Floor Statements

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 477, S. 3093. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Heller and Senator Cornyn may join in a colloquy with myself.

Madam President, I want to talk about my motivation for offering this unanimous consent request.

The people listening to the debate may not understand, but we have a courtesy in the Senate where we make colleagues on the other side of the aisle aware of our intent.

Before I do that, I yield the floor to Senator Durbin.

Madam President, Reserving the right to object, I first wish to acknowledge that Senator Durbin has worked hard to address the DACA issue. I don't think there is a lot of daylight between Senator Durbin and me on the need for a path to citizenship and having the DACA legislation move forward. I think there are voices trying to come together to try to come up with a just solution to a myriad of immigration issues.

However, this particular unanimous consent request is in reference to, I think, a bill that was introduced earlier today, and we have not had an opportunity to study it. I think it is another positive step in the process of maybe bridging the gap, but in the absence of being able to analyze it and reconcile it against the bill I am actively involved in that the Senator mentioned, I have to object.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Heller, Senator Cornyn, and I be allowed to enter into a colloquy.

Madam President, I was trying to explain to those who are watching this what is going on. What is going on is, we actually have a very collegial environment, where we come to the floor and ask unanimous consent on something, and if somebody doesn't object, the bill moves out of the Chamber. We don't surprise people. We inform them so they are able to come to the floor and register their objection, which is exactly what Senator Hirono did today. So you could ask yourself, why would I come down here and offer up something I knew was going to be objected to and not move forward? Because I think it is pretty important for people to understand we are making progress, and it is pretty important to keep this issue and this discussion active in the U.S. Congress because Congress needs to act.

Regardless of where you are on the Trump administration's position, it is Congress's job to set long-term clarity. It is our job to set policy that can't move based on who happens to be in the White House. It is our job to fix the immigration problem, not the President's. This is the first step, in a number of things we need to do, to fix the failed immigration system in this country and to fix what I think are legitimately some injustices going on.

I have to disagree--I think it is interesting--and I look forward to reading the measure Senator Durbin put forth for unanimous consent. In his comments, he said a part of the baseline language came from a bill I have been working on with Senator Feinstein, the Keep Families Together and Enforce the Law Act.

What we are trying to do is figure out a reasonable, fair way to keep families together, to have families prioritized so they can go before a judge and determine whether they have a legitimate asylum claim, and to move as expeditiously as possible.

So this bill--if you heard Senator Hirono, you would think it is some heartless, uncaring--I think the words were ``partisan political stunt.''

Let me just tell my colleagues briefly--and I know Senators Heller and Cornyn will speak as well--this bill has agreement on most of the provisions. We want to make absolutely certain that if the families have to be kept together while they are going through the adjudication process, that it is in proper facilities. We want to make sure that if the parents want their children with them while they are being detained--which is, on average, about 40 to 60 days before they get their case cleared--then they can.

We also want that time period to be reduced, which is why we agree that we need to add an aggregate of about 700 judges to draw the backlog down, but until the backlog gets drawn down, parents with children get to the front of the line. We want to make sure there are an adequate number of attorneys--about two and one-half to every one judge we are adding--so we don't get clogged up in the courts.

This discussion about indefinite detention is just simply patently false. We are talking about a matter of 40 to 60 days. We want to draw that backlog down even further. We want to make sure these images of people being held in tent cities never occurs. We want to make sure we have adequate family facilities while they are being detained going through a legal process.

We want to also do the one thing I heard in Senator Hirono's comments--I am not an attorney, I believe Senator Hirono is--but it is false. The fact is, there is a court order that actually prevents children from being detained

for more than 20 days. So now we have this catch-22, where you detain the parents because they crossed the border illegally. They are being detained to process their immigration case, and they happen to have children, but you can't keep children for more than 20 days, so that is why the separation is occurring.

We are not talking about eliminating the whole Flores agreement. What we are saying is, we need to have very clear language that allows us to keep these children with their parents who are being detained pending court procedures. These are not unaccompanied children who would still be subject to Flores and who would be placed in the community within about 20 days, but there are other reasons--including some of the 2,500 or so whom Senator Durbin mentioned--we may need to keep them a little bit longer.

For example, what if their parent or guardian has been convicted of human trafficking or child abuse or some other charge, and we need to make sure it is the right setting for that child to go to? We are holding the same standards for these guardians or these parents that we do for any American citizen when we are trying to determine whether that child is going to be in a safe setting. Those are the sorts of things we put into place within narrowly tailored language, which is, my understanding right now, the only sticking point.

I came to the floor today to propound this unanimous consent request so we can start having this discussion in front of the American people, and we put pressure on ourselves to solve this problem.

This is not a problem for the President to fix. It is Congress's problem for the President to fix, and then it is the administration's responsibility to act on the will of Congress.

So I am going to continue to work with people on both sides of the aisle to do everything I can to eliminate the partisanship, the polarizing rhetoric, and fix this problem for these children who deserve and must be--should be--with their parents and put them in a setting that I think is respectful and safe.

I yield the floor to Senator Heller.

Mr. President, I am here again this week to fulfill a promise I made after becoming deeply involved in a situation involving a Presbyterian minister who has been held in prison since 2016 in the country of Turkey.

I have traveled to Turkey a couple of times, and I have met Pastor Brunson. He is from an area in Western North Carolina. He is actually a part of a church affiliated with the Reverend Billy Graham. He has been a missionary in Turkey for about 20 years. In October 2016, he was incarcerated and accused of being a part of plotting the coup attempt-- an illegal act for which people who were involved should be held accountable, but he was not one of them--and, also, suspected of terrorist activities.

Back in the late winter, after almost 19 months in prison without charges, after the indictment was issued, he was concerned that the American people were going to look at this indictment and turn their back on him. I felt like I needed to be able to look him in the eye and tell him nothing could be further from the truth. So I traveled to Turkey and met with him in a prison outside of Izmir to tell him that I would continue to be his voice and that I spoke for a number of Senators who are also concerned with this. More than 70 signed onto a letter expressing their concern. This is not a partisan issue. This is about the illegal incarceration of a Presbyterian minister in a NATO ally, Turkey.

Pastor Brunson has been imprisoned 656 days, counting today. We just got word this morning that the Turkish authorities have agreed to release him on house arrest. So we are going to get him out of the situation he has been in for about 16 or 17 months, in a cell designed for 8 people that had 21 in it. Now he is at least going to be able to be under house arrest and held outside of prison.

For as long as I am in the Senate, I will come to this floor every week and advocate for Pastor Brunson and a number of other people who are detained in Turkey for what I believe are inappropriate reasons-- reasons that wouldn't keep you in jail overnight in the United States.

Under the emergency authorities that President Erdogan had, they were swept up and some have been convicted. We have a NASA scientist who also has family in Turkey. He was arrested when he was over there, apparently for being a conspirator in the coup attempt. We have State Department staff and Turkish nationals who worked with our State Department and our Embassy over there who are in prison. We have to have a watchful eye on everybody.

I am glad that the Turkish Government is moving in the right direction with Pastor Brunson, but he is still effectively detained. Now it is under house arrest. So I will continue to work for Pastor Brunson's release, but I also want to make sure that the other people who are, in my opinion, illegally and inappropriately detained in the Turkish prison system also have a voice here in the U.S. Senate.

Again, I appreciate the Turkish officials taking this step to release Pastor Brunson and to put him on house arrest, but I will guarantee that, for as long as I am a U.S. Senator and there is somebody detained in Turkey, they will have a voice here in the U.S. Senate.

I hope that by next week or in the next couple of weeks Pastor Brunson is back in the United States, and I hope I don't have a reason to come to this floor and speak on his behalf and be his voice.

Mr. President, I am proud to speak today on behalf of my friend and colleague Robert Wilkie, the nominee to be VA Secretary.

I have had the honor of working with Robert for 3 years. Sometimes, he worked for me, and other times, I worked for him. His combination of knowledge, humor, humility, and heart has endeared him to my staff and to

scores of North Carolina constituents, including many servicemembers and veterans.

Robert was born in Frankfurt, West Germany, the son of an Army artillery officer. He literally grew up on Fort Bragg, and he lived most of his early life in the Fort Bragg-Fayetteville area of North Carolina.

Robert is now an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force Reserve.

Previously, he served in the Atlantic Intelligence Command and Joint Forces Intelligence Command and the U.S. Navy.

Robert has also pursued a distinguished career in public service on the civilian side, both in the halls of the Pentagon and of Congress. Robert has served as a trusted adviser to some of our Nation's most distinguished public servants, including Robert Gates, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, and Jim Mattis.

As a congressional staffer, Robert developed excellent working relationships with committee staff, on both sides of the aisle. He is universally recognized as a team player and mentor, traits of any outstanding leader.

Frankly, given his depth of experience, I was pleasantly surprised and very proud to have Robert accept a position with a 6-month-old freshman Senator, but it was clear to me from the start that Robert was destined to serve our Nation at a higher level.

Last year, Robert received that call from the administration when he was nominated to be Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. Robert demonstrated his extraordinary skills in a short period of time, so it was no surprise to me that the administration identified him as a perfect fit to be Secretary of the VA.

When he was appointed in the acting role as VA Secretary, he quickly worked to improve morale at the VA, earning strong reviews and trust from VSOs, members of Congress, and VA staff. He also moved decisively to execute the electronic health record project, which we all know is a critical part of the VA transformation initiative.

Robert has all of the education and professional experience required of a Secretary of the VA, but perhaps what makes Robert best suited to the job is his lifelong experience as an Army brat and the personal experience as the son of a gravely wounded soldier.

He has literally lived the experience, and I know that Robert will bring his professional experience and a personal insight and intensity to the role that will serve our veterans well.

Robert has been confirmed unanimously by the Senate on two separate occasions, most recently in November 2017, by my colleagues in this current 115th Congress. Since the VA was elevated to a Cabinet-level department in 1988, there have been nine Secretaries of Veterans Affairs; Robert Wilkie will soon be the 10th.

No nominee to be VA Secretary has ever received a single recorded no vote on the Senate floor.

I look forward to supporting his confirmation, and I would encourage all of my colleagues to do the same. Put politics aside and vote in favor of this honorable and eminently qualified man to serve all of our Nations' veterans.

Thank you.

Mr. President, I thank the chair for the kind words about the nominee, Robert Wilkie, for the Veterans Health Administration.

I am here to proudly discuss his record. Actually, until about 6 months ago, he was the military affairs adviser in my office and was my adviser on the VA. He has done an extraordinary job.

He is the child of a gravely wounded veteran from the Vietnam war. He grew up on Fort Bragg. He is from Fayetteville, NC. He has done an extraordinary job in serving our office, in mentoring my staff, and in working for Senate leaders and leaders in the White House--Secretary Gates, Secretary Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, and now General Mattis.

Robert Wilkie is going to do an extraordinary job because he understands what it is like to be the son of a veteran and to be a member of the armed services himself. He serves in the Air Force to this day. He previously served in the Navy. He has attended the U.S. Army War College. He has a law degree and a keen understanding of how this governing body works. He also has great relationships with people across the political spectrum. He has worked very closely in committee work with the committee staff. He just has an extraordinary reputation. He has an extraordinary sense of history. He has a great dedication to our veterans, and he understands the intrinsic link between Active Duty and reservists and, ultimately, with veterans.

I believe that he is going to go in and move forward with the transformation and do great things for our veterans who need the help today. He will do an even more outstanding job of understanding how we can better prepare the men and women who are serving today to go into veteran status--to help them find jobs, to provide them with healthcare, to make sure they get the most out of their veterans' benefits. I know that Robert Wilkie will do an extraordinary job.

I appreciate Chairman Isakson's leadership on the committee. I think, with a strong Secretary like Robert Wilkie in Veterans Affairs, we will finally start making progress in repaying the debt that we can never fully repay to the men and women in uniform. I strongly support this vote, and I look forward to having a very strong confirmation vote this afternoon.

I thank the Presiding Officer.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I would like to acknowledge that the Senator from Pennsylvania has made a number of good points on the subject of Russia and the way we need to go with Russia.

People have asked me about what I think about Mr. Putin and whether he is trustworthy, and I tell them no. The way that I know he is misleading the public on the issues of meddling is because his lips are moving. He is not just telling the truth. Any time he talks about it, it just flies in the face of Federal investigations, oversight hearings, and classified briefings we have been involved in. I think it is an example of where Members of Congress have really come together on an issue.

Mr. President, I have 7 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority leaders.

Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate:

Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

The Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, July 19, 2018, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on the following nominations: Kathleen Laura Kraninger, of Ohio, to be Director, Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, and Kimberly A. Reed, of West Virginia, to be President of the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, July 19, 2018, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

Committee on Environment and Public Works

The Committee on Environment and Public Works is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, July 19, 2018, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on the following nominations Mary Bridget Neumayr, of Virginia, to be a Member of the Council on Environmental Quality, and John Fleming, of Louisiana, to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development.

Committee on Finance

The Committee on Finance is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, July 19, 2018, at 10:15 a.m., to conduct a hearing on the nomination of Charles P. Rettig, of California, to be Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Department of the Treasury.

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, July 19, 2018, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on following nominations: Dennis Dean Kirk, of Virginia, to be a Member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, and to be Chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board, Julia Akins Clark, of Maryland, and Andrew F. Maunz, of Ohio, both to be a Member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, and Carmen Guerricagoitia McLean, to be an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

Committee on the Judiciary

The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, July 19, 2018, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on the following nominations: Britt Cagle Grant, of Georgia, o be United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit, David James Porter, of Pennsylvania, to be United States Circuit Judge for

the Third Circuit, A. Marvin Quattlebaum, Jr., of South Carolina, and Julius Ness Richardson, of South Carolina, both to be a United States Circuit Judge for the Fourth Circuit, Roy Kalman Altman, and Rodolfo Armando Ruiz II, both to be a United States District Judge for the Southern District of Florida, and Raul M. Arias-Marxuach, to be United States District Judge for the District of Puerto Rico.

Select Committee on Intelligence

The Select Committee on Intelligence is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, July 19, 2018, at 2 p.m., to conduct a closed hearing.

Mr. President, I think last week or the week before, you were presiding when I did a speech that I promised I am going to do every week we are in session until justice is served in Turkey.

It is a speech about this man. His name is Pastor Andrew Brunson. He was arrested in Turkey in October of 2016. If you want to sum up his crime, it is for being a missionary. He has been in Turkey for about 20 years, has served the community well, has provided aid and comfort to Syrian refugees, has provided a place for people in Turkey who want to come into a Christian church to do just that. He has a small church in Izmir. You can only seat about 100 people in it, and he didn't even have that when he started his missionary work.

I should say he is from the Black Mountain area of North Carolina. He was part of the same church that Rev. Billy Graham was a part of. He went to Turkey to really pursue his passion and serve in Christ through missionary work.

In 2016, after the coup attempt, President Erdogan implemented emergency powers, and he swept up thousands of people and put them in prison. Pastor Brunson was in a Turkish prison for almost 19 months without charges--about 17 months in a cell that was designed for 8 prisoners that had 21 people in it.

I was in Turkey about 4 months ago--when I first met Pastor Brunson personally--to visit him in prison to let him know that as long as I am in the U.S. Senate, I am going to work hard for his ultimate release.

Then I went back about 6 weeks later, and I sat in a Turkish courtroom for about 12 hours, and I heard some of the most absurd charges that could ever be levied against someone to keep them in prison for what will now be going on 2 years. I told Pastor Brunson I would be back, and I will continue to be back, until justice is served.

I don't want to get into too many of the details so I will tell you he was in a courtroom today for another 5 hours. If it bore any resemblance to the time I was in the courtroom, it goes something like this: The defense gets to say nothing. They don't get to introduce witnesses to testify on his behalf. You have secret witnesses, many of them in a Turkish prison, testifying against him about things like a daughter posting a meal she had on a social media application that the Turkish authorities believe linked her to terror because they believe it is a meal certain terrorist organizations like. It also happens to be a meal that a lot of people in the Middle East like, but that was a charge that suggested he was involved in a coup attempt or conspiring with terrorists.

Having a light on in a church--by the way, in a room that doesn't have a window--that was supposedly observed by one of these secret witnesses who are in prison, saying: Well, clearly if there was a light on in this church, nothing good could have happened because it was in the middle of the night. Maybe somebody just left the light switch on, but I am still trying to figure out how they actually saw it because I have been in that room, and there is not a single window. There is no way you could have seen it from the outside.

Those are the types of charges that have been used to keep Pastor Brunson in prison since October of 2016.

Today, he was back, as I said earlier, in a hearing in a Turkish courtroom for 5 hours. At the end of the 5-hour hearing he was told that he is going to continue to be in prison until they have another hearing in October, and that hearing is scheduled for about 4 days short of 2 years that he has spent time in a Turkish prison.

He has been in prison for 649 days. He is in good spirits--as good as you can imagine for somebody who is enduring the trauma of being imprisoned, I think, unlawfully and unfairly.

His wife Norine is in Turkey. She refuses to leave because she is afraid if she leaves Turkey, Turkey will not allow her to come back into the country.

They have been separated from their three children for 2 years because they are afraid to have them come into the country and not be able to leave.

I am asking the Members of Congress to join with me to apply pressure on Turkey to have justice done. Justice is releasing Pastor Brunson and letting him come back home.

We have provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act that send a very clear message to Turkey that we are serious about this.

I have my own concerns about Turkey because they seem to be drifting away as a NATO ally and partner and more toward a position I don't quite understand. I certainly don't understand it in terms of our mutual interests as NATO allies or as economic partners.

But for right now, I want to focus on a man who has been in prison for 649 days. I want to focus on other people who worked with the Embassy who have been in prison for about the same time. I want to focus on a NASA scientist who happened to be visiting his family in Turkey--he is a Turkish American--who has been in prison for 2\1/2\ years. We have to educate the American people on a Turkey that has no resemblance today of what it was just 5 or 6 years ago.

I want to have a positive working relationship with Turkey. I want increased economic ties and increased military ties. But when you illegally imprison American citizens, no matter how important that strategic relationship is, at some point we have to question whether or not we can go further.

In the meantime, if any of you are planning on going to Turkey, I would think twice. Make sure that you don't take a picture of somebody that maybe Turkish officials think is involved in a coup, because that can sweep you up in it. Make sure that you don't eat a meal that other segments of Turkish society like, because that may make you a coup conspirator.

I hope that we solve this problem, but I will tell you that there are very few things that would ever take me away from coming to this floor and going into committee meetings and doing everything I can to put pressure on Turkey until Pastor Andrew Brunson is back in this country safe and sound with his family. Then I will

continue to work on all the other people who are being unfairly and unjustly held in Turkish prisons.

We need to have justice for Pastor Brunson. We need Turkey to be the ally that we want them to be, and we need President Erdogan to show the leadership and the compassion to bring Pastor Brunson home.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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

Mr. President, I come here in fulfillment of a promise that I made a couple of months ago to bring to the attention of the American people an injustice that is occurring in Turkey.

I am here to talk about an American pastor, Andrew Brunson. He is from a church. He is from western North Carolina. He spent 20 years in Turkey as a missionary. He started out just doing missionary work without a church. Then he built a very small church that maybe can house 100 people, in Izmir.

After the coup in 2016, Pastor Brunson was apprehended, and he has

been in prison ever since. He was imprisoned for almost 19 months without any charges. For the vast majority of that time, he was in a cell designed for 8 people that had 21 in it, without charges. Earlier this year there were charges levied against him that are just absolutely absurd. I know from firsthand experience.

After the indictment was issued, I heard through channels and through his wife Norine that Pastor Brunson was afraid that the American people were going to read this indictment, believe it, and turn their backs on him. So it was important for me to go to Turkey and let him know that is the last thing we are going to do and that I was going to bring this to the American people's attention until he was released.

I went back about a month later. I sat through a court proceeding in a Turkish courtroom for about 12 hours, and I heard some of the most absurd claims you can possibly imagine. They were charges that would not keep an American citizen or a foreign national in an American jail for the afternoon. Yet they have kept him in prison for 642 days.

This afternoon I am going to be traveling to Brussels to be a part of the NATO meeting that we have. I am going to seek to speak once again with the Turkish officials to tell them that justice needs to be served. Pastor Brunson needs to come home.

Pastor Brunson has a court date next week. It could be the last hearing, and he could be subject to a 35-year sentence. He is a little over 50 years old. So that is effectively a life sentence.

The charges are basically this. He has been a missionary. He has been providing humanitarian relief to Syrian refugees, to the Turkish people, and actually just offering and preaching the Word to those who want to hear it.

So I ask President Erdogan and the Turkish officials to please let justice be served. Let Andrew Brunson come home.

The last thing we are working on--and I hope it no longer has to be a provision in the NDAA--is that if he doesn't get released, we have to rethink our relationship with this NATO ally that has been in the NATO alliance since 1952. We have to ask ourselves about ramifications if a NATO ally will hold people illegally, imprison them, sweep them up--in a legitimate effort to tamp down an illegal coup--and hold this man hostage.

I hope I come to the floor in a couple of weeks thanking the Turkish Government, the Turkish people, and the Turkish judiciary for having justice served. The only way I believe justice will be served is when Andrew Brunson comes home. Until he does, I will come back here every week to continue to bring attention to this issue. It should be important to every American.

If any American is traveling to Turkey, right now I am not sure I would because you could have a meal, you could have a light on for a couple of hours in your hotel room. These are the types of charges that have been used as a basis for saying that this man was conspiring to plot a coup and was conspiring to support terrorist organizations-- eating a meal that looks like a meal that certain terrorist organizations like, which, incidentally, is a very popular meal in the Middle East; having a light on upstairs, in a room, incidentally, that doesn't have windows that some secret witness said could only be on because they were plotting some nefarious activity.

I thank the Members of this body--some 70 Members--who signed on to a letter expressing their concern with his illegal detention. I promise Pastor Brunson and I promise any American citizen and some of those Turkish citizens who work with the State Department that as long as I am a Senator, I will be bringing attention to this injustice until justice is served.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the provisions of rule XXII, all postcloture time on the Bennett nomination be considered expired at 2:15 p.m. tomorrow and the Senate immediately vote on the nomination; that if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate resume legislative session for a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m., Tuesday, July 10; further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. I further ask that following leader remarks, the Senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the Bennett nomination. I ask that the Senate recess from 12:30 p.m. until 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly conference meetings. Finally, I ask that all time during adjournment, leader remarks, morning business, and recess count postcloture on the Bennett nomination.

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

Mr. President, I come to talk about the farm bill and an amendment I filed along with Senators Cornyn and Heller, but I first want to thank Chairman Roberts for doing the remarkable job he does bringing people together on the Agriculture Committee. For the first 2 years I was in the Senate, beginning in 2015, I was on Agriculture, and I really enjoyed watching the way he worked trying to bridge the gaps between different interests.

In the Agriculture Committee, it is less along partisan lines and more along regional lines. So the fact that we have a farm bill before us, which I will support and I believe is good for farmers, is a testament to the leadership of Chairman Roberts and Ranking Member Stabenow.

A lot of people probably don't realize that although North Carolina is a relatively small State, with the majority of our population in urban centers, we are also one of the top 10 agriculture States. We have over 80 commodities raised in our State which contribute about $84 billion to our State in revenue. So it is a very important sector--in fact, I would argue, the most important sector.

It is absolutely important that we get the farm bill right and that we have fair treatment for all crops. Chairman Roberts is working on that, and I am going to do everything I can to help him as we work with the House Members in conference.

I want to spend the remaining part of my time talking about something that is also very important.

About 80 percent of the farm bill is dedicated to the SNAP program. We heard Senator Ernst talk about it in her comments. It is a very important program for nutritional assistance, but it is also important we implement policies that make sure it is sustainable over time and that for those who are reliant on it, we ultimately do everything we can for those who are capable to no longer rely on it. How do we do that?

Right now, there is a program for adults where, if you don't have dependents, there is an expectation about work requirements, but I believe we have to make sure we have more people looking for work, being trained for work as a requirement for getting the SNAP benefits.

There will be a lot of people who are going to talk about the heartless nature of this program, but let's talk about what is really being proposed versus what you may hear in a floor speech or in the press.

What this program is about is for people between the ages of 18 and 50 who do not have children under the age of 6. Why 6? Because at that point they are generally going to school, so daycare issues are not as great. We are not talking about people who have a health problem or someone who has a disability. They are exempted.

We are talking about adults who may have older children, who are able-bodied, and should be expected to work or do some sort of community service as a condition for getting the SNAP benefit.

There are a lot of people we think we can provide the benefit, get them to work a minimum of 20 hours a week, and ultimately maybe get them a job where they would no longer need the SNAP benefit and be free of any dependence on government to make their ends meet.

There are also people who may not have skills that can get them into a job at this point. So if you can't find a 20-hour-a-week job, you can at least perhaps get into a job training program so you have the necessary skills to make a living wage.

A couple of months ago, I was visiting a center in Charlotte, about 15 minutes out of my hometown, which has been stood up by Goodwill. It takes all comers. Anybody who wants new job skills can come to this facility. They can pursue certifications. They can do the prerequisite work there to then go to a community college or university. This program is about saying: If you don't have the skills you need today to get into that job that would free you from government assistance, then I think it is reasonable to expect that maybe 20 hours a week you go to training programs like this so you are better prepared to do it over time.

That is essentially the nature of the amendment I have filed, along with the support of Senator Cornyn and Senator Heller.

There are a couple of reasons why you want to do this. We need to make sure we can get as many people to work, No. 1, so they can be free of government assistance; and, No. 2, to make sure the economic burden on taxpayers does not become so great that, at some point, the only way we can pay for the SNAP benefit is to cut the SNAP benefit. In other words, I want to make sure these safety nets are always well-funded and always there for people who need it.

I think this amendment and an opportunity to talk about it, and potentially make progress on this farm bill, is something I am excited about. I think we can do it in a way to make sure people who genuinely need it will get it, but those who genuinely have an opportunity to free themselves from government assistance over time can do that too.

I will leave you with this. When I was 17 years old, I was supposed to go into the Air Force, and I was discharged because of an automobile accident. I had moved out of our home when I was 17. I found myself not going to college and actually not being employed. Fortunately, for me, there was a community

college or a technical school back in Nashville, TN, that I went to which gave me the job skills that, over a very short period of time, gave me a job which ultimately led to my professional career, and I guess ultimately led to me being a U.S. Senator. So I am speaking from personal experience.

If I had taken the path of maybe just looking for a program that didn't have a work requirement, didn't necessarily have the motivation to go down the path I did--there are people out there whom I think we are going to lose who could be some of the greatest business executives, plant managers, artisans, and trades men and women we have ever seen. That is why programs like this and amendments like this I think require serious consideration and hopefully the support of the Senate.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I am doing something this week I wish I didn't have to do. As a matter of fact, for the past several weeks I wish I didn't have to do this, but I have to draw attention to something that is very important to me and should be important to everybody in the United States and every person on Capitol Hill. It is about a man who has been held in prison in Turkey for 628 days, most of that time without charges, in a cell that was designed for 8 people that had 21 people in it. This man's name is Pastor Brunson. He is a Presbyterian minister who has spent most of the last 20 years doing missionary work in Turkey, sometimes going into Syria, visiting Syrian refugee camps in Turkey, living in and around the Izmir area.

In October of 2016, after the coup attempt, President Erdogan started sweeping up thousands of people, including people who were doing nothing but trying to bring the Word to those who wanted to hear it--in this case, in the country of Turkey. He was actually accused of being a part of plotting the coup attempt. He subsequently has been accused of plotting terrorist activities against the people and the Government of Turkey.

We have been working on this case for well over a year. We treated it like constituent work. We were doing everything we were supposed to do, working with the State Department, working with the various agencies, reaching out to the country team to ask: Why can't we get this pastor free? Why is he being held without charges? How could a Presbyterian missionary--how could he possibly be considered a terrorist or a coup plotter?

About 4 months ago, I was in a meeting, and I overheard--this is about the time he was indicted, about 17 months of being held without charges. I heard he was afraid that after the indictment was released, the American people would believe the indictment and just turn their backs on him and forget him.

So it was important for me to go to Turkey. I requested a visa to get to Turkey. I went to the Turkish prison, and I told Pastor Brunson that is the last thing that is going to happen. I told him he had my personal commitment and that I knew I had the backing of the majority of the Members of the Senate and almost 200 Members of the House now who believe Pastor Brunson needs to be set free. It was important to tell him that face-to-face.

About a month later, I went to his first court hearing. It was absurd. I spent about 12 hours in a Turkish courtroom hearing some of the most extraordinary--almost comedic--allegations against Pastor Brunson. Every week I vary the presentation of the allegations because there are so many you can't cover them in any one reasonable length of floor speech. So this week's absurd allegation is this notion that the Turkish prosecutors believe all the Christian religions in the United States are actually somehow woven together as some sort of intelligence-gathering, coup-plotting, terrorist-plotting network throughout the world to collect information and use it to the detriment of a sovereign nation like Turkey. That is the sort of--so he is an operative. He is a man who actually comes from Black Mountain, who is affiliated with the same church as Rev. Billy Graham, and has been, for 20 years, plotting the overthrow of the Turkish Government.

Now, keep in mind, it is only a concept. He hasn't been charged with any specific activity. There is no witness

attesting to some specific thing that he did, but because he is a Christian, because he is a missionary, and because he has been in Turkey for 20 years, he has to be a part of this organization. Therefore, we are going to put him in prison for 628 days. That is what we are dealing with.

Now, when we started down this path, I spoke with a lot of Turkish officials. What I heard from them is, well, justice has to take its course. We have an independent judiciary; justice has to take its course. Then, not too long ago, President Erdogan, who was just recently reelected President for, I believe, another 5-year term, had the audacity to say: ``We will give you your pastor if you give us our pastor.''

Well, it turns out there is someone here in the United States who was previously an ally of President Erdogan. They had a falling out, and he is a part of a movement that wants to see change in Turkey. He is a man of faith--a man of Muslim faith.

The President transformed what I believe started out being a situation of let's just let the independent judiciary take its course-- they transformed what was an illegal detainment, lengthy detainment of a Presbyterian pastor into what I believe is a hostage swap.

The President said this. If the President could actually make this offer, then, clearly, he is not constrained by a judiciary outcome like we are in the United States.

So the day President Erdogan said this, that was the day we could clearly say Pastor Brunson is being held as a political hostage, and the President--President Erdogan--has the power to end it.

I do this speech every week, and I will do it every week for as long as Pastor Brunson is in prison. Every once in a while my mother or my wife will see a videotape of this speech, and they always say: Why do you act like you get so angry toward the end of it? Because I am. I am angry for a lot of reasons. One of them is that they are a NATO ally.

Since 1952, Turkey has been a member of the NATO Alliance. At the most profound level, that means that if Turkey is attacked by another Nation and their safety, security, and freedom is at risk, then the United States has an obligation to submit our men and women in uniform to the country of Turkey to potentially lay down and die in defense of their freedom. That is what we call a partnership. Now, for the first time in the history of NATO alliance, they are holding an American hostage.

So, on the one hand, in the Armed Services Committee where we spend a lot of time focusing on our alliances, a lot of time training with various countries--and Turkey is one I would like to have a great relationship with--but they are holding a North Carolinian hostage. They are subjecting him to a kangaroo court, and they think it is OK. For the first time in the history of an alliance, for a NATO alliance partner to behave this way is unacceptable.

So we have taken all the steps we could diplomatically, and it hasn't worked to this point. Now we have to take additional steps, and one of those steps is to put a provision in the national defense authorization bill that asks certain questions about the long-term nature of our relationship with Turkey. Turkey is a very important ally in the Middle East. I hope that someday I come down to the floor gushing over all the great relationships we have. We have many. Their work in Afghanistan is important. Their work and fighting in Syria is important. But what is more important than anything is the freedom of a man who is held in prison and respect for a fellow NATO ally.

So we have put a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that asks certain questions, like, does Turkey have somebody illegally detained, yes or no? And our President can certify one way or the other. Does the fact that Turkey is considering the acquisition of the S-400 missile system from Russia, which comes with it a lot of intelligence gathering and other tools that could put the safety and security of the Air Force base that we have in Turkey and the manufacturing operations for the Joint Strike Fighter in Turkey at risk--certify one way or the other.

Incidentally, because we rely on Turkey for the supply chain for the Joint Strike Fighter and if that supply chain were to shut down, if Turkey continued to drift further away as a NATO ally--does it make sense to have the entire manufacturing supply chain of the Joint Strike Fighter dependent on a country that is drifting away from the nations that are members of NATO?

Those are simple provisions. We are asking the President of the United States to certify one way or the other. If he can't certify it, then we have to really start questioning just how much further we can go with a country that is holding an American citizen, with a country that is considering a would-be adversary's missile defense system, and with a country that is a critical link in the supply chain for the Joint Strike Fighter.

We will be going into conference fairly soon on the national defense authorization. I am asking all of my colleagues--the 70 who signed on to a letter expressing their concern with the detainment of Pastor Brunson--to stick with us to make sure that provision makes it out of conference and that we hold Turkey accountable.

It is within President Erdogan's power to end this now. I would love to come back to the floor next week and not be talking about the illegal detainment but talking about a freed man and an improving relationship with Turkey.

My last message is to the Turkish people. This is not about the Turkish people. They are wonderful people. I have traveled to Turkey several times in various official capacities. They are wonderful people who love freedom and want freedom just like we have in the United States. This is about an administration that needs to understand what it means to be a NATO ally. It is about an administration that needs to understand what a real, independent judiciary looks like. It is about an administration that needs to be put on notice until they take the positive step in that direction.

Madam President, thank you very much. I hope I don't have to come to the floor next week when you are presiding and present this same speech, but I promise you, as long as I am a Senator and Pastor Brunson is in prison, I will be back.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, I have, sadly, had to do this speech once a week for the past couple of months. So I am back again to draw attention to what I think is one of the saddest moments in the great relationship and history that we have had with the country of Turkey.

For 622 days, counting today, we have had an American who spent 20 years as a missionary--a Presbyterian minister--in Turkey in prison. For about 19 of the months he was in prison, he was held without charges. A couple of months ago, he was finally charged and indicted, and he was indicted on some of the most absurd charges you could possibly hear. He was indicted with evidence that wouldn't keep somebody in jail overnight in the United States.

The person I am talking about is Andrew Brunson. Andrew Brunson is a little over 50 years old. He was imprisoned in October of 2016. Since then, he has spent nearly 17 months in a prison cell that was designed for 8 people and had 21 people in it. He has lost 50 pounds. He is keeping good spirits, but you can tell his mental state has diminished. The reason I know that is because I went to visit him.

After the indictment was laid out back in April, I heard through his family that he thought the American people and the Congress were going to read the indictment and believe it and turn their backs on him, so I thought it was personally important for me to go to that prison in Turkey and look him straight in the eye and tell him that he has the U.S. Congress behind him. In fact, some 70 Senators signed on to a letter expressing their concern, and I appreciate their support, including almost 150 Members of the House.

I wanted to tell him that as long as I am a U.S. Senator, we will never forget him, and we will never stop until he gets released.

Now, some people say: Well, what on Earth was Pastor Brunson doing in Turkey? Well, he was providing missionary work. He was actually providing aid and comfort to Syrian refugees who had to flee Syria into Turkey. He has actually provided food.

He has a very small church in Izmir that some of the charges of the Turkish court--and, by the way, after the prison visit, I went back to Turkey, and I spent 12 hours in a Turkish courtroom hearing the allegations myself.

They charged that this was a hotbed for terrorist plotting; that this was where Pastor Brunson tried to conspire with others to facilitate the coup--an illegal coup I completely disagree with--a couple of years ago.

We actually even had one witness say he had to have been involved in some nefarious activity because one night, in the middle of the night, they saw a light on for 4 hours--that was the charge--and, therefore, there must have been something bad going on. Well, No. 1, just because somebody's light is on doesn't necessarily mean they are doing something bad, but what makes it even more remarkable is the room they are talking about is a room I visited when I was in Izmir. It doesn't have a window. There was no way anybody could have possibly observed it. So this witness, who is in prison himself, testifies to the fact that a light was on, and therefore Pastor Brunson is a potential terrorist or a coup plotter. I am not exaggerating that charge. As a matter of fact, there is another charge that because his daughter posted a picture of a meal she was enjoying on social media, and it turns out that meal had been identified--a very common meal in Turkey-- at some bust of a suspected terrorist organization, the fact that she ate the same food, a common dish in the Middle East and in Turkey, they must also somehow be associated with plotting terrorist actions. These are the nature of charges that have kept this man in jail for, as I said earlier, 822 days.

Now, when I talk to the Turkish officials, some of the senior leaders there--and I worked with the State Department--particularly when I talk to the Turkish officials, they say: Well, we have a judicial process that we must run through, so justice must take its course. Well, how do you square that with the President of Turkey who suggests that if we are prepared to trade a pastor who has been in Turkey for 20 years for a religious leader in the United States who is legally present--that we have told the Turkish Government, the Turkish authorities, that if they can produce a valid extradition case that lives up to the standards of the U.S. extradition system, then we will extradite him, but they are not willing to do that.

So on the one hand they say we have to have the legal process take its course, but on the other hand, the President of Turkey, President Erdogan, says, well, we will do a trade. So which one is it? The day that the Turkish President made this comment, I believe Pastor Brunson can be legally classified as a political hostage.

What makes this all the more frustrating for me is that Turkey is a NATO ally. Most people know about NATO, but let me tell you the profound nature of the alliance once you are a member of NATO. When you are a member of NATO, you as a country agree that you will come together and deploy your men and women on foreign soil to protect the sovereignty of that nation. So if Turkey were to be attacked by an aggressor, the United States has a treaty obligation to deploy, put our men and women in harm's way to defend the Turkish people and the Turkish regime.

Yet, I have, for the first time in the history of the alliance--and Turkey has been in the alliance since 1952--I have a political hostage, someone being held unlawfully in a country where I have an obligation to put American men and women in uniform at risk.

What is wrong with that picture? Well, there is a lot wrong with it, not the least of which, it has never happened in the history of the alliance. No NATO partner has ever treated another NATO ally this way. That is why we have to continue to cast light on this unlawful detention, this kangaroo court, and we have to take every step necessary to make Turkey understand that we are not going to give up.

One of the things we are doing to make sure of that is we put a provision in the national defense authorization that asks some serious questions about the nature of our relationship with Turkey and whether we should really continue that commitment that we make to our NATO alliance.

Acquiring Russian missile defense systems. For the first time ever in the history of the NATO alliance, we are going to have an ally that has a potential missile defense system that comes from a would-be adversary? A Joint Strike Fighter manufacturing supply chain that relies heavily on Turkey for our F-35? If Turkey is going to behave this way and they are not going to treat us with the respect I think you should treat another NATO ally, then we have to really rethink the relationship with Turkey.

So I hope next week is the first week I don't have to do this speech. I hope next week is the week that we announce Pastor Brunson is going to be released. But as long as Pastor Brunson is in prison, I guarantee you I will be here and I will find everything I can do as a U.S. Senator to make Turkey accountable for the unlawful detention of Pastor Brunson.

I thank all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle--70 of them-- who agree with me, who agree that Pastor Brunson should be set free.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.