John Cornyn

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, Members of Congress are making their way back to the Nation's Capital after celebrating Thanksgiving with folks at home, with their friends and their families. To me, this holiday offered a little bit of respite and time for reflection--a time to pause with our families and to think about what we have to be grateful for. This year, I am particularly thankful for the organizations I met with when I was home in Texas that donated a lot of their most valuable resource--their time. Thousands took time out of their family celebrations to provide meals and assistance to those less fortunate. I had the opportunity to join the ranks of some of my other volunteers, like Mayor Steve Adler of Austin, with whom I served meals at the H-E-B Feast of Sharing in Austin. I also donned an apron and gloves to help prepare turkey for the annual Raul Jimenez Thanksgiving Dinner in San Antonio, where more than 50 companies and 4,000 volunteers partnered to cook and serve meals. In 1979, Raul Jimenez, who is famous in San Antonio for his contributions there and has now left us, started this dinner with the goal of feeding 100 of San Antonio's elderly families and those less fortunate. Thirty-nine years later, his daughter and grandson, Raul Jimenez III, carry on this tradition and serve meals to feed 25,000 hungry San Antonians. During the holiday season, we all have a chance to express our gratitude by extending a helping hand, providing a meal, or maybe simply offering words of encouragement. I was grateful I was able to join with some of the remarkable and selfless volunteers doing just that when I was back home. I want to make sure we bring that same attitude back to Congress, where I have the privilege of representing 28 million of my fellow Texans--not only the attitude of gratitude for the great privilege of living in a country such as ours but also feeling the weight of responsibility to actually produce results for them. My discussions with my constituents when I was back home ran the gamut of possible topics, but what I keep hearing is that they feel as if they are doing much better economically. They see an economy that has been invigorated, and, yes, they have a little bit more money in their pockets to spend on holiday gifts. When I enter the beltway in Washington, I don't read a whole lot about how well people are doing, the confidence and enthusiasm they have in their station in life and their prospects for the future. Mainly what we see on cable TV and on social media is how Congress is fraught with divisiveness and burdened by partisan politics that paralyzes us from getting anything done. We see this narrative splashed across headlines and picked apart on cable news shows. When I go back home, I find that most of my constituents aren't particularly concerned with who is up and who is down in the purely partisan politics they see going on in the Nation's Capital. They are concerned about making their lives and their families' lives better, putting food on the table, and enjoying the fruits of their labor. They want to see their elected officials likewise doing the same and solving the real issues that affect their lives. I think it is important to reflect on what this Senate and this Congress have been able to do over the last 2 years under this new administration. I think our record is pretty clear, and, of course, Americans responded by giving us an even greater majority--the Republican leadership in the Senate--next Congress. In the last 2 years, we promoted policies to foster economic growth and job creation and opportunities for all Americans regardless of their station in life. By doing that, we made historic gains, and I want to mention a few of those now. Let's start with the Tax Code--the first time in 31 years the Tax Code has been tackled and reformed. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act lowered tax rates across the board for every tax bracket, doubled the child tax credit, and helped American businesses become more competitive in the global economy. The savings created by these reforms have been real for Americans across the country. They mean an extra tank of gas each month, more food on the table, or a month's worth of rent. For parents, they mean that textbooks for their kids and school supplies are well within financial reach and saving a little bit more for that college education is now possible. Robert from Wylie, TX, wrote me recently to say that he and his daughter have been ``pleasantly surprised'' by the increases in their paychecks. Robert said that he ``appreciate[s] the effort put forth by the current administration and look[s] forward to more being done to help the average American worker.'' American workers are the ones who have been left behind in the past and told to expect the new normal of stagnant economic growth and slow wage growth, but they are exactly the ones who are being helped the most now by these changes in tax and regulatory policies. It started with the tax reform legislation, and I think the regulatory reforms we have been able to enact have made a big difference as well. The Texas Workforce Commission announced recently that our State hit record-low unemployment in October, while the Department of Commerce announced that the State's economy grew 6 percent in the second quarter. That is a red-hot, growing economy. These were monumental leaps forward that were felt in all corners of our State. Confidence in the economy across the country is at its highest level since 2004; small business owners'--the primary engine of job creation in our country--confidence is at record-high levels; and optimism among U.S. manufacturers has soared to an alltime high. Is this a coincidence? I don't think so. Is this a result of policies produced years ago during a previous administration, as some people would claim? I don't think so. But we have done some important things on a bipartisan basis, together, such as removing some of the burdensome Dodd-Frank banking regulations so that we can expand access to capital, which means more loan money available for small businesses and families and particularly for farmers and the farming community. We took important steps to reduce the regulatory burdens on all employers and job-seekers alike by giving States the tools to remove barriers to certain professions through occupational licensing reform. Some of the occupational licensing requirements in our States are basically nothing but incumbent protection, trying to freeze out people who wanted to learn a new skill, only to learn that it was uneconomical to do so or that the licensure requirement made that burden too high. We also worked to help provide for our veterans--a noble undertaking in and of itself--and those who make the transition from military life to civilian life. One bill we passed, called the Jobs for Our Heroes Act, makes it easier for veterans to get commercial driver's licenses, and the American Law Enforcement Heroes Act makes sure veterans get hired by local law enforcement agencies when they come out of the military with the very skills that are needed by our police agencies that are working to keep our communities safe. In each of these cases, we tried to listen to what my constituents and our constituents were telling us so we could implement targeted changes meant to improve the lives of the people we are honored to represent. Particularly around Thanksgiving but year-round, I am reminded of how grateful I am for the sacrifices made by those who have served our country in the past and those who presently wear the uniform of the U.S. military. Many times, they are the very ones who spend their holidays deployed overseas in places far away from their families. I am proud of the historic effort we have made on a bipartisan basis to provide support to those who are currently serving our country and those who have previously served. That started with the Veterans' Administration, which was past due for reforms. This is an immense bureaucracy of more than I believe 330,000 employees. We needed to pull that agency into the 21st century to better serve the veterans under its charge. I am sure GEN Omar Bradley, who led the VA after World War II, would not recognize the system in place today, what we have transformed the VA into, but he would have recognized it as it previously existed because it basically was the same system that had been in place since World War II. Now we have taken important steps, such as passing the historic VA MISSION Act, which modernized the veterans' appeals process and the electronic healthcare system. We reformed veterans' healthcare benefits and improved accountability within the VA, and we provided the largest funding increase in history for veterans' care and services. When it comes to other institutions that help provide safety and security for the American people, we were able to provide for the men and women of the Coast Guard with bipartisan support. Our bill ensures that the Coast Guard can continue to protect our ports, stop illegal drugs from reaching our borders, and save lives. Earlier this year, we made the greatest investment in our military in history with the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act for the 58th consecutive year. This was appropriately named for our friend and colleague Senator John McCain. The Defense bill supports our men and women in uniform by providing the tools and resources they need to keep our country safe and includes the largest boost to servicemembers' pay in 10 years. It is especially noteworthy that this year will mark the first time in about a decade that the Defense Department will not operate under a temporary spending measure, known as a continuing resolution. That is important. Because of bipartisan support, we have funded roughly 75 percent of the government so far--we still have more to do--on time and through regular order. In fact, we passed the most on time appropriations bills in 22 years. In addition to these historic strides, we also passed landmark legislation to combat the drug addiction crisis that has plagued every corner of the country. This bill is designed to help stem the tide of drugs flooding across our borders but also help those who are suffering from drug addiction get the recovery support they need. We also continued to support communities by passing first-of-its-kind legislation to make our schools safer and stop online sex trafficking. I think each one of these successes is worthy of mention because the legislative record of this current Congress--this 115th Congress--is pretty remarkable, one of the most productive since my time in the Senate. It has meant unprecedented victories for American workers and families and communities, as well as our servicemembers. We still have a mission, though--we need to finish out the 115th Congress as strong as we began it, and we only have a few weeks left to do that. That starts by continuing our historic pace of confirming the President's judicial nominees, which already total more than 80, with 2 Supreme Court Justices confirmed in the 115th Congress in the last 2 years. In the coming weeks, we will continue our work on the farm bill to provide support for our Nation's ag community. In my home State, one out of seven working Texans gains their income from working in the agriculture sector. Everyone has heard the saying ``Thank a farmer three times a day.'' It is the farmers and ranchers in the Lone Star State whom I think of when I hear that. Texans know as well as anybody the unpredictability of Mother Nature, which can ruin a crop or an entire season in the blink of an eye. That is why passing a farm bill is important--to give our farmers and ranchers the predictability and the certainty they need and deserve insofar as we can since we can't control Mother Nature. As you can see, we have our work cut out for us in these remaining weeks. I mentioned earlier that Americans chose to send Senate Republicans back to Washington with an even greater majority, but Americans also chose a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. Leader McConnell recently called the Senate ``fertile soil for bipartisan work,'' and that is true. It is the way the Senate is constructed and built with our unique rules when it comes to considering and voting on legislation. We are ripe for the possibilities of solving some of the biggest legislative question marks facing our government and facing our Nation. But now our friends in the House, with Democratic majorities, need to make a choice. They can either choose to make noise or they can choose to join us in making law and improving the lot of American citizens. I am confident of what we will choose on this side of the aisle because we will do exactly as we have done over the last 2 years-- continue to make substantial progress for the American family. But we will want to make sure that we extend a hand to our Democratic colleagues in the House, and they can make their decision, I hope, to join us in continuing to make progress on the part of the American people and not just create more chaos and confusion and accentuate the divisiveness that we know already plagues our political system and our country. It is important that we in Congress demonstrate that we are up to the challenge and that we are worthy of the trust of the people we represent--the American people. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Crapo), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator from Mississippi (Mrs. Hyde-Smith), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran), and the Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker).

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I know looking back on the last 2 years since the 2016 election, time has flown, but it is important to reflect on what we have been able to accomplish, and, really, it is pretty remarkable. These are not just political accomplishments; these are things that have improved the lives of our constituents--the American people. As time is running out on the 115th Congress leading up to the holidays, yesterday I spoke about some of our larger accomplishments. Today I want to highlight some of the other important accomplishments we have made. Because they weren't particularly controversial, you didn't see them reported in cable news or in the media or the subject of massive social media campaigns. In addition, there are the economic gains we have seen from passing historic tax reform to the regulatory rollback we have seen, which has unleashed the American economy. We have also passed important public safety legislation, like the opioid legislation, which is designed to help thousands of Americans suffering from drug addiction. It is important to remember the grim statistic that last year alone, 72,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, 50,000 died from opioid overdoses, which include prescription drugs, fentanyl and heroin, most of which come from Mexico. I will touch on that in a moment. A little over a year ago, the gulf coast of Texas sustained a rain event the likes of which we hope we will never see again. This was called Hurricane Harvey, but instead of damaging winds, in addition, we had incredible amounts of rain, with catastrophic flooding that left Texans dealing with months-long recovery efforts that are still going on today. I was proud to join with not only my Texas colleagues but also colleagues across the aisle in both Chambers to pass three separate disaster relief bills totaling $147 billion for Hurricane Harvey aid, as well as the other natural disasters affecting other parts of the country. About $30 billion of that, I think, is Texas-specific, more or less, in terms of the needs, in terms of the resources that were required not only to recover but also to help mitigate future threats. We know it does little good to fix the problem today if it is going to be repeated tomorrow, and we know Hurricane Harvey is not the last hurricane and the last rain event we are going to have. So we authorized a coastal study that will ultimately lead us to construction of a coastal spine that will help protect the important gulf coast region, where most of the refining capacity in the country is located-- and we know that is a national priority--as well as the flood mitigation projects I mentioned a moment ago, by authorizing and funding the Army Corps of Engineers. We tried to listen--and I did in Texas--to what our constituents said they needed most, and we passed two other pieces of legislation particularly relating to the disaster. First, we made houses of worship eligible for certain FEMA grants to help them rebuild after disasters. The second was a tax relief provision similar to the one we passed after Hurricane Katrina, which gave Texans the ability to deduct their property damage costs and access retirement savings on an emergency basis without penalties. Providing that relief was a big help to my constituents. Disasters tend to bring out the best in all of us because it causes us to do things we didn't know we could actually do. The Texas spirit was perhaps one of the things that was most reassuring following the disasters, and it never wavered. We saw that spirit again rallied around a community after an unthinkable act of violence at Sutherland Springs, TX, that left 26 people dead and 20 more wounded. Because the U.S. Air Force had failed to upload a felony conviction for domestic violence into the FBI's criminal background check system, the shooter in that case was able to acquire multiple firearms by simply lying about his criminal background record. So we came together, in a bipartisan way, to pass a bill I introduced called the Fix NICS Act--NICS is the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, hence the name--that fixed or at least took great strides toward fixing our broken background check system to ensure that violent criminals can't easily acquire firearms when they are convicted and ineligible under existing law. We saw that resiliency arise out of another tragedy at Santa Fe High School, where we passed the STOP School Violence Act. I am not suggesting that by passing legislation, we are going to magically wave our wand and stop acts of violence, but we can do things that provide planning, training, safety infrastructure, and law enforcement support for our schools to make them a less soft target. In an open society, I doubt we will ever be able to stop all acts of violence, but I think these are intended and will have a constructive effect and actually save lives. A third way we spoke on the issue of public safety in our communities was through another bill I introduced called the Project Safe Neighborhoods Act that was signed into law earlier this year. It passed the Senate unanimously. People think everything is divided here along political lines. Well, we actually pass legislation like this unanimously in the Senate. It authorized the Project Safe Neighborhoods Program at the Department of Justice, which aims to reduce violent crimes by pairing local, State, and Federal law enforcement officials with Federal prosecutors and using tough Federal laws to prosecute gun crimes. These partnerships are proven to reduce violent crimes and deserve our full support. We have also come together to provide help to victims of crime and for the vulnerable. The President has signed into law three bills I introduced that built upon my work when I was attorney general of Texas. The first is called the SAFER Act, which is aimed at reducing the backlog of untested rape kits in forensic labs. The second is called the Justice Served Act, which assists law enforcement in prosecuting the most difficult cold cases using the seemingly magical power of DNA testing in forensic labs. The third is a bill I championed called the PROTECT Our Children Act, which reauthorizes important resources combating child exploitation online. Perhaps the best news story of the last couple of years has been our economy, how it has come roaring back. We have tried to reduce the regulatory burden on employers and job seekers alike, including in the three bills the President has signed into law. These were targeted bills not designed to change Western civilization but to address specific, real problems that will improve the lives of the people we work for. One of those is the New HOPE Act, which is an occupational licensing reform bill that gives States the tools to reduce barriers to certain professions. It makes no sense because of licensing requirements to basically bar people from doing things they can learn how to do without overly burdensome licensing and training requirements which essentially are designed to protect incumbents. We have also passed the Jobs for Our Heroes Act, which makes it easier for our veterans to get commercial driver's licenses. We passed the American Law Enforcement Heroes Act to make sure veterans can get hired by local law enforcement agencies when they come out of the military with the very skills that are needed by our local law enforcement. We know all of our police agencies are working hard to try to recruit good, qualified people to keep our communities safe. They struggle with that, and this will help make that better. In each of these cases, we tried to listen to the needs of Texans and people across the country and to translate that into legislation that will improve their lives. They don't get top billing on the national news, but they deserve our support, as do the people whom I came in contact with in my State who have inspired these laws. As we close out the 115th Congress and move into a new Congress in January, these are the types of things we can continue to do together. Because of the midterm elections, our friends in the other body, the House of Representatives--now that Ms. Pelosi will presumably be the next Speaker--have an important decision to make: Do they want to make noise, do they want to harass the President or do they want to work with us to make laws that improve the quality of life for the people we represent? I hope they choose the latter, and, clearly, there is more we can and should do together to help the American people. I know I am running out of time. I am going to come back a little later on to talk about the caravans that are coming up from Central America through Mexico and what we need to do together to address those. At this time, I yield the floor.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I wanted to come back to the floor after speaking a little earlier this morning about the so-called caravan of migrants coming from Central America up through Mexico and who are now located in Tijuana, many of whom will be seeking asylum here in the United States. Coming from Texas with a 1,200-mile common border with Mexico, caravans are not unheard of; in fact, we have many caravans showing up on a daily basis at Border Patrol stations, including unaccompanied children and families. What has happened is that the cartels--these transnational criminal organizations--have figured out, as part of their business model, that they can make money by shipping migrants up through Mexico into the United States or they can ship drugs from Mexico into the United States or traffic in children and women for sex slavery. They have figured out that they can make money because of the gaps in our border security, because of the characteristics of our law that make it impossible for us to deter many of the immigrants coming from Central America. I know that during the recent midterm elections, there was some thought that President Trump or others were just sort of making this issue up in order to energize voters leading up to the midterm elections. Well, I will not comment on the politics of this; I will just say that this is a phenomenon that has been occurring on a daily basis in the recent past. It is because of a glitch in our laws that our Democratic colleagues are well aware of, and that we have tried to fix, but they simply will not cooperate with us in order to fix it. Basically, what we would do is treat somebody who enters the United States from noncontiguous countries the same way we would if they came into our country illegally from Mexico. That is the long and short of it. But they will not have any part of it because they feel as though this advantages them politically because by enforcing our laws, by securing our borders, they believe that somehow that could be portrayed as anti-immigrant, which is demonstrably false. About 40 percent of my constituents in Texas are of Hispanic origin, many of whom live along that international border. They understand that the cartels that traffic in people and drugs and contraband are criminal organizations that threaten their security and safety. So I feel very strongly about this issue, and I think somebody needs to speak up and state the facts. These caravans are bringing thousands of migrants coming from Central American countries, mostly women and children. But you can imagine, if one caravan of several thousand people is successful in breaching our border and entering the United States without regard to our immigration laws, what that will do to encourage further efforts. So this is not a one-off; this isn't just something that is going to happen one time. This will get worse and worse and worse. If you went down to some of these Central American countries and asked them who would like to immigrate to the United States, you are going to see not just hundreds and thousands, but hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions, of people who would like to come to the United States. We have to have an orderly way to deal with immigration. Somebody asked in this last midterm election: What is your position on immigration? I said: It is really simple. Legal immigration is good; illegal immigration is bad. So we know that this current caravan is not made up entirely of asylum seekers or people trying to flee poverty and violence in their home countries. It is made up of migrants from other parts of the world who travel to Central America so that they can take advantage of that porous border and the pathway to the United States. They come from countries all around the world, including special interest aliens from countries that, unfortunately, are plagued by terrorism. I am not saying we have a bunch of terrorists in this pack; I am just saying it is a vulnerability that could be exploited by anybody who wants to take advantage of these gaps in our law and our lack of security. It also includes people who have been arrested in the United States and deported back to their home countries, who are reentering the United States in violation of our immigration laws. They have already committed criminal acts, and they are coming back in, disguised, among the larger caravan of Central American immigrants. One thing the Border Patrol has also made clear is that because the Border Patrol has to deal with this mass of humanity coming up across the border while somehow treating them in a humane fashion, which we all would want them to do, the cartels realize the Border Patrol is all balled up trying to process this caravan of Central American immigrants, so that opens up avenues by which to import illegal drugs into the United States, another moneymaking proposition for the cartels. Ninety percent of the heroin--an opioid--90 percent of the heroin that comes into the United States comes from Mexico. Somebody said to me recently: Well, the cartels are commodity agnostic. I thought that was a pretty good way of expressing it. In other words, they are into anything that will make them money. No matter how debased, no matter how cruel, no matter how inhumane, they are willing to do anything to make money. By not dealing with this issue in a responsible fashion on a nonpartisan basis, we are making the cartels rich. More people have died in Mexico since 2007 than have died in the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq combined. Incoming President Lopez Obrador has said that he wants to deal with the violence in Mexico as part of his new administration. Frankly, I think we need to help him, but we need to recognize the reality. This is not benign activity; this isn't a mom- and-pop operation where people who want jobs are coming into the United States. This is a big business. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that two gangs, MS-13 and Barrio 18 now rule over most of El Salvador, terrorizing that country's population. These gangs and the cartels that support them throughout Central America take advantage of a very simple economic principle: supply and demand. So as long as there is demand in the United States for heroin and other illegal drugs, as long as there is a demand for low-wage labor, these gangs will fill that supply. As long as there is a demand for sex slavery, these gangs and these cartels will meet that supply. So this makes our relationship with our friends in Mexico very, very important. Our two governments need to work more closely together because U.S. and American interests are interrelated and aligned. This is not just an illegal immigration or drug smuggling problem; it is all of them combined. It is a question of whether the Government of Mexico can actually control or defeat the cartels that threaten the safety and stability of their people in that country and have this business model that I mentioned. So our partnership with Mexico--under the administration of President Lopez Obrador, who will be sworn in on December 1; I hope to be there at that inauguration--must continue to grow and evolve because the gangs, the cartels that hurt and kill people in Mexico and then threaten our security and safety here in the United States are going to also evolve and adapt to make sure they can maintain their dominance in the region. That is why programs like the Merida Initiative are vital to our collective success in combating this multiheaded monster. It is clear we should take into account how to combat the flow of illicit drugs into the United States and how we can help restore the relationship--our relationship--with those communities and those countries and law enforcement personnel in Central America. This crisis extends far beyond how to treat the flood of migrants that come across the border. This is not a political issue alone, as some would have it. People act as though the President dreamed this issue up in order to gain advantage or energize his base during the recently passed midterm elections. In Texas, communities along our border rely heavily on legitimate trade and travel across our ports of entry. It is really important. That is why NAFTA and the renegotiation of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement was so important, and it is important to the entire country because 14 million jobs depend on trade with Mexico and Canada. You can imagine, if our ports of entry are clogged with caravan after caravan of tens, hundreds, thousands--maybe hundreds of thousands--of migrants from Central America seeking asylum in the United States, we are not going to have much legitimate trade and commerce across those ports of entry, and it is going to harm not only my State, but the United States as a whole. We can't forget that our border communities are critically important, and any solution we find must somehow balance our normal compassion for people who are vulnerable and people who are seeking a better life with the rule of law and our ability to protect our own sovereignty by securing our borders and controlling illegal immigration into the United States. In the coming weeks, I hope we can work with the administration to determine a course of action that addresses the real needs of legitimate asylum seekers without rewarding illegal activity and making the drug cartels even richer than they are now and encouraging and condoning more and more violence, which harms people all across the region. We need to send a message that the United States alone cannot bear the burden of this mass migration, and we need to ensure that those who seek to enter the United States do so legally. We will work with our partners in Central America and Mexico to try to find solutions that will allow migrants to return safely to their home countries or find resettlement solutions in safe countries until the day I know they would hope for, when they could safely return home. I yield the floor.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I have 8 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 Armed Services The Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, November 15, 2018, at 9:30 a.m., to conduct a hearing on the following nominations: William Bookless, to be Principal Deputy Administrator, National Nuclear Security Administration and Thomas McCaffery, to be Assistant secretary of Defense of Health Affairs. 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, November 15, 2018, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``The semiannual testimony of the Federal Reserve's Supervision and regulation of the financial system.'' 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, November 15, 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, November 15, 2018, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``Examining Funding needs for the wildlife Conservation, Recovery, and Management''. Committee on Finance The Committee on Finance is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, November 15, 2018, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on the following nominations: Andrew M. Saul, of New York, to be Commissioner of Social Security for the term expiring January 19, 2019, and Gail S. Ennis, of Maryland, to be Inspector General, both of the Social Security Administration, and Gordon Hartogensis, of Connecticut, to be Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. 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, November 15, 2018, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on the following nominations: Ronald D. Vitiello, of Illinois, to be an Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, and Richard S. Tischner, of Virginia, to be Director of the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for 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, November 15, 2018, at 10 a.m., to conduct a business meeting and hearing on the following nominations: Bridget S. Bade, of Arizona, and Eric D. Miller, of Washington, both to be a United States Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit, Eric E. Murphy, of Ohio, and Chad A. Readier, of Ohio, both to be a United States Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit, Allison Jones Rushing, of North Carolina, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Fourth Circuit, Rossie David Alston, Jr., to be United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, Thomas P. Barber, and Wendy Williams Berger, both to be a United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida, Pamela A. Barker, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Ohio, Karin J Immergut, to be United States District Judge for the District of Oregon, Corey Landon Maze, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Alabama, Sarah Daggett Morrison, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of Ohio, Rodney Smith, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of Florida, T. Kent Wetherell II, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Florida, Richard A. Hertling, of Maryland, to be a Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims, and Kim Gaffney, to be United States Marshal for the Western District of Wisconsin, Bradley Jay LaRose, to be United States Marshal for the District of Vermont, and Douglas J. Strike, to be United States Marshal for the Northern District of Iowa, all of the Department of Justice. Select Committee on Intelligence The Select Committee on Intelligence is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, November 15, 2018, at 2 p.m., to conduct a hearing closed briefing.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, as I return to the Nation's Capital from home, back in Austin, TX, so we can finish our work out before the end of the year, I want to relay some of the wisdom that I heard from working families and Texans back home about their verdict on what we have done so far this year and actually even last year. I stopped by a couple of food banks--one in North Texas and one in El Paso--ahead of this year's upcoming holiday season. This is when they have the greatest demand for food by people who need either to supplement their diets or who rely on food banks to provide them with their basic sustenance. I also had a chance to visit with a Nobel Prize winner at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Jim Allison, to discuss his groundbreaking work in cancer treatment, much of which was funded by money we have appropriated to the National Institutes of Health, which, in turn, provides grants for basic science and other research that come up with lifesaving cures, such as Dr. Allison has come up with. Then I met with the local leadership in the Corpus Christi area, down in the gulf coast, to discuss their Hurricane Harvey recovery process. It has been a little over a year since Hurricane Harvey hit. Of course, many of those communities and many families are continuing to recover from that devastation. I also held a roundtable with local leaders and the drug-free communities councils to discuss how local, State, and Federal leaders can work together to fight the supply of illegal drugs coming into the country and to support those who are in recovery from addiction. It won't surprise you that people had a lot to say. Yet their stories remind me that while being back here in Washington--although Texas is a long way away, about 3 hours or so by jet--folks back home are paying attention to what we are doing here, and I know some of that gets lost in the back-and-forth of the political campaigns that have just passed. There is one thing that we have done that I think has been well received, and that is, since the voters gave us a Republican in the White House and gave us Republican majorities in the House and the Senate, we have put our foot on the gas pedal and haven't let off since. We have delivered concrete results for the American people, and they have continued to see gains under this administration--promises made and promises kept. I will start with the transformation of the Federal judiciary. One of the most important jobs the U.S. Senate has under the Constitution is to provide advice and consent on executive branch nominations--in this case, to our article III courts. A historic number of judges who will interpret the law as written have been confirmed under the administration. That number is 84, and it includes the most ever appellate judges--the midlevel Federal courts--to have ever been confirmed during a President's first 2 years in office. These are principled, experienced, highly skilled lawyers and judges who respect precedent and understand their critical but limited role under our system of government. Their job is to interpret the law; they shouldn't rewrite it. That is one of the principal battles we end up fighting when Supreme Court nominations come across the well of the Senate floor. There are those who think that judges should be able to impose their views on the American people even though they don't run for election and have lifetime tenures, but that is simply not our system. In my view, that is an impermissible role to be played by a judge. When it comes to judges, perhaps our two greatest achievements have been Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, both of whom were confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet, as I say, we have confirmed a total of 84 other Federal judges, including 3 on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals from Texas. All of these nominees and now judges have brought great intellect, legal expertise, impartiality, and good will to bear as they make decisions with their very distinguished colleagues. We saw the first major overhaul in the Tax Code in 31 years. It lowered rates for every tax bracket, doubled the child tax credit to help working families, and made our business tax scheme more competitive globally. All of this has allowed many of those employers to pass along benefits through bonuses and higher wages. We have also incentivized investment in economically distressed communities in every State through the Opportunity Zone Program. Some like to shrug off the benefits of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act by calling the savings crumbs, which is what Ms. Pelosi has called them, but they are certainly not taking into account what I am hearing from my constituents back home in Texas. The effects of tax reform are real, and they are extremely significant to every American. All employers have been able to provide additional benefits--as I said, some in the form of bonuses or in increased pay. Those who have seen their pay remain the same have seen more take-home pay because their tax obligations have been reduced. One of the taxpayers I heard from in Texas was a gentleman by the name of David Tong from Arlington, TX, which is halfway between Fort Worth and Dallas. Dave wrote to me to say that the company at which he is employed has increased the number of hours people are able to work. He said Christmas bonuses have been promised, too, and that the company has hired more people, has bought more new machinery based on the accelerated depreciation provided for under the bill, and has made long overdue repairs to their working place. Now, with the tax law changes in place, David says the guys down on the shop floor are taking home a little more in their paychecks each week. He said all of this adds up and makes a huge difference in the lives of the guys on the shop floor. We have heard similar stories from around the country because more than 700 companies, including many that are based in Texas, have used the tax savings to benefit their employees and their customers. They have announced pay raises, as I said, and 401(k) match increases. We have actually seen seniors and people on fixed incomes have a decrease in their utility bills, when their electricity is provided by investor-owned utilities, because of the reduction in taxes to be paid by those investor-owned utilities. So there are lower utility rates for seniors and those on fixed incomes. These developments are part of the reason the economy is thriving. Since tax reform was signed into law, the economy has added more than 2 million jobs, and unemployment has been at its lowest rate since 1969. My State has a population that is roughly 38 to 40 percent Hispanic; yet Hispanic unemployment sits at the record low of 4.4 percent. That is a big deal to my constituents back home. Joblessness for African Americans has fallen to its lowest level ever--the lowest level ever-- under this administration. Then, of course, with more demand--with more money in people's pockets, more money to spend--there is more demand for goods and services. So in October alone, the economy has added another 250,000 jobs, exceeding all expectations. As a matter of fact, the biggest concern I hear from employers now is that they are looking for qualified employees who are able to perform the jobs that are now available, and many of these are very well-paying jobs. So people are back to work. They are earning more. They are investing, and the economy is moving at full throttle. But it wasn't just the work of the tax bill. That was just part of it. Part of it has to do with the increased confidence and optimism that people feel about their future as a result of the improvement of their economic circumstances. We saw that with the passage of the bipartisan Dodd-Frank reform. We have also provided additional relief to our community banks and credit unions so they are able to spend less money on redtape and have more money invested in their local communities and in their small businesses. We also know that regulation is important, but overregulation is a job killer. We have rolled back overregulation that was stifling job creation, and we are creating an environment that fosters job growth. Our reforms have created a savings of at least $50 billion for small businesses and entrepreneurs. That is why the economy is on fire. We have also done important things to help improve access to healthcare. We have repealed the Independent Payment Advisory Board provisions of ObamaCare and repealed the costly individual mandate, which essentially was a tax on poor people and middle-income people when they couldn't afford to buy the ObamaCare policies with all of the coverage that they didn't necessarily even want or need, but it added to the cost of the policy. When they couldn't afford the policy, they were taxed by their own government and punished through the individual mandate. What we have done is to try to restore the authority and the power of citizens themselves to make healthcare decisions for themselves and their families that they want and that they can afford by starting to recreate an individual market. To me, that is the best way for us to offer choice and to keep prices down--to create an individual market, not for government to mandate a one-size-fits-all approach, which is what ObamaCare did. It forced many young people to pay a lot more for their insurance to subsidize others who were covered by ObamaCare. We also addressed the public health challenges we face in this country in another significant way. The Nation's drug addiction epidemic killed roughly 72,000 Americans last year. Some 72,000 Americans lost their lives to drug overdoses. Nearly 50,000 of those were related to opioids, whether a prescription drug or heroin or fentanyl. It has left many families in disarray and overwhelmed medical professionals and emergency personnel in many communities. Through the collaboration of about 70 bipartisan proposals--people say nothing bipartisan happens here, but thanks to 70 bipartisan proposals--that were included in this landmark opioids bill, we are not only addressing stemming the tide of drugs coming across our border but also supporting those who are trying to recover from a drug addiction. Among other reforms, the law requires screening of packages being mailed from overseas for substances like fentanyl. It increases access to treatment for people with substance disorders. It expands research into nonaddictive painkillers, and it provides more money for enforcement and interdiction. But healthy communities are also safe communities. In addition to the opioids bill, we took further steps to enhance the safety of our communities and to help victims. With three new laws, we aimed to reduce the backlog of untested rape kits in forensic labs so that perpetrators of sexual assault can be identified with near certainty and those wrongly charged can be exonerated. We also have assisted our law enforcement in prosecuting cold cases and eradicating the scourge of online sex trafficking. We didn't stop there, though. We kept communities' needs in mind and turned toward fixing our Nation's outdated infrastructure. In October, we passed a major water infrastructure bill that helps to keep our communities safe by providing dams and levees and addressing the need for drinking water--clean, safe drinking water--and addressing the underdevelopment of wastewater systems across the country. But our work on infrastructure extended far beyond public water systems. It also included passing the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act, which modernizes airport infrastructure, increases safety, and boosts industry innovation. We also helped to support our men and women in uniform, past and present. By passing a Defense authorization bill, we gave our troops the largest pay raise in nearly 10 years and began to restore military readiness in an increasingly dangerous world. The National Defense Authorization Act, named after our former chairman of the Armed Services Committee, John McCain, ensures that our troops have the resources, the equipment, and the training they need to defend our country and keep Americans safe. For our veterans, we passed the VA Mission Act--again, a bipartisan piece of legislation. Access to healthcare had become a nightmare for many who sacrificed so much for our country. We saw them being met with difficulty getting appointments because they were backlogged so much, or they had to drive great distances to get access to basic healthcare. So we passed the VA Mission Act with an eye toward providing more efficient access to care in local communities. Beyond that, we did the basic work of funding the Federal Government on time and through regular order. We haven't finished that job yet. We have until December 7 to finish the job, and I hope we do. It is not a particularly flashy topic, but it is one of the most fundamental duties of the Congress. So our record is clear, and the voters responded by rewarding the majority with an even greater Senate majority in the next Congress. But we need to finish out the rest of this year strong. We are adding to our list of accomplishments this week by passing a bipartisan bill to provide critical funding for the Coast Guard. Our Coast Guard is made up of men and women who risk their lives to save others and to protect our ports and to stop illegal drugs from reaching our country. This bill ensures that they can continue that work with the predictability they deserve. Moving forward, we have a significant to-do list before we break for Christmas. We need to finalize the farm bill. We need to reauthorize a number of other bills, and despite the large number of nominations we were able to get done before we recessed, there is still a huge backlog of many executive branch nominations. For some reason, after the 2016 election, our Democratic colleagues decided they were going to obstruct or delay as many Trump nominations to executive agencies on the bench as they could. Unfortunately, they have been too successful in doing so, but I am confident that the Senate Majority Leader, Senator McConnell, will use the leverage of people wanting to get home at Christmastime and Thanksgiving to ensure that we get a maximum number of these noncontroversial nominees supported. These are people who will enjoy broad bipartisan support if we can just get our Democratic colleagues to quit the obstruction. We have just a short time left to finish this Congress strong, but the past 2 years have been an unmitigated success for the country. We have delivered on promises we have made. We have put money back in the pockets of hard-working families. We enhanced community safety and fought for victims. We have modernized infrastructure and supported our men and women in uniform. I hope we can continue this momentum into the 116th Congress that begins in January. I yield the floor.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I have 4 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 Foreign Relations The Committee on Foreign Relations is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, November 14, 2018, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing on the following nominations: Patricia Mahoney, of Virginia, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Benin, Richard Carlton Paschall III, of North Carolina, to be Ambassador to the Republic of The Gambia, and Susan N. Stevenson, of Washington, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, all of the Department of State. Committee on Indian Affairs The Committee on Indian Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, November 14, 2018, at 3 p.m., to conduct a hearing. Committee on Indian Affairs The Committee on Indian Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, November 14, 2018, at 3 p.m., to conduct a legislative hearing. Subcommittee on Cybersecurity The Subcommittee on Cybersecurity of the Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, November 14, 2018, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson).

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order to consider S. Res. 685, submitted earlier today.

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 685; that the resolution be agreed to; that the preamble be agreed to; that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; and that any statements related to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, after the vote was called on the Kavanaugh nomination--I should say immediately before it--the minority leader, the Senator from New York, told America that the most important thing they could do in response to that vote is go to the polls in the midterm elections. It is true that on November 6, Americans will head to the polls and select their Members of Congress, including the Senate, and as Ronald Reagan's famous speech said, it will be ``a time for choosing.'' Many people are wondering how they should choose, how they should exercise that most fundamental privilege of American citizenship, and that is the right to vote. Should they choose to vote for mob rule or do they choose to vote for the rule of law? Do they choose to endorse threats, intimidation, and incitement or do they choose to treat everybody--no matter how much you disagree with them--with dignity and respect? I believe those are our choices. I was very disappointed to hear the former Secretary of State Mrs. Clinton say that you cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for and what you care about. She said civility is only possible if Democrats were to win back the House or the Senate. In other words, her commitment to civility in our political discourse is contingent upon political outcomes. Did you notice the verb she used? She used the word ``destroy,'' which I think is telling. It is not that people may disagree with her or her party, it is that people who disagree with her want to destroy what you stand for and what you care about. In other words, this mindset, I think, is very disturbing and should be of concern to all of us who want to restore some civility, and decorum, and bipartisan cooperation. We are going to have our differences, there is no doubt about it. I welcome the opportunity to debate those differences. That is what the Senate is all about, but there is a line we saw crossed last week during the confirmation hearing. We learned it is our Democratic colleagues, unfortunately, who have associated themselves with special interest groups that are willing to go to just about any length to achieve their desired ends. In other words, the ends justify the means. That includes climbing statues, disobeying Capitol Police, getting arrested, chasing Senators and their spouses from restaurants, screaming at Members in elevators, sending coat hangers to Senators at their offices, and offering what amounts to a bribe. That doesn't sound very civil to me. Then you have former Attorney General Eric Holder, who was captured on video saying things that I, frankly, am shocked about. You would think the former head law enforcement officer for the U.S. Government, the Attorney General, would understand the need to be careful with your words and not stoke the ambers of conflict and civil unrest, but apparently disregarding that, he intentionally poured gasoline on the fire. He said last week, it is time to ditch the old slogan ``when they go low, we go high.'' He attributed that to Michelle Obama, and good for her. He said instead: ``When they go low, we kick them.'' That is what the new Democratic Party is all about. The Washington Post has said Holder is proposing ``the party pursue a meaner, more combative approach,'' and noted he was alluding to metaphorical violence. This is from the former Attorney General of the United States. I believe former First Lady Michelle Obama rightfully condemned this ugly and shameful statement. Meanwhile, one Democratic Member of the Senate has recommended activists get up in the face of your Congresspeople. Another one has justified mob rule as entirely appropriate to our current political situation. We had members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, during the Kavanaugh hearings, say: I am violating the rules intentionally. I am releasing committee-confidential information in violation of the rules, and, apparently, they were proud of it. I hope the voters are listening. I think they are. They are coming from some of the most powerful voices of the Democratic Party, voices that could represent you in the next Congress. That is the choice-- between incitement, intimidation, mob rule, or civility and treating people you disagree with, with the respect all of us are entitled to in a democracy. I don't think the voters will reward a party that is spitting out this sort of venom about what our politics should be about: sowing division, alluding to violence, rejecting civility. Is that what supposedly passes for leadership? Should the voters reward that in this midterm election? I think our forefathers would be shocked, but this election is about more than just the rhetoric. I think the voters also have a choice when it comes to looking at who is interested in solving the problems that confront our country, who is willing to work on a bipartisan basis together with the administration to make the country a better place, more prosperous place, a safer place. All they need to do is look back at the last 22 months. Yesterday, for example, we passed a major water infrastructure bill that will keep our communities safe by maintaining dams and levees and addressing drinking water and wastewater systems across the country. It will also expedite, in my part of the world, an important coastal study and authorize flood mitigation projects back home. Then the President signed, just 2 days before that--I am sure most of this was lost in the furor over the Kavanaugh nomination--but just 2 days before that, the President signed another bipartisan bill I cosponsored called the Justice Served Act that will provide funds to prosecute cold cases solved by DNA evidence obtained from rape kits. Then, of course, there was the Supreme Court confirmation last Saturday. In the last 6 days, we have accomplished three major things: water infrastructure, funding cold case prosecutions, and filling Justice Kennedy's seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. I would say that is a pretty good week, but our record of success is much lengthier than that. Judge Kavanaugh was far from the only Federal judge we have confirmed. Last year, we confirmed another superb Justice, Neil Gorsuch. On top of that, we have confirmed 69 judges under President Trump. That includes three Texas judges on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and four that preside over Texas district courts. Those numbers begin to show you that since President Trump took office in January of last year, we haven't taken our foot off the gas when it comes to doing the people's work. Under this Congress, we have confirmed the most appellate judges ever during a President's first 2 years. Of course, these nominees, once confirmed, have a lifetime tenure, so they will be there long beyond this President's term or maybe our term in the Congress. Our work extends far beyond filling the courthouses of this country. What we have done, working together with the entrepreneurs and the investors and the small businesses of America, is we helped reenergize the state of the American economy. This started with tax reform, which has been the biggest game changer. This is the first major overhaul of the Tax Code in 31 years. It lowered rates, doubled the child tax credit to help working families, and made American businesses more internationally competitive. I am sorry we had to do that all by ourselves without a single Democratic vote, but we thought it was so important to do that we stepped up, and we did it. I think the benefits are pretty manifest. Ms. Pelosi likes to say the savings individual taxpayers got were merely ``crumbs,'' but I would like to tell her about some of my constituents and what they told me. One of them, Kim Ewing from Mesquite, wrote me and talked about how tax reform was hugely helpful because she hadn't had a raise in 7 years. Now she enjoys a boost in her paycheck each month. She called tax reform a no-brainer or what she referred to as merely ``common sense.'' Then there is Claudia Smith, owner of the Aggieland Carpet One in College Station, who told me earlier this year that she has been able to reinvest the savings she received under the new tax law to buy new equipment for her small business, as well as provide healthcare coverage for her employees. She says she will also have enough left over to hire more people. Claudia's story is the same one that is being told all across the country. More than 700 businesses have used the tax savings to benefit their employees and customers. They have announced pay raises, 401(k) match increases, cuts to utility rates, bonuses, and other benefits to American workers. These developments are just part of the reason this economy is growing again and why people have renewed confidence and optimism in their future. As the majority leader reported yesterday, unemployment in this country has now fallen to 3.7 percent, which is the lowest rate since 1969. People are going back to work; they are earning more; they are keeping more of what they earn; and they are investing. This is what it looks like when that sleeping giant of the American economy wakes up and is unleashed from the constraints of high taxation and overregulation. It is not just the economy that deserves mention. One of our accomplishments has been repealing burdensome regulations--I have mentioned that overregulation--and we have done that through the Congressional Review Act. Previously, it had only been used 1 time, but we have used this device 16 times to eliminate Agency rules which really had been the ropes that tied down that sleeping giant of the American economy. It allowed it to come roaring back. We have repealed the Independent Payment Advisory Board under ObamaCare, which will allow seniors and their families to take greater control of their healthcare decisions without being subject to the whims of unelected bureaucrats. We have also eliminated the root of ObamaCare--the individual mandate. This was literally a coercion by the Federal Government, forcing people to buy something that, in many cases, they couldn't afford, and they didn't want. We literally made ObamaCare voluntary now so people have choices, but this was essentially a tax on some of the most disadvantaged people in the country who were coerced into buying healthcare they didn't want or couldn't afford, and if they were unable to even do that, they were forced to pay a tax or a penalty. Recently, we have been accomplishing a lot more for our men and women in uniform, our intelligence officers, and our veterans. We have helped restore America's defense with the greatest investment in the military in decades, including the largest troop pay raise in nearly 10 years. We have reauthorized important intelligence-gathering tools, like section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act--a vital tool in tracking foreign terrorists abroad who try to hurt us at home. For our veterans, we passed the VA MISSION Act, which will make significant reforms to the Department of Veterans Affairs by strengthening healthcare and community care options that are available to those who have served our Nation in uniform. Last, but not least, is our series of accomplishments. We have taken other important steps, like passing the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act just last week. It is legislation that modernizes our airports, improves service for travelers, enhances safety, and boosts industry innovation. Then, almost without anybody paying any attention at all, we passed a huge bipartisan bill to address the opioid crisis. Senator Alexander, the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, ushered this bill through the House and the Senate, along with Senator Murphy and others. It has contributions from 70 Members of the Senate and 5 standing committees. That takes a lot of hard bipartisan effort, but it is important because it combats the nationwide epidemic that has led to the death of 49,000 Americans in just 2017 alone. We have done important work in terms of improving public safety by enacting a bill I sponsored and that was supported by our colleagues here called Fix NICS; that is, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. We also passed a bill sponsored by Senator Hatch called the STOP School Violence Act. The Fix NICS bill helped fix our broken background check system and ensures that criminals aren't able to purchase or possess firearms after they are convicted. In the wake of the Texas shootings at Santa Fe and Sutherland Springs, we know there were a lot of people crying out for Congress to do something, and this was the one thing we could all agree to, on a bipartisan basis, across the ideological spectrum. These two bills-- mine and Senator Hatch's--are a part of the way we have answered that call. We have tried to protect our young people--especially women--in another important way as well. We enacted what is known as SESTA, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act. This legislation by the junior Senator from Ohio helps to stop online trafficking and adds to a bill I sponsored called the Abolish Human Trafficking Act. It strengthens programs and supports survivors of human trafficking and provides resources to law enforcement officials on the frontlines of the fight against modern-day slavery. I understand why most Americans have not heard of all or many of these accomplishments, but I think it is important to note what we have been able to do while we have fought mightily over some things, like judicial nominations. We have also worked in a bipartisan way to get the people's work done. I believe we have done so mainly by treating each other respectfully and by demonstrating civility, not by yelling at each other, by making threats, or inciting people to violence. That is not the American way. I am hopeful that after the scenes we saw here last week during the confirmation proceedings for the Supreme Court, that the American people will reject that sort of conduct and demand that their elected officials act in a way they can be proud of. Yes, we put money back into America's pockets. We have rolled back regulations to make their lives a little bit easier. We have strengthened our military, given our veterans access to better healthcare, and protected our communities from harm. As the minority leader, the Senator from New York, said right before the confirmation vote on Judge Kavanaugh, the people need to vote. They will, I hope, exercise that franchise--that right of every American citizen to determine the direction of our country and who will represent them in the Halls of Congress. It is my sincere hope that they will remember some of these accomplishments we have made together during this administration and know we can continue to do more for them in the future. I yield the floor.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio).

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio).

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio).

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio).

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio).

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio).

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio).

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio).