their families, and their communities are paying the price.

People we represent--moms and dads, workers, small business owners, people who did not do anything wrong, who just want to work, do their job, serve their communities--all of them have been pulled into President Trump's chaos and dysfunction, and it needs to end.

I am very proud to kick off another effort here in the Senate by those who want to make sure that President Trump and Senate Republican leaders

don't forget whom this is about and understand who is being impacted by their refusal to act.

I want to start with a few from my home State of Washington, where there are nearly 13,000 workers who have been caught up in this Trump shutdown.

Lauren is a furloughed FAA employee who shared her story with me through my website. She told me she supports her family with one income, and now that paycheck has been frozen. She said she has been losing sleep trying to figure out how to cut her own expenses and pay her bills since the Federal Government isn't meeting its obligation to pay her.

I heard from Adam, also from my home State, who is buying his first home with his fiance. What should be a very exciting time is now filled with unnecessary stress because Federal loans through USDA and FHA are held up. As if closing a home isn't stressful enough, now they don't know when or even if a loan is going to come through. As Adam described to me, home buyers are now caught in the middle, and that is just wrong.

One Federal employee I met with while I was home last week is a scientist at one of the impacted Agencies, and he told me about the stress that he and his family have endured since the start of the shutdown, having to cover their childcare expenses and mortgage while he is not being paid--expenses that total up to $1,700 each month. Right now, he said he is able to tap into his family emergency fund to make ends meet, but he doesn't think they can hang on much longer.

I am not the only one, by the way, who is hearing from people in Washington State about how President Trump's unnecessary shutdown is impacting their lives. These stories are everywhere.

Earlier this week, the wife of a furloughed TSA employee with a 6- year-old daughter told the Seattle Times about how the shutdown has thrown her family into an economic tailspin. Their family is currently living off of money she makes from babysitting and with the help from her retired father, who has taken now a minimum-wage job to help with the family's finances. She worries how they are ever going to make it if this shutdown continues.

This is a small number of the countless stories coming out of my State and from around the country about how President Trump's reckless government shutdown is hurting real people. They are people in every one of our States in the country. They are people on every side of the border debate. They are people who heard President Trump say he would be ``proud'' to shut down the government. They are people who simply do not understand why they are being asked to bear the burden, to pay the price because President Trump and Republican leaders here in the Senate have boxed themselves into a political corner.

They are people who are getting angrier and angrier, more and more desperate with every day that goes by, who are going to make their voices heard, and we are going to make their voices heard. We are fighting by their side to end this shutdown. I am going to keep making sure they have a voice in the Senate.

I am proud to be with a number of my Democratic colleagues today. We are going to lift up their stories until President Trump and Republicans here in the Senate agree to end this crisis they started.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Democrats control the time until 12 noon, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 3 minutes each, and the Republicans control the time from 12 noon to 12:30 p.m.

Madam President, I respect the rights of the Senator. We have a number of Senators and a limited amount of time. So if he could finish quickly, we would all appreciate it. Thank you.

Madam President, we have heard from a number of our colleagues today about personal stories that are happening to real live people in their home States--people who have not received a paycheck and are facing fear about what they are going to do in the coming days.

We have a responsibility--and I think I speak on behalf of Republicans and Democrats both here. We need to open government. We have disagreements all the time in Congress over different issues. Certainly, we cannot put these people's lives at risk and leave them as pawns in our States. Open up government, and then have a discussion about the issues we disagree on.

I know the Senator from Minnesota expected to be here, but I also see on the floor the Senator from Georgia, who would like to speak. I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Georgia be allowed to speak and the Senator from Minnesota, when she returns.

Madam President, we are 26 days into President Trump's completely unnecessary government shutdown--26 days of pain and uncertainty; 26 days of missed paychecks and missed bills--26 days, the longest in our country's history.

I have heard from so many constituents in my home State of Washington who have been impacted by this shutdown. These are heart-wrenching stories of workers who do not know how much longer they can make it without a paycheck. Members of our U.S. Coast Guard--the very men and women who stand ready 24/7 to make harrowing rescues and keep our country safe--didn't get paid yesterday. They did not get paid yesterday, marking the first time ever that servicemembers have not been paid because of a shutdown.

There are small business owners who don't know when their SBA loans will come through; people who are dedicated to our national parks--our national treasures--who are in despair as they hear about trash piling up and irreparable damage being done; people waiting in lines at airports; people worried about food inspections; worried about losing their homes or their cars or their jobs. Entire families, entire communities are impacted, uncertain, and scared.

In my home State of Washington and in every State in this country, I have come to the floor time and again to share these stories, along with many of my Democratic colleagues. We have called on Republican leaders to stand with us, stand with their constituents, and schedule a vote to end the shutdown. All it would take is a vote. We know it would pass, and we can move it through the House and send it to the President.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.

Mr. President, I come to the floor this evening to urge my Republican colleagues to do the right thing and stand with us to reopen the government and end this completely unnecessary and, really, absurd crisis.

President Trump's latest government shutdown is now the longest one in American history--24 days of workers unsure of when their next paychecks will come, 24 days of economic impacts in communities all over this country, 24 days of slowdowns at our airports, 24 days of small business owners waiting on loans. Twenty-four days of trash piling up and irreparable damage being done at our national parks. Twenty-four days of dysfunction. Twenty-four days of chaos. Twenty-four days of the government simply not working at its most basic duties, not being allowed to work by its own leaders.

There have been 24 days of story after story here in the United States of America that would embarrass citizens of far less developed nations.

One woman from Seattle--she is a Federal employee and has been there 25 years--wrote that the stress of not knowing how she will manage her bills is causing her sleepless nights--nights she is worried about her credit score taking a hit if she can't pay her bills on time. She is trying to balance all of that while helping take care of her father, who is a Navy veteran suffering from a progressive neurological disease.

Another man wrote to me. He is not a Federal employee, but he and his wife own a small business frequented by people who are. He told me that the

shutdown has brought his business to a halt and that he is not sure how much longer he can make it work.

A U.S. Forest Service worker wrote to me saying that he is pretty sure he can weather the shutdown financially, but he is very scared for his coworkers who cannot, and he is worried about the deeper damage now being done to his restoration work that is supposed to be happening in the Olympic National Forest.

I know every one of my colleagues is getting letters like these, hundreds of thousands of them. They need to read some of those letters. I would challenge them and anyone who doubts the sincerity and fears so many Americans are feeling right now to sit down and hear from their constituents who are being impacted--face to face.

This past weekend, when it became clear the Senate would not get a chance to vote on reopening the government, I flew home to Washington State. I walked through security lines on my way out and thanked the men and women of TSA who are working to protect us, not knowing when they are going to get paid. When I got to the airport in Seattle, I sat down with people who had tears in their eyes, who were describing their fear over the uncertainty this Trump shutdown has caused. I talked to an air traffic controller who worked overtime during the busy holiday season and who worries about the added stress and distractions on top of an already very tough job. I heard from a Coast Guard spouse who talked about friends in a similar situation returning Christmas presents to pay bills. Story after story--workers with their families, small business owners, and many more. This is about individuals and their stories, but it is also rippling across communities.

(Mr. SULLIVAN assumed the Chair.)

This is about individuals and their stories, but it is also rippling across communities.

Right now in my home State of Washington, paychecks are frozen for nearly 13,000 workers. They are workers who are not going out and spending money at local businesses the way they usually do. They are at risk of missing their rent payment or their mortgage payment or their car payment or their phone bill or their credit card bill. They may know they will get their pay back eventually when this shutdown finally ends, but that is not going to cover late fees or interest fees, and it will not compensate them for the emotional anguish and deep uncertainty. And that is just those 13,000 workers and their families. Millions of people in my home State, like every State, are affected by work that is not happening or at risk of being cut off, such as routine inspections on Washington State ferries, an accident investigation report concerning a deadly train accident, decisionmaking on the ongoing Hanford nuclear site cleanup process, applications for Federal financial student aid, Federal food safety inspections, emergency food supplies for hungry families, and assistance for domestic violence survivors and crime victims.

The government can't even pay its bills. Just this morning, I saw the headline ``Layoffs hit two space companies.'' One of those is in my home State. Tethers Unlimited said it is going to lay off 20 percent of its employees because it hasn't been paid for its government work during this shutdown. This is absurd. This is no way for a country like ours to run. It is shameful. Once again, this has to end.

Those whom I just talked about are just a few of the stories. Those are just a few of the impacts. There are so many more--big ones, small ones, narrow ones, broad ones, from individual workers and their families who are being impacted in unique and specific ways, to entire industries and regions that are being harmed.

This is not a theoretical issue. It is not just a debate here in DC. This is very real for millions and millions of people, and that number grows with every passing day. I and other Democrats are going to keep making sure these stories aren't forgotten or pushed aside. We are glad to be joined by a growing number of Republicans who are also hearing from their constituents and who know this shutdown simply cannot be justified and cannot be explained. We are going to keep up this pressure. We are not going to stop until President Trump agrees to end this crisis or until Republican leaders in the Senate finally decide to stand up to him and work with us to end it for him.

Let me close with this final point: Although no shutdown is good, this one is particularly obscene and particularly unnecessary. Democrats and Republicans right here in this Senate voted unanimously just a few weeks ago to keep the government open without any funding for President Trump's wall, and the House voted to do the same. Whatever one thinks about using American taxpayer dollars to pay for President Trump's wall--a wall, I would remind us, he promised Mexico would pay for--there is absolutely no reason to keep this government shut down while we have that debate. All that does is hurt people and hurt communities and hurt our country for absolutely no reason at all.

President Trump and some of his Republican allies may see this as a political fight they somehow need to win, but I see this as a fight for the people we represent, for a government that functions, and for a country that we all know can do better than this.

This is about whether we send the alarming message that President Trump can make outlandish demands, throw a tantrum, not care how much instability he causes or how many people he hurts, and get away with it, or whether instead we make clear here in this Senate that his bad behavior will not be rewarded. Tantrums and dysfunctional governing are not the path to success.

I call on Republican leaders to allow a vote on the bill the House passed, allow a vote to reopen the government. That bill would pass overwhelmingly, just as it did last month.

Let's send a message to President Trump that the people who sent us here want this dysfunction to end. Let's end this Trump shutdown, and let's then get back to work to fix the problems it created. Let's get our country back on track.

Thank you.

I yield the floor.

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

I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.

Mr. President, I come to the floor on what is now day 19 of the Trump shutdown--an epic Presidential temper tantrum that forces the rest of us to, once again, plead with the President to stop hurting the American families he promised to represent. This time, it is because President Trump marched our country right into a government shutdown, paralyzing Federal Agencies and preventing them from carrying out the most basic government functions.

What does this government have to show for it? Eight hundred thousand hard-working Americans, some off the job and some still asked to come in. Their bills are mounting and no money is coming in. That includes the air traffic controllers in my home State of Washington who wrote me letters. They don't question whether they will keep showing up to do the job they love--a job that keeps the public safe--but they have no idea when they will get their next paycheck. That means stress, stress about providing for their families, stress about being able to pay their mortgages, pay for preschool, pay down post-Christmas bills. They are forced to bear the brunt of this Trump shutdown.

It is not just Federal workers. Thousands of senior citizens and individuals with disabilities are facing possible eviction as HUD scrambles to figure out how to make housing payments. Our national parks, the crown jewels of our country, are no longer adequately maintained for public use, while the small businesses right outside the parks that rely on visitors, like those outside Mount Rainier National Park in my home State of Washington, are feeling the pain and cutting back on staffing. Our farmers and our tree fruit growers are unable to get their applications processed through the shuttered Farm Service Agency. Millions of low-income families are now unsure if they will receive the help they need to put food on the table for their children in the coming weeks.

I could go on, but I don't need to. With each passing day, it is very clear just how much this Trump shutdown is hurting families in every community in every State of our country, and no prime time address or fearmongering trip to the border is going to change that reality.

To President Trump, I say: Enough with the tweets, enough with the fact-twisting. It is time to stop playing politics and finally agree to end this shutdown that you began. Stop trying to bully your way out of this mess.

To my Senate colleagues, I say: In case it is not crystal clear, ending this nightmare is not complicated. Three weeks ago, in this very spot, we passed a bill that kept the Federal Government open without funding Trump's wasteful wall, the one he promised Mexico would pay for. That bill was very simple. It was all about keeping our government open and avoiding a completely unnecessary crisis.

Democrats supported the bill. Republicans supported it. In fact, it passed unanimously because we know the people we represent have no interest in elected officials playing games with their lives and livelihoods.

Now the Democratic House has followed suit. They have passed a bill that will do the same thing. Yet that simple solution--keeping our government funded, on schedule, and without interruption--has been stopped in its tracks by President Trump, who apparently sees no problem with keeping the government shut down for months or even years, as he said, all to fulfill a shallow campaign promise that everyone knows will do nothing to truly address our broken immigration system and keep our country safe.

What we have here is a crisis of the President's own making, from top to bottom. I, for one, find it simply outrageous that instead of searching for real solutions or working with Congress in good faith, the President is dug in and demanding American taxpayers bail him out to save face.

Members of this Congress were elected to make decisions that help the American people. We were not sent here to provide cover for the President.

I urge my Republican colleagues to make it your priority to work with us to fund our government and end this completely unnecessary crisis.

This started out as a Trump shutdown, but with every day that passes that the Republican Senate will not act, Republican leaders take more and more ownership, along with every Republican Senator who supports them.

Some Republicans in the Senate are already standing up, and I commend them. They want to work with us to stand up to President Trump and to end this shutdown, and they would like the opportunity to vote to do just that, but not enough yet, and the clock is ticking.

I say this to Republican leaders: Work with us to restore certainty to the American people--from the hundreds of thousands of Federal workers who are being forced to forgo their paychecks to the small business owners, to the farmers, to the seniors and low-income families, to the air traffic controllers and all those people whose lives are being unnecessarily thrown into chaos and who deserve a fully functioning government.

The President of the United States may be throwing a tantrum and playing political games, but the people we represent and our country as a whole deserve a whole lot better.

Thank you.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to raise concerns about the unprecedented and partisan obstruction of a highly qualified nominee to a critical agency.

In this country, it is illegal to discriminate against someone in the workplace because of the traits that make them who they are--their race, religion, sex, disability, and more--and it is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's responsibility to enforce those laws and give every person the opportunity to make a living for themselves without fear of discrimination or harassment.

Right now, a single Republican Senator is threatening to derail the confirmation of Ms. Feldblum for another term on the EEOC. Ms. Feldblum has served two terms on the EEOC, where she has earned the respect of her professional colleagues on both sides of the aisle. She has strong support from Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, and she has been confirmed by this Senate twice.

When it comes to independent boards and commissions, including the EEOC, the Senate has a longstanding practice of pairing nominees--one from the majority party and one from the minority party. This is so important because it allows the minority party the opportunity to have a voice. In this case, it allows my Democratic colleagues and me to ensure that employers are held accountable for workers' rights and safety on the job. This practice is also important to bipartisanship in the Senate. Part of that longstanding practice is that the majority cannot railroad

the nomination of a well-respected and well-qualified individual chosen by the minority.

If Ms. Feldblum's nomination is blocked by this Congress, it will be an unprecedented power grab by the majority that would permanently shift the balance of power in the Senate. I hope all of my colleagues take seriously what it would mean if yet another power of the minority in the Senate was taken away. Most importantly, if one Republican Senator insists on blocking Ms. Feldblum's nomination, the work of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission--an agency workers rely on to protect their rights and safety on the job--is going to come to a grinding halt.

Over the past 2 years, we have seen a shift in this country toward acknowledging and taking action against sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace. For far too long, this epidemic of powerful men taking advantage of their subordinates, employees, or those without a voice was swept under the rug. Women and men were told to brush it off or have a sense of humor or just endure the harassment or abuse they were facing in the workplace. Many did because they knew they would be punished, retaliated against, or even fired.

After the Presidential election and the Women's March, when so many women and men around the country made their voices heard and fought back against misogyny, sexism, racism, and tilted the playing field that has favored those at the top for too long, we started to see women and men bravely come forward at a level we have never seen before to say ``no more'' and to speak out against their experiences of sexual assault and harassment in the workplace.

Because of that courage, a lot of powerful men in Hollywood, in the media, and in Congress have finally been held accountable for their actions, especially when it came to using their power to take advantage of younger or less powerful women and men.

For women and men in industries outside the spotlight--in hospitality, in technology, in farm fields, and in so many offices and workplaces around the country--there has not been the same kind of reckoning. For many of those workers, the EEOC is one of the very few places they can turn to. The EEOC is a resource for workers who need to file complaints of harassment or discrimination. It holds employers and businesses accountable for widespread discrimination and harassment.

Again, because of the objection of a single Republican Senator, it is possible now that the EEOC will be unable to conduct some of its most critical work. Here is what that means for workers in our country. The EEOC would no longer be able to bring some large cases when discrimination is part of employers' general operating standards. That often includes hiring practices, equal pay, or sexual harassment. It means workers will not be able to file complaints to stop what happened to them from happening to anyone else.

The EEOC would not be able to rule in cases where the Commission has not previously taken a position and a new policy must be created, and regional EEOC offices would not be able to hire expert witnesses in some cases, meaning that many cases would be stalled or even punted.

This is not hypothetical. Without a quorum--without a quorum--the EEOC would not have been able to participate in the 2016 case against a tire company that refused to hire women for field positions. After the EEOC intervened, that company settled with 46 women and implemented safeguards to prevent further discrimination. The EEOC also would not have been able to participate in a case against the outdoor store that discriminated against African Americans and Hispanic workers in hiring practices and retaliated against workers who stood up against unlawful practices.

Workers around the country rely on the EEOC every day to intervene when they are being harassed, discriminated against, or unfairly treated at work. Whether they are being told they must work on their day of religious observance or being told they cannot do a certain job because of their sex, the EEOC is there for them.

In this moment when sexual assault and harassment in the workplace are at the forefront of our national conversation, this is the wrong message to send to the American workers and their employees. We need to prove to the millions of women and men that we are taking the epidemic of harassment in the workplace seriously.

I have spoken to many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to make the case for confirming Ms. Feldblum before the end of this Congress. There is strong support on both sides of the aisle to get this done, with the exception of one lone Republican Senator.

I urge my colleagues across the aisle to push aside this unprecedented obstructionism, and I call on the Senate to move forward with confirming the full slate of nominees to the EEOC before this Congress ends so the Commission can continue to fulfill its duty to workers by enforcing protections and ensuring people are able to go to work and make a living without the fear of discrimination, harassment, or abuse.

I hope that as we are confirming the EEOC nominees, the Senate will also confirm Mark Pearce to another term on the National Labor Relations Board. Like the EEOC, the Senate has a long history of confirming majority and minority members to the Board in pairs. However, this year, Senate Republicans jammed through the majority members without reconfirming Mr. Pearce, allowing a minority seat to sit empty.

Mr. Pearce is extremely qualified and has a long track record of serving his country for 8 years now as a member of the Board. He has a distinguished background representing unions and workers. Right now, when the Republican Board members are rushing decisions through that chip away workers' rights, even violating ethics pledges to do so, it is clear that the Board could benefit from his knowledge and expertise and voice for workers.

As I have told my colleagues across the aisle, I will not allow the Senate to jam through any HELP Committee nominees until Mr. Pearce and Ms. Feldblum are reconfirmed to their positions on the Board and the

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the HELP Committee be discharged from further consideration of PN 1318 and the Senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following nominations: PN 1318, Executive Calendar Nos. 379 and 381; and that the Senate vote on the nominations en bloc with no intervening action or debate.

I object.