Mitch McConnell

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 292.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, for the information of all of our colleagues, the next vote will occur at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, cloture on the McGuire nomination.

Mr. McCONNELL

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

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. 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 Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions The Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, September 19, 2019, at 9 a.m., to conduct a hearing. Committee on Foreign Relations The Committee on Foreign Relations is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, September 19, 2019, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on the following nominations: Marshall Billingslea of Virginia, to be an Under Secretary of State Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, Mr. Adam Seth Boehler of Louisiana, to be Chief Executive Officer of the United States International Development Finance Corporation, Mr. Michael Pack of Maryland, to be Chief Executive Officer of the Broadcasting Board of Governors. Committee on the Judiciary The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, September 19, 2019, at 10 a.m., to conduct a business meeting and hearing on the following nominations: Halil Suleyman Ozerden, of Mississippi, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit, David B. Barlow, to be United States District Judge for the District of Utah, John Fitzgerald Kness, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois, R. Austin Huffaker, Jr., to be United States District Judge for the Middle District of Alabama, Lee Philip Rudofsky, to be United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas, Justin Reed Walker, to be United States District Judge for the Western District of Kentucky, Eleni Maria Roumel, of Maryland, to be a Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims, and Kenneth Charles Canterbury, Jr., of South Carolina, to be Director, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, W. Stephen Muldrow, to be United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico, Michael D. Baughman, to be United States Marshal for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Kerry Lee Pettingill, to be United States Marshal for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, and Fernando L. G. Sablan, to be United States Marshal for the District of Guam and concurrently United States Marshal for the District of the Northern Mariana Islands, all of the Department of Justice.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 205 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. McCONNELL. I further ask that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 1058, which was received from the House.

Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time. The bill was ordered to a third reading and was read the third time.

Mr. McCONNELL. I know of no further debate on the bill.

Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following Senate resolutions which were submitted earlier today: S. Res. 319, S. Res. 320, and S. Res. 321.

Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I understand that there are two bills at the desk, and I ask for their first reading en bloc.

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I now ask for a second reading, and I object to my own request, all en bloc.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 3 p.m., Monday, September 23; further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, morning business be closed, and the Senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the McGuire nomination; and that finally, notwithstanding the provisions of rule XXII, the cloture motions filed during today's and yesterday's sessions of the Senate ripen at 5:30 p.m., Monday, September 23.

Mr. McCONNELL

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

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I would like to take a moment this morning to mourn the passing of a devoted son of Louisville, KY, and someone I was lucky to call a very dear friend. I can say without exaggeration that David Jones, Sr., was the single most influential friend and mentor I have had in my entire career. I have never forgotten something he told me when I was starting out in Jefferson County. He said: ``The most important word in the English language is `focus.' '' David used his extraordinary focus and many other talents to build an extraordinary American business and to better his community. Whenever a local need had somebody--almost everybody, actually--stumped, David always seemed to end up in the thick of it, forging a path to success. In the days ahead, many will rightly pay tribute to David's brilliance and his determination, but he was also one of the kindest, most decent, most generous individuals I have ever met. I will sorely miss his friendship, and Kentuckians will miss his extraordinary leadership.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on an entirely different matter, today the Senate will have an opportunity to take the first procedural step toward keeping the Federal Government funded and open. At the end of July, the White House and the Speaker of the House reached an agreement to guide the appropriations process. Both parties, both Chambers, and both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue agreed to the terms. We laid out top-line funding targets for defense and nondefense; we swore off poison pill policy riders; and, unlike the past several budget deals, which took a full year to negotiate while appropriations languished, we finished this year's deal much earlier to ensure we had enough time to move the appropriations bills. In other words, congressional leaders and the President laid the ground for a sensible, bipartisan funding process, but instead, over the past week and a half, we have seen our Democratic colleagues suggest that they may try to shoehorn their longstanding disagreements with President Trump into this appropriations process. Even though we all agreed not to insist on poison pills or change existing Presidential authorities, Democrats are threatening to filibuster Chairman Shelby's clean Defense bill over their disagreements with the President on immigration policy. I sure hope that doesn't happen. I hope our Democratic friends will allow the process to move forward when we vote later today. The stakes are high. We are talking about critical resources for the missions of the Department of Defense. Our military commanders have told us that this funding is vital to keeping peace with Putin's Russia, China, and all their efforts to harm America's interests. Just days ago, Saudi Arabian energy facilities literally went up in flames after what appears to be a massive, coordinated attack by Iran. In a world this dangerous, uncertain funding and continuing resolutions will not cut it for our national defense. Our men and women in uniform do not deserve to have the funding for their tools, their training, and their own pay raise, by the way--pay raise--used as leverage by Senate Democrats to try to extract concessions from the White House. So, look, I would urge each of our colleagues to join me today in taking the first step toward fulfilling our obligation to keep this country safe and secure.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on another matter, we are closely monitoring events in the Middle East following that provocative and dangerous Iranian attack on Saudi energy facilities, which included the largest oil processing facility in the entire world. As I said on Monday, Iran's reckless behavior is not just a threat to the region but to the entire global economy, and it must be met with swift consequences from the international community. As the United States and our allies continue to learn more and weigh our options, there has already been one positive lesson that should not go unnoticed. While the attack has shaken global energy markets, to be sure, the United States is in a much better position to weather the storm than we might have been in past decades. For years and years, an international attack of this magnitude would have been virtually guaranteed to roil the U.S. economy and send gas prices soaring for Americans at the pumps, but so far, this time around, analysts don't expect this event to yield the significant impacts we would have seen back in the seventies or even in the nineties. Why is that? The answer is three words: American domestic energy. Over the last decade and often over the strenuous, strenuous objections of Democrats, our Nation has made incredible strides toward energy independence. We have explored new technologies, new methods, and new ways to fuel America's prosperity right here at home, and it is paying off big time. By 2015, our production had become so robust that I led the charge to lift the outdated ban on crude oil exports. Late last year, thanks in part to Republican policies, the United States became a net exporter of oil for the first time in decades. Get this: Across all forms of energy, the Department of Energy projects that next year our Nation will export more energy than we import for the first time since 1953. Let me say that again. Thanks largely to Republican policies, our Nation is poised to become a net energy exporter for the first time since the Eisenhower administration. That is huge progress, not just for our economy but, as we have just been reminded, for our national security as well. You would think the country would be united in celebration, but not everyone is happy. Oh, no. Last week, just days before this massive disruption in the Middle East, House Democrats sent us several bills designed to limit domestic energy development and literally tie America's hands. One of those bills would have shut off exploration in a small portion of ANWR in remote Alaska. They want to reverse something that had been sought for 40 years until Republicans secured it in 2017. So, as far as I can tell from the bills the House keeps sending us, the socialists who are calling the shots over there have never seen a pipeline they didn't want to cancel. They have never seen a pipeline they didn't want to cancel, a responsible development they didn't want to kill, or a step toward American energy independence they didn't want to reverse. Along with the Democratic House, this also seems to describe their party's Presidential candidates. Almost all of them have endorsed the radical idea of ending oil and gas exploration on Federal lands not only offshore but onshore, too. Let me say that again. Almost all of them have endorsed the radical idea of ending oil and gas exploration on Federal lands, not only offshore but onshore, too. That is today's Democratic Party. This ideology has consequences for American prosperity, but it also weakens our Nation's footing in the world. Just days after these Democratic votes, we were offered a sobering reminder of just how important American energy really is. So here is the good news: This Republican Senate is on the job, and we won't let Democrats take us backward. We won't let them reduce our prosperity or make us more vulnerable to overseas chaos. Republicans will keep working to help our Nation thrive.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I enter a motion to reconsider the vote.

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

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask that the Chair lay before the Senate the message to accompany S. 1790. The Presiding Officer laid before the Senate the following message from the House of Representatives: Resolved, That the House insist upon its amendment to the bill (S. 1790), entitled ``An Act to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2020 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes,'' and ask for a conference with the Senate on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses thereon. Compound Motion

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I move that the Senate disagree to the House amendment, agree to the request of the House for conference, and authorize the Chair to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate. Cloture Motion

Mr. McCONNELL. I send a cloture motion to the desk.