Michael Enzi

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I wish to thank the Senator from Georgia for those comments, and I would like to associate myself with all of them. We should have saved it for the concluding speech, I think. I rise today to also honor a man who has spent the last 46 years faithfully serving the State of Mississippi in Congress. Thad, you are the longest currently serving Member of Congress, and we are going to miss your experience and your leadership. You have left a mark on Congress that won't soon be forgotten. You have served with great distinction and made a difference in the Senate. Your time in Washington began when the people of Mississippi voted to send you to the House of Representatives, and you represented their interests in that Chamber from 1972 to 1978. Then you ran for and won the noble Senate seat. Thad and I have found ourselves on two sides of the U.S. coin. He chairs the Appropriations Committee; I chair the Budget Committee. Even though he does the detail of spending the money and I work to set the parameters, I have always respected him and enjoyed working with him. Former Senators have spoken highly of Senator Cochran. In fact, in 2007, while congratulating Thad on his 10,000th vote, our good friend, the late Senator Ted Kennedy, said: Thad and I don't always agree on policy matters--and more often than not we find ourselves on opposite sides of the issues--but those disagreements never diminished my respect for his thoughtfulness and nor do they diminish the friendship I feel toward him. I think that is a pretty common refrain for somebody who is quiet and effective and perseveres through everything. Thad is known to hold strong opinions, but that has never stopped him from developing a close working relationship with Members of both parties. Throughout his career, he has used his experience and mastery of the issues to persuade his colleagues, but he has done so privately rather than bashing in the media. This determined, yet respectful, approach to negotiations and his passion to find solutions to the problems and concerns of the people of Wyoming and America have led to his nickname, the ``quiet persuader.'' He has been a great mentor to me. Thad has had a remarkable career, and his leadership will be dearly missed. He has inspired future leaders from his State, and in that way and so many others he has made a difference. Diana joins me in sending our best wishes to you, to your wife Kay, and to the rest of your family, and our appreciation for your willingness to serve Mississippi and the Nation so faithfully and so long. There are countless sayings about how politics isn't for anyone but the brave and the resilient. I think your experience, especially this past year, has shown that there is no challenge too large for you to overcome, and clearly you specialize in making the world a better place--and that is a win-win for us all, especially our children and our grandchildren. I am sad to see you leave the Senate at the end of this month, but I wish you a well-deserved retirement and other adventures. I yield the floor.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, on February 9, 2018, the President signed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 into law, H.R. 1892, P.L. 115-123. This bill passed the Senate by a vote of 71 to 28 and the House of Representatives by a vote of 240 to 186. Section 30101 of H.R. 1892 increased the statutory discretionary spending limits for Fiscal Year 2018. More specifically, it increased the Fiscal Year 2018 discretionary spending limit for the revised security category to $629 billion in new budget authority and the revised nonsecurity category to $579 billion in new budget authority. Section 4108 of the Fiscal Year 2018 congressional budget resolution provides me with the authority to adjust enforceable levels and allocations for such changes in the statutory limits. I am therefore adjusting the allocation to the Committee on Appropriations and the budgetary aggregates to reflect the new spending limits imposed by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. In addition to the changes triggered by P.L. 115-123, section 251 of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, BBEDCA, establishes statutory limits on discretionary spending and allows for various adjustments to those limits, while sections 302 and 314(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 allow the chairman of the Budget Committee to establish and make revisions to allocations, aggregates, and levels consistent with those adjustments. The Senate is considering the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 1625, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018. This measure provides full-year appropriations for Federal Government agencies and contains spending that qualifies for cap adjustments under current statute. This measure includes $78,097 million in budget authority that is designated as being for overseas contingency operations/Global War on Terrorism pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A)(ii) of BBEDCA. Of that amount, $66,079 million is for spending in the security category and $12,018 million is for nonsecurity spending. CBO estimates that this budget authority will result in $43,344 million in outlays in, Fiscal Year 2018. This measure also includes $7,366 million in nonsecurity discretionary budget authority designated for disaster relief pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(D) of BBEDCA. This designation makes the spending associated with this provision and its associated outlays of $368 million eligible for an adjustment. This legislation provides $1,896 million in nonsecurity discretionary budget authority for program integrity efforts. This funding is designated pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(B) and section 251(b)(2)(C) of BBEDCA. CBO estimates that this budget authority will result in $1,576 million in outlays this fiscal year. Finally, this legislation repurposes existing emergency funding increasing outlays by $1 million. This action is designated as an emergency pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A)(i) of BBEDCA. As a result of the aforementioned designations, I am revising the budget authority and outlay allocations to the Committee on Appropriations by increasing revised security budget authority by $146,022 million, revised nonsecurity budget authority by $84,531 million, and outlays by $108,997 million in Fiscal Year 2018. Further, I am increasing the budgetary aggregate for Fiscal Year 2018 by $230,553 million in budget authority and $108,997 million in outlays. I ask unanimous consent that the accompanying tables, which provide details about the adjustment, be printed in the Record.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, today I wish to honor and recognize the outstanding service of Mark Booth on his retirement after 31 years of public service at the Congressional Budget Office. Mark's expertise as a forecaster and modeler has made him an invaluable contributor to CBO's analysis of the budget outlook. Since 2003, Mark has been chief of the revenue estimating unit of CBO's tax analysis division, overseeing its forecasts of tax revenues and cost estimates of legislative proposals. Mark came to CBO in 1986 from the private sector, where he began his career as a forecaster and analyst. He took over responsibility for CBO's corporate income tax projections and quickly demonstrated his analytic skills. As a result, Mark's portfolio continuously expanded, as he soon also became the lead analyst for CBO's projections of individual income taxes and Federal Reserve System's earnings. In addition, Mark joined the tax analysis division's cost-estimating team, overseeing assistant analysts to produce timely estimates of legislative proposals. Over those years, Mark won the CBO Director's Award for Exceptional Service, the agency's highest recognition for work by a CBO staffer, twice. In recognition of Mark's abilities and breadth of experience, he was promoted to the position of unit chief for revenue estimating in 2003, and he has overseen the division's projections and cost estimates ever since. As head of the revenue estimating unit, Mark has led his staff in providing high-quality and timely projections of revenues and analysis of budget issues. Mark has made valuable contributions to numerous reports, testimonies, and cost estimates in just about every subject area covered by CBO, including the economy, energy, transportation, and healthcare. He also has served a crucial role in trying to make CBO's analysis more transparent, preparing several background papers that describe CBO's methods of forecasting revenues and evaluate the agency's projections record. I know my colleagues join me in extending our thanks and appreciation to Mark for his service to our Nation. We wish him well in his retirement from CBO and hope he will continue in future years to lend his expertise to the analysis of important tax policy issues.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, when we debated the Dodd-Frank bill in 2010, I concentrated most of my effort on talking about the third portion-- the third third of the bill; it is one of those several-hundred page bills again--but this was kind of hidden at the end, something called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, known as the CFPB. I opposed its creation during the debate. I opposed it because it is not a government agency under any way, shape, form, or rule that we have. There is no control whatsoever over this group. The makeup of the Bureau is quite unique in that a sole Director, rather than a bipartisan commission, is the singular decision maker of the agency, and it doesn't even require approval by Congress for who that person is or the length of their term. Furthermore, the Bureau is not subjected to the congressional appropriations process, having guaranteed money from the Federal Reserve to fund the agency's existence. How does that work? Well, they get a percentage of the revenue of the Federal Reserve that would normally come to the Federal Government and then be allocated. They get it before it comes to the Federal Government, so they are outside the control of an appropriations process. They have guaranteed money. Not only do they have guaranteed money, they have a guaranteed inflation factor built into their money. It is feasible that with enough inflation, they could control the entire revenue from the Federal Reserve. That funding source is more assured than Social Security. And if the agency is running amuck, Congress has no ability to use the appropriations process to bring oversight to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. That is a great name. It seems to protect it, even if that is not primarily what it seems to be doing. I am only picking on a very small portion of that with this bill. You may be familiar with something called the transparent General Schedule for Federal employees, often referred to as the ``GS scale.'' It is the primary way that the government ensures that Federal employee salaries are appropriate and reasonable. This pay scale, however, doesn't apply to the least accountable agency in the Federal Government--you guessed it, the CFPB. At the CFPB, the Director has the sole discretion to determine employees' salaries. Government employees at the CFPB--if you want to call them government employees, because they are really outside any control by the government, either the executive branch or legislative branch, and it takes a court case to get it to the judicial branch-- government employees at the CFPB receive some of the highest paychecks of all Federal workers. According to data my office obtained from the Office of Personnel Management and the CFPB itself, there were over 170 employees at the CFPB who were paid salaries in 2017 that ranged from $180,000 to $259,000. To put this in perspective, in 2017, the highest paid appointees in the White House were paid salaries of $179,000-- $1,000 less than the minimum of these 170 employees at the CFPB. Over 170 employees at the CFPB receive more pay than the highest paid White House staffers, and 102 employees of the CFPB make more in annual salary than any of our State Governors. A Supreme Court Justice is paid an annual salary of $251,000. Six staff members at the CFPB were paid more than that, and there is no control, so it can go higher. It is based on what the Director approves. In 2017, approximately 47 employees had a salary higher than the Vice President's. It is true that top executives at the big banks can make a hefty penny in their industry, but the whole of the American banking industry doesn't see this type of wealth. These are our community bankers and our credit unions and institutions that support Main Street America. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average bank employee salary is $63,000. And guess who makes more than these bankers. Their regulators, like the CFPB. Last year, Congressman Sean Duffy of Wisconsin and I introduced the CFPB Pay Fairness Act to rein in the CFPB's rates of pay. I am offering this bill as an amendment to the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act. The amendment requires the Director of the CFPB to set the basic rate of pay in accordance with the GS scale--the same fairness scale that everybody else works under. The GS scale provides information to the public on the credentials of Federal employees, with each level requiring qualification standards, such as education and years of experience. As it stands, the CFPB does not provide any qualification standards for its employees' pay, nor is it transparent to the American people or even the CFPB's own employees. This proved to be an issue when in 2016 the Government Accountability Office investigated allegations of discrimination at the CFPB. Thirty-three percent of the CFPB employee respondents to the GAO--Government Accountability Office--indicated they believed their pay was not commensurate with their skills, work experience, and education. Because of the way the CFPB was created in the Dodd-Frank legislation that we are working on right now, Congress failed to impose the usual constitutional checks to rein in this behavior. Congress needs to bring accountability to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and we should start with the Bureau's lavish spending on employee salaries. This commonsense amendment would ensure that the Bureau is keeping employees' salaries in line with the regular government pay scale, which promotes transparency and equity in pay across the Federal Government. There is a lot more that I could say about this Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but I want to concentrate on the fact that they are paid substantially more than anybody else in government, and we have no control over it. There is only one person who does, and that is the one who gets the job as Director--which was taken to court since even the President can't fire that person, no matter which President it is. So this is just one of the things that make it an unusual organization. From my experience, they aren't doing what they said they would do at the time that they said it needed to be created. Instead, they are harassing different businesses until these businesses pay a fine, and that fine goes into a slush fund for them that they can give out to ones that we would never approve for any money from the Federal Government. They have this guaranteed revenue. In checking, I find out they are supposed to spend all of it. The Director can set the salaries and has very little firing capability to go along with that. But they are paid an inordinate amount compared to everybody else in government, including Supreme Court Justices, the Vice President, and other people who work around here. The highest paid people at the White House make $1,000 less than the lowest paid of these 170 workers. I hope people consider this amendment to bring a degree of fairness and transparency so we know what the agency is doing. It is only in the way of salaries, but that is a good starting place. I yield the floor.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I wish to submit to the Senate the budget scorekeeping report for February 2018. The report compares current-law levels of spending and revenues with the amounts the Senate agreed to in the budget resolution for fiscal year 2018, H. Con. Res. 71. This information is necessary for the Senate Budget Committee to determine whether budget points of order lie against pending legislation. The Republican staff of the Senate Budget Committee and the Congressional Budget Office, CBO, prepared this report pursuant to section 308(b) of the Congressional Budget Act, CBA. The enforceable levels included in this report reflect all of the numerical adjustments made to the resolution since its passage. The information contained in this report captures legislative activity from the passage of the budget resolution through February 26, 2018. Republican Budget Committee staff prepared tables 1-4 of this report. Table 1 gives the amount by which each Senate authorizing committee exceeds or is below its allocation for budget authority and outlays under the most recently adopted budget resolution. This information is used for enforcing committee allocations pursuant to section 302 of the CBA. For this reporting period, 11 of the 16 authorizing committees are in compliance with their allocations. As previously reported, the Senate Veterans' Affairs, Energy and Natural Resources, and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committees remain in breach of their allocations. Since my last report on January 18, 2018, both the Finance and Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committees have increased spending beyond allowable levels. Through the enactment of both the fourth continuing resolution, H.R. 195, P.L. 115-120, and the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, BBA18, H.R. 1892, P.L. 115-123, which contained packages of healthcare extenders, the Finance Committee breached its allocation by $76.9 billion in budget authority and $7.8 billion in outlays over 10 years. Enactment of the BBA18 also produced the Agriculture Committee breach. That law changed the treatment of seed cotton, dairy, and livestock under Federal farm programs, increasing both budget authority and outlays by $1.2 billion over the 2018-2027 period. Table 2 gives the amount by which the Senate Committee on Appropriations is below or exceeds the statutory spending limits. This information is used to determine points of order related to the spending caps found in section 312 and section 314 of the CBA. While no full-year appropriations bills have been enacted for fiscal year 2018, subcommittees are charged with permanent and advanced appropriations that first become available in that year and any full-year standalone provisions included in continuing resolutions. This table reflects one change from my January report. The continuing resolution portion of the BBA18 included full-year authority for the Secretary of Energy to draw down and sell oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, reducing budget authority and outlays by $315 million in 2018. The budget resolution contains two points of order limiting the use of changes in mandatory programs in appropriations bills, CHIMPS. Tables 3 and 4 show compliance with fiscal year 2018 limits for overall CHIMPS and the Crime Victims Fund CHIMP, respectively. This information is used for determining points of order under sections 4102 and 4103 of H. Con. Res. 71, respectively. Notably, there have not been any full- year bills enacted thus far for fiscal year 2018 that include CHIMPS. In addition to the tables provided by Budget Committee Republican staff, I am submitting CBO tables, which I will use to enforce budget totals approved by the Congress. CBO provided a spending and revenue report for fiscal year 2018, which helps enforce aggregate spending levels in budget resolutions under CBA section 311. In its report, CBO annualizes the temporary effects of the latest continuing resolution, which provides funding through March 23, 2018. For the enforcement of budgetary aggregates, the Budget Committee excludes this temporary funding. As such, the committee views current-law levels as being $814.6 billion and $463.7 billion below budget resolution levels for budget authority and outlays, respectively. Details on fiscal year 2018 levels can be found in CBO's second table. Current-law revenues continue to be in excess of the levels assumed by the budget resolution. On-budget revenue levels currently exceed assumed levels by $3.5 billion in fiscal year 2018, $41.9 billion over the fiscal year 2018-2022 period, and $98.4 billion over the fiscal year 2018-2027 period. Since my last filing both the fourth continuing resolution and BBA18 contained provisions that reduced revenues compared with current law. The fourth continuing resolution included $25.4 billion in on-budget revenue loss over 10 years related to delays in several health-related taxes. The BBA18 contained an $11.6 billion revenue loss largely as a consequence of a package of tax extenders. This BBA18 figure omits $1.8 billion in revenue increases attributable to language related to Federal Reserve Surplus Funds, which are required to be omitted under current scorekeeping rules. Social Security outlay levels are consistent with the budget resolution's figures for all enforceable periods. Social Security revenues, however, are $446 million below levels assumed for fiscal year 2018, $1.9 billion greater over the next 5 years, and $28.8 billion greater than assumed over the next 10 years. These revenue effects are attributable to the tax provisions from the fourth continuing resolution, BBA18, and the tax reconciliation bill enacted in December 2017. CBO's report also provides information needed to enforce the Senate pay-as-you-go, PAYGO, rule. The Senate's PAYGO scorecard currently shows deficit reduction of $24 million in fiscal year 2018, $14 million over the fiscal year 2017-2022, and $13 million over fiscal year 2017- 2027 periods. For fiscal year 2018, legislation has been enacted that would reduce outlays by $24 million. Over the fiscal year 2017-2022 period, legislation has been enacted that CBO estimates will decrease outlays by $13 million and increase revenues by $1 million. Over the fiscal year 2017-2027 period, legislation has been enacted that CBO estimates will decrease outlays by $11 million and increase revenues by $2 million. Notably absent from these amounts are the direct spending and revenue effects from the fourth continuing resolution and BBA18. This is due to provisions in those measures that mandated the exclusion of those budgetary effects both from the Senate and statutory PAYGO scorecards. The Senate's PAYGO rule is enforced by section 4106 of H. Con. Res. 71. Also included in this submission is a table tracking the Senate's budget enforcement activity on the floor since Congress adopted the budget resolution. No points of order have been raised on the floor since my last filing. All years in the accompanying tables are fiscal years. I ask unanimous consent that the accompanying tables be printed in the Record.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, section 251 of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, BBEDCA, establishes statutory limits on discretionary spending and allows for various adjustments to those limits, while sections 302 and 314(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 allow the chairman of the Budget Committee to establish and make revisions to allocations, aggregates, and levels consistent with those adjustments. The Senate recently considered and passed H.R. 1892 with S. Amdt. 1930, the text of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, which provided emergency funding for disaster relief. This legislation includes language that increases security discretionary budget authority by $1,170 million and nonsecurity discretionary budget authority by $83,266 million this year. This measure contains provisions that designate these appropriations as emergency funding pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A)(i) of BBEDCA. CBO estimates that this budget authority will increase discretionary outlays by $11,185 million in 2018. As a result of the aforementioned designations, I am revising the allocation to the Committee on Appropriations by increasing the revised security and nonsecurity budget authority limits and the amount of allowable outlays by the amounts listed above. Further, I am increasing the budgetary aggregates for 2018 by those same amounts. I ask unanimous consent that the accompanying tables, which provide details about the adjustment, be printed in the Record.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Madam President, I wish to submit to the Senate the budget scorekeeping report for January 2018. The report compares current-law levels of spending and revenues with the amounts the Senate agreed to in the budget resolution for fiscal year 2018, H. Con. Res. 71. This information is necessary for the Senate Budget Committee to determine whether budget points of order lie against pending legislation. The Republican staff of the Senate Budget Committee and the Congressional Budget Office CBO prepared this report pursuant to section 308(b) of the Congressional Budget Act, CBA. The enforceable levels included in this report reflect all of the numerical adjustments made to the resolution since its passage. These adjustments include an update to enforceable levels for legislation enacted after the June 2017 CBO baseline was released but before enactment of the resolution, October 30, 2017; a revision to aggregates and allocations to accommodate legislation fulfilling the budget resolution's reconciliation instructions, December 19, 2017; and a revision to aggregates and the Appropriations Committee's allocation for emergency spending found in Fiscal Year 2018's third continuing resolution, H.R. 1370, December 21, 2017. The information contained in this report captures legislative activity from the passage of the budget resolution through January 11, 2018. Republican Budget Committee staff prepared tables 1 through 4 of this report. Table 1 gives the amount by which each Senate authorizing committee exceeds or is below its allocation for budget authority and outlays under the most recently adopted budget resolution. This information is used for enforcing committee allocations pursuant to section 302 of the CBA. For this reporting period, 13 of the 16 authorizing committees are in compliance with their allocations. First, the Veterans' Affairs and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committees violated their allocations in December 2017, the former with a $2.1 billion extension of the Veterans Choice Program and the latter through a package of health extenders. Both of these extensions were included as separate divisions on the Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2018, P.L. 115-96. The Energy and Natural Resources Committee violated its allocation earlier this month with the passage of the Western Oregon Tribal Fairness Act, P.L. 115-103, which is estimated to increase spending by $5 million over the next 10 years. The Armed Services Committee, on the other hand, reduced spending over the budget window. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018, P.L. 115-91, produced $16 million in outlay savings over the enforceable window. Table 2 gives the amount by which the Senate Committee on Appropriations is below or exceeds the statutory spending limits. This information is used to determine points of order related to the spending caps found in section 312 and section 314 of the CBA. While no full-year appropriations bills have been enacted for Fiscal Year 2018, subcommittees are charged with permanent and advanced appropriations that first become available in that year. The budget resolution contains two points of order limiting the use of changes in mandatory programs in appropriations bills, CHIMPS. Tables 3 and 4 show compliance with Fiscal Year 2018 limits for overall CHIMPS and the Crime Victims Fund CHIMP, respectively. This information is used for determining points of order under section 4102 and section 4103 of H. Con. Res. 71, respectively. Notably, there have not been any full-year bills enacted thus far for Fiscal Year 2018 that include CHIMPS. In addition to the tables provided by Budget Committee Republican staff, I am submitting CBO tables, which I will use to enforce budget totals approved by the Congress. CBO provided a spending and revenue report for Fiscal Year 2018, which helps enforce aggregate spending levels in budget resolutions under CBA section 311. In its report, CBO annualizes the temporary effects of the latest continuing resolution, which provides funding through January 19, 2018. For the enforcement of budgetary aggregates, the Budget Committee excludes this temporary funding. As such, the committee views current-law levels as being $836.3 billion and $468.6 billion below budget resolution levels for budget authority and outlays, respectively. Current-law revenues continue to be in excess of the levels assumed by the budget resolution. On-budget revenue levels currently exceed assumed levels by $17.2 billion in Fiscal Year 2018, $84.3 billion over the Fiscal Year 2018-2022 period, and $135.4 billion over the Fiscal Year 2018-2027 period. These figures reflect current enforceable levels following the use of the reserve fund found in section 3003 of H. Con. Res. 71 for H.R. 1, which is commonly referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, P.L. 115-97. Social Security outlay levels are consistent with the budget resolution's figures for all enforceable periods. Social Security revenues, however, are $500 million below levels assumed for Fiscal Year 2018, $2.8 billion greater over the next 5 years and $26.9 billion greater than assumed over the next 10 years. These off-budget effects were generated by the reconciliation bill but not covered by the reserve fund adjustment filed, which pertained only to on-budget enforcement. CBO's report also provides information needed to enforce the Senate pay-as-you-go, PAYGO rule. The Senate's PAYGO scorecard currently shows deficit reduction of $24 million in Fiscal Year 2018, $14 million over the Fiscal Year 2017-2022, and $15 million over Fiscal Year 2017-2027 periods. For Fiscal Year 2018, legislation has been enacted that would reduce outlays by $24 million. Over the Fiscal Year 2017-2022 period, legislation has been enacted that CBO estimates will decrease outlays by $13 million and increase revenues by $1 million. Over the Fiscal Year 2017-2027 period, legislation has been enacted that CBO estimates will decrease outlays by $11 million and increase revenues by $4 million. Notably absent from these amounts are the veterans and health extenders from the third continuing resolution discussed earlier. This is due to a provision in that measure that mandated the exclusion of those budgetary effects from both the Senate and statutory PAYGO scorecards. The Senate's PAYGO rule is enforced by section 4106 of H. Con. Res. 71, the Fiscal Year 2018 budget resolution. Finally, included in this submission is a table tracking the Senate's budget enforcement activity on the floor since the adoption of the budget resolution. During this reporting period, there were seven budgetary points of order raised in the Senate. Six of these points of order were raised during consideration of fiscal year 2018 reconciliation legislation. Votes to waive the CBA with respect to each of the points of order, ranging from Byrd Rule violations to committee allocation breaches, failed. Senator Rand Paul raised the final budgetary point of order, for a violation of the Budget Committee's jurisdiction, against H.R. 1370, the third continuing resolution. The Senate waived the CBA with respect to this point of order by a vote of 91-8. All years in the accompanying tables are fiscal years. I ask unanimous consent that the accompanying tables be printed in the Record.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr President, section 251 of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, BBEDCA, establishes statutory limits on discretionary spending and allows for various adjustments to those limits, while sections 302 and 314(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 allow the chairman of the Budget Committee to establish and make revisions to allocations, aggregates, and levels consistent with those adjustments. The Senate is considering the House Amendment to H.R. 1370, the Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2018, which provides emergency funding for national security accounts. This legislation includes language that increases security discretionary budget authority by $4,686 million this year and designates it as emergency funding pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A)(1) of BBEDCA. CBO estimates that this budget authority will increase discretionary outlays by $803 million in 2018. As a result of the aforementioned designations, I am revising the allocation to the Committee on Appropriations by increasing the revised security budget authority limit by $4,686 million and outlays by $803 million this year. Further, I am increasing the budgetary aggregates for 2018 by those same amounts. I ask unanimous consent that the accompanying tables, which provide details about the adjustment, be printed in the Record.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, we stand today on the precipice of the most sweeping change to our Nation's tax system in over 30 years. This is a historic moment, as this distinguished body begins final consideration of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act--tax reform that will help boost America's economy, create more jobs, and leave more money in people's paychecks. The last time we considered tax reform similar to this magnitude was 1986. To help remind us how much our country, its economy, and the people have changed since that time, let's review some of the events of that year. In 1986, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 1,895--sure that 20,000 would never be broken, and it wasn't until after the last election. It now stands at over 24,000. A gallon of gas cost just 89 cents. Today it is close to $2.50. We still used land lines to phone our loved ones. Iconic movies such as ``Top Gun'' and ``Aliens'' opened. Americans were watching TV shows like ``Dynasty'' and ``Hill Street Blues.'' The Associated Press chose NBA star Larry Bird as one of the Athletes of the Year. President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which ushered in deep tax rate cuts for American families and an overhaul of our complicated Tax Code. When he signed the bill, Reagan commented on the length of the journey and noted that some people thought it would never happen. Today, too, some have asserted that tax reform either cannot or should not happen, but as our strongly optimistic President said in 1986--and as I continue to believe--the American people ``haven't made this the freest country and the mightiest economic force on this planet by shrinking from challenges.'' Reagan noted: This country was founded on faith in the individual, not groups or classes, but faith in resources and bounty of each and every separate human soul. Our Founding Fathers designed a Democratic form of government to enlist the individual's energies. For that reason, I want to remind my colleagues about the hard work that brought us here. It is a journey that has been years in the making under the leadership of both sides of the aisle. It is one we started and will finish for the benefit of the American people and the health of the U.S. economy. I am proud of the work of the Finance and Budget Committees, and I have had the honor to play a role with both. The Finance Committee held more than 70 hearings on how the Tax Code can be improved and streamlined to work better for all Americans. Almost 3 years ago, Finance Chairman Hatch and Ranking Member Wyden convened bipartisan tax reform working groups to analyze challenges of our outdated Tax Code and develop policy recommendations for comprehensive tax reform. The conclusions reached by these groups helped identify the issues for reform and shape the contours of the legislation we are considering now. It is worth noting that the entire fiscal year 2018 budget reconciliation process has been open, transparent, and subject to regular order, starting with the passage of the Senate budget resolution. The Senate Budget Committee marked up the bill over 2 days and accepted amendments from both sides of the aisle to make the resolution stronger. In fact, for the first time ever, the minority received a copy of the chairman's budget document 5 days prior to the start of the markup. According to many of my colleagues, it was one of the most transparent budget resolution markups in history. The budget resolution--complete with the document reconciliation instructions--was then debated on the floor. This was an open floor process that allowed every Senator the opportunity to offer and vote on amendments to improve the resolution before its final passage. Last month, the Senate Finance Committee held a 4-day markup before approving tax reform legislation designed to modernize our Tax Code. The markup lasted 23 hours and 34 minutes over the course of those 4 days. Of the more than 350 amendments filed, 69 were considered in committee. Amendments offered by both Democrats and Republicans were adopted. Since then, both Chambers of Congress have passed similar versions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and over the past 2 weeks, conferees worked tirelessly to resolve and bridge the differences between the two bills and come to an agreement on a final piece of legislation. In this Chamber, the legislation reflects the outstanding work and leadership of Finance Chairman Hatch and Energy Committee Chairman Murkowski in developing legislative recommendations that adhere to the budget resolution's reconciliation instructions, and I thank them for their efforts. I also thank my Senate colleagues who earlier this month supported the Senate passage of the Tax Cuts and Job Act and whose advice and consent during the conference has shaped the final bill. The legislation is truly a reflection of the broad range and consensus of Members who engaged with this process. Throughout my work on this bill, I have carried with me the many lessons I have learned from when I owned and operated a small business or when I worked as an accountant. I have been led by one singular purpose, to help improve the lives of millions of hard-working American families, especially the residents of my own State of Wyoming. I am pleased with the outcome of our work because I believe it includes meaningful changes that will help individuals and families struggling to move up the economic ladder. The tax plan includes reforms that will help grow the economy, that will create more jobs, and that will simplify taxes. It provides American workers and families with an across-the-board tax cut and puts more money in people's pockets. It lets Americans have a greater say as to how to use their hard-earned money. The changes will help small businesses in our communities thrive and encourage the largest multinational companies to remain in the United States, investing profits here instead of overseas--not a bad wish list for Santa. Under the plan, Americans will reap tax savings from reduced tax rates, tax savings from a higher standard deduction, which creates a larger zero tax bracket for low-income individuals and increases many people's tax refunds. It also includes a child tax credit that doubles in size to $2,000 to help struggling families and all this while preserving important deductions for medical expenses, charities, homeowners, and State and local taxes. Our farmers and ranchers will receive stronger protections from the reach of the death tax to help them more easily pass on their businesses to future generations-- eliminating a double taxation. Businesses small and large will benefit from a range of tax breaks, including lower tax rates, expanded opportunities to expense the purchase of capital assets, a new 20-percent deduction for many unincorporated businesses, and international tax reforms to give the U.S.-headquartered global companies a strong competitive footing in the global marketplace. These are changes you can take to the bank. Now it is time for us to act. It is time for us to modernize our outdated Tax Code so our Nation can remain competitive in the 21st century economy. The code, as it now stands, hurts American workers and hampers economic growth. Along with reforms to the code, this bill will also promote economic growth. For too long, some have accepted the presumption of a U.S. economy that will not grow as strongly as it has in the past. As a supporter of this bill, I reject that false narrative. Better tax policy will boost the value of everything we produce, and this will mean more revenue for the Federal Government. I am tired of the accusations that Republican budget hawks--and that definitely includes me--are willing to throw in the towel and accept a $1.5 trillion deficit over the next 10 years. I am still a deficit hawk. Here is why. Claims to the contrary that this bill will go unpaid for are based on an incomplete analysis of the tax bill. We have a Congressional Budget Office tasked with impartially evaluating any legislation we do. Unfortunately, its evaluations are tied to static scoring. That means it is evaluated without considering the underlying economic effects of these changes. Let me repeat that. The Congressional Budget Office is tied to static scoring. That means it is evaluated without considering the underlying economic effects of these changes. The problem really isn't how much revenue we will have under the new bill. I believe it will increase revenue as the tax cut did in the 1980s. The problem is spending. We never make budget cuts. In Washington, a cut in the budget brings screams if an agency or program doesn't get as much as it requested, even if it gets more than it ever had before. That is not a budget cut, but that is how it works in Washington. If we continue this way, we will not ever get our spending in line. For years, I have tried to institute the Penny Plan, where we just cut one penny in real cuts from where we have been. It gets lip service but not votes. It is a lot easier to give away money than it is to take away money, even pennies. So we need a new approach. We need to grow the economy. We need businesses to do well so more tax money will come in. We need individuals to make more so more tax money will come in. That has been done before with tax cuts. Unfortunately, when the tax cuts performed to provide more revenue, we spent twice what we brought in. So here is what I have done as Budget chairman. A good economy brings in more tax money. Our economy has been limping along. Last year, it grew at a mere 1.6 percent GDP--which is private sector growth, not government growth. The norm for the United States is 3.2 percent private sector growth--not like we saw during the past 8 years when this growth remained below 3 percent. In fact, since this President got elected, the growth has been 3.2 percent already. In the fourth quarter of 2017, we may almost hit 4 percent. There is a lot of hope in America. Every tenth-of-a-percent increase in GDP brings in $273 billion in taxes over 10 years. If we could raise that anemic 1.9 percent to a mere 2.4 percent GDP, we can recover the deficit effect of the tax cuts. If we can bring up the productivity in the private sector--the GDP--to its norm of 3.2 percent, we will pay down significant debt over the 10-year window. The Council of Economic Advisers and some 130 economists have agreed with me. They say the balancing point of 2.4 percent is way too low, and 3.2 percent GDP is much more reasonable. Some even predict 4 percent growth to our economy. That is how you can be a deficit hawk and cut taxes. You just have to bet America can do better. Actually, we are just betting that we can be as good as we used to be. Our American spirit should say: ``We can do a lot better than that.'' The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will help our economy expand. It will provide tax relief to hard-working Americans and make changes to our Tax Code that businesses large and small need to boost the economy and create jobs. Ultimately, we know increased revenues alone are not going to solve our long-term budget and debt problems because Washington's real problem isn't revenue; Washington has a spending problem. I urge my colleagues today to finish the task before us. Let's pass this bill to make critical and long overdue changes to our Tax Code that will jump-start our economy. Our country needs it, hard-working American families need it, and they deserve to have the opportunity to make more choices about how their hard-earned money should be used. In closing, I again remind my colleagues of the words of President Reagan: Let's not let this magnificent moment slip away. Tax relief is in sight. Let's make it a reality. . . . We can do it. And if you help, we will do it this year. Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, pursuant to section 904 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 and the waiver provisions of applicable budget resolutions, I move to waive all applicable sections of that act and applicable budget resolutions for purposes of the conference report to accompany H.R. 1, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I yield back all remaining time for the majority.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Madam 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.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Madam President, section 3003 of H. Con. Res. 71, the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018, allows the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee to revise the allocations, aggregates, and levels in the budget resolution for legislation considered under the resolution's reconciliation instructions. I find that the conference report to accompany H.R. 1 fulfills the conditions found in section 3003 of H. Con. Res. 71. Accordingly, I am revising the allocations to the Committee on Finance, the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and other enforceable budgetary levels to account for the budgetary effects of the amendment. This adjustment supersedes the adjustment I previously made for S. Amdt. 1855 on December 1, 2017. I ask unanimous consent that the accompanying tables, which provide details about the adjustment, be printed in the Record.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I have 3 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 Tuesday, December 19, 2017, at 10 a.m. to conduct a hearing on the following nominations: Scott Garrett, of New Jersey, to be President, Kimberly A. Reed, of West Virginia, to be First Vice President, Mark L. Greenblatt, of Maryland, to be Inspector General, and Spencer Bachus III, of Alabama, Judith Delzoppo Pryor, of Ohio, and Claudia Slacik, of New York, each to be a Member of the Board of Directors, all of the Export-Import Bank. Committee on Foreign Relations The Committee on Foreign Relations is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, December 19, 2017, at 2 p.m. to conduct a hearing on the following nominations: Peter Hendrick Vrooman, of New York, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Rwanda, and Joel Danies, of Maryland, to be Ambassador to the Gabonese Republic, and to serve concurrently and without additional compensation as Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, both of the Department of State. Committee on Rules The Committee on Rules is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, December 19, 2017, at 2:30 p.m. to conduct a hearing entitled ``A resolution to improve procedures for the consideration of nomination in the Senate''.

Mr. ENZI

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

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that all time be yielded back.

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, today I wish to speak about the important legislation we are now considering. Earlier this week, I explained some of the reasons the Senate needs to consider tax reform legislation and gave a general overview of the bill. Today I want to talk about some of the specific provisions of the bill. First, I want to talk about the relief this bill provides to hard- working Americans. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act reduces tax rates for individuals, almost doubles the standard deduction, and doubles the child tax credit. This will allow families to keep more of the money they earn in their pockets. The independent Tax Foundation estimates that this will amount to about $2,500 more in after-tax income for a middle-income family in Wyoming. This bill also will provide relief to small, family-owned businesses that currently employ the majority of the private sector in Wyoming. The bill cuts taxes for these businesses while enhancing deductions that are important to them, like the section 179 deduction that promotes business investment. The Tax Foundation believes changes like this will add more than 1,700 full time jobs in my home State. While these individual Tax Code provisions are important to so many Wyomingites and small businesses in my home State, I am also especially proud of the international tax provisions in this bill, which I worked on with Senator Portman and Chairman Hatch. Right now, our tax rules are written so that many businesses could be better off if they are headquartered outside of the United States. Those rules, which were written in the 1960s, are completely outdated. Many of the U.S. major trading partners, including Canada, Japan, and the U.K., have moved to what are called ``territorial'' tax systems. Those systems tax the income generated within their borders and exempt foreign earnings from tax. The United States, on the other hand, taxes the worldwide income of U.S. companies and provides deferral of U.S. tax until the foreign earnings are brought home. Deferring the tax incentivizes companies to leave their money abroad and invest it there. That is certainly not a recipe for U.S. growth and U.S. job creation. The dominance of U.S.-headquartered companies in the global marketplace is waning. In 2000, 36 percent of the Fortune Global 500 companies were headquartered in the United States. In 2009, that number dropped to 28 percent. In 2017, we are down to 26 percent. Clearly, America is losing ground, and our international tax rules are part of the problem. I have been working to change that since the 112th Congress, when I introduced the United States Job Creation and International Tax Reform Act. My goal then was to incentivize American companies to create jobs in the United States while leveling the playing field for U.S. companies in the global marketplace. I believe the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act achieves that goal. This bill would reform and modernize the rules for taxing the global operations of American companies. These reforms, along with reducing our corporate tax rate, would help make America a more attractive location to base a business that serves customers around the world. With these provisions in law, families would hear fewer stories about how U.S. companies are moving their profits to tax haven countries and avoiding U.S. tax on those earnings. Families would hear fewer stories about how U.S. multinational companies set up post office boxes in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland without an employee or officer of the company anywhere in sight and attribute a significant portion of their foreign earnings to these jurisdictions. Instead, families would hear more stories about how U.S. companies are generating the ideas and inventions of tomorrow right here in America. The international tax rules are not easy or simple, and a lot of work went into these provisions. I want to again thank Senator Portman and Chairman Hatch for their work with me in this area. I look forward to continuing to work with them and the rest of my colleagues to pass this bill that our country desperately needs. Thank you.

Mr. ENZI. Madam President, the Sanders amendment is nongermane and would gut this legislation. The bill before us does not cut Social Security. It does not cut Medicare. It does not cut Medicaid benefits. So I encourage my colleagues to oppose the Sanders amendment and--does the Senator have any time remaining?

Mr. ENZI. I yield back the remainder of my time. The pending amendment No. 1720 does not produce a change in outlays or a change in revenues, and this is extraneous to the instruction in H. Con. Res. 71, the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018. Therefore, I raise a point of order against this measure pursuant to section 313(b)(1)(A) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.

Mr. ENZI. Madam President, while this amendment expands the child tax credit provisions, it makes the credit available to fewer taxpayers. It also raises the corporate tax rate to 25 percent. The underlying bill already provides for a generous enhanced child tax credit with increased refundability that reaches far up into the middle class, giving relief to millions of families. This amendment would undermine the balance struck in the drafting of this bill and diminish its potential to generate growth. Has all time expired?

Mr. ENZI. The pending amendment No. 1854 would cause the underlying legislation to exceed the Finance Committee's section 302(a) allocation of new budget authority or outlays. Therefore, I raise a point of order against this measure pursuant to section 302(f) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, earlier this week, I said it was historic that we began the consideration of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Today is even more significant because we are one step closer to enacting that bill. The chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Hatch, has called this a once-in-a-generation opportunity. I agree. As an accountant, one of my goals when I came to the Senate in 1996 was to serve on the Finance Committee. When I joined the committee in 2009, I said that positive, pro-growth changes to our tax policy could help us out of the economic downturn. I believe this bill makes those types of changes and will jump-start our economy. This week, 137 economists agreed with that assessment. In a letter to Senators and Representatives, these economists wrote: ``Economic growth will accelerate if the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passes, leading to more jobs, higher wages, and a better standard of living for the American people.'' My colleagues on the other side of the aisle dispute that analysis. But after a decade of below-average growth and official projections showing real economic growth will average less than 2 percent annually over the next decade, isn't it time that we tried something new? Some of my colleagues have also suggested that this bill hasn't gone through regular order. I have already reminded folks of the 70 tax hearings in the Senate Finance Committee held over the last 6 years, but that isn't all we have done. In the last Congress, Chairman Hatch organized five bipartisan groups to propose changes to the Tax Code. I was party to those groups, which made many recommendations that have informed this package. I would say that those working groups were also bipartisan. While I don't sit on the Energy Committee, I understand that Chairman Murkowski led a similarly robust process. The issue of oil and gas exploration and development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been an issue since before I was a Senator. We have been considering and debating the matter for years. This year alone, Senator Murkowski has introduced a bill, held a hearing, and then marked up legislation on this issue. Now the bill that is a product of the Finance and Energy Committee's efforts is on the floor. We have not bypassed committees. We have not filled the tree. We have not cut off debate by filing cloture, which was a common practice in recent years. I think this is as open and transparent a process as I have seen in many years, and I appreciate the leader, I appreciate Chairman Hatch, and I appreciate Chairman Murkowski for their work to make that happen. I also want to thank my Budget Committee staff for their work on this bill. In particular, I want to thank my staff director, Betsy McDonnell, who has done a remarkable job shepherding both the budget resolution and reconciliation bill through the committee and on the floor. She has been new to that position. She has been in a number of positions in the Senate that trained her well to be able to do that, and she did a marvelous job. I also want to thank her team: Matt Giroux, Paul Vinovich, Becky Cole, Thomas Fuller, Elizabeth Keys, Joe Brenckle, Jim Neill, Steve Robinson, Greg D'Angelo, Tom Borck, Rick Berger, Jeremy Dalrymple, David Ditch, Susan Eckerly, Alison McGuire, Will Morris, Steve Townsend, Kelsie Wendelberger, and Eric Ueland. I would like to thank my personal office staff who worked hard on the tax provisions in this package and kept all of my other issues going at the same time. Particularly, I want to thank Bart Massey, who is a CPA and who has been my special person to work on these finance issues with me for more than 3 years. I also want to thank Tara Shaw, my chief of staff, who had to put together a new staff because a lot of good people I had were taken to the administration and to the Budget Committee. She did a marvelous job on that. Landon Stropko is the legislative director, and he has coordinated well. I thank Liz Schwartz, Natalia Riggin, Aniela Butler, Charlie Carroll, Shawna Newsome, Garnett Decosimo, Chris Lydon, Aron Wehr, Dylan Mitchell, Coy Knobel, Max D'Onofrio, Rachel Vliem, and the rest of my Wyoming team that worked out in Wyoming collecting the information and doing casework out there while we got this work done. I thank the Budget Committee's bipartisan staff: Kim Proctor, Katie Smith, George Woodall, Grace Bruno, and Kevin Walsh, as well as Celina Inman, who has been on loan to us from the Government Publishing Office. We have also been supported by the great work of our leadership, the floor, and the cloakroom staff. Specific thanks are owed to Sharon Soderstrom, Hazen Marshall, Jane Lee, Brandon Dunn in the leader's office, Monica Popp, John Chapuis, Emily Kirlin, Sam Beaver, Jody Wright, and Noah McCullough in the whip's office and especially Laura Dove, who coordinates all of this activity on the floor and who knows the rules backward and forward and is able to give good advice--some very definite advice sometimes but always helpful advice--and Robert Duncan, Chris Tuck, Megan Mercer, Tony Hanagan, Mike Smith, Katherine Kilroy, and Chloe Barz in the cloakroom. I would really be remiss if we didn't thank the Senate Parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, and her team: Leigh Hilderbrand, Michael Beaver, and Allison Markoski. Reconciliation bills are subject to special rules and procedures, and I know they have given up a lot of their nights and their weekends, as well as their regular job time, to work in detail on this product. People wouldn't even realize the file cabinets full of precedents that they have to search through as they listen to both sides make cases about what can and can't be in a budget reconciliation bill. There are also many other staffers who deserve to be thanked for their work on this product, including the entire Finance and Energy Committee staffs, but in the interest of time, I will just say that I appreciate them and look forward to working with all of them to help finish enacting this bill that will benefit hard-working Americans and make our economy and country stronger. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Executive Calendar Nos. 510 through 522 and all nominations placed on the Secretary's desk; that the nominations be confirmed, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order; that any statements related to the nominations be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, section 3003 of H. Con. Res. 71, the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018, allows the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee to revise the allocations, aggregates, and levels in the budget resolution for legislation considered under the resolution's reconciliation instructions. I find that S. Amdt. 1855 fulfills the conditions found in section 3003 of H. Con. Res. 71. Accordingly, I am revising the allocations to the Committee on Finance, the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and other enforceable budgetary levels to account for the budgetary effects of the amendment. This adjustment supersedes the adjustment I previously made for the processing of S. Amdt. 1618 on November 29, 2017. This adjustment applies while this amendment is under consideration. Should the amendment be withdrawn or fail, this adjustment will be null and void and the adjustment for S. Amdt. 1618 shall remain active. I ask unanimous consent that the accompanying tables, which provide details about the adjustment, be printed in the Record.