Patty Murray

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I want to turn to another issue, and I ask unanimous consent that my remarks appear in the Record before the vote took place.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a fellow on my HELP Committee staff, Nikki Meadows, be granted floor privileges until October 1, 2018.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I come to the floor today to join the vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee, who will be joining me shortly, in urging our colleagues to avoid a completely unnecessary crisis and work together with us to get out our spending bills and get all of our spending bills signed into law. We should be able to do this. I am very proud of the work we have done so far. Under the leadership of the chairman and vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee, we have been able to negotiate and pass bills under regular order in a way we have been unable to do for years. We did this by rejecting the awful and counterproductive budget ideas from President Trump and his administration and by pushing aside poison pill riders that would derail this process--such as attacks on healthcare, higher education, public schools, patient protections, workers' rights, and more. I am particularly proud that we were able to work together and negotiate and pass our LHHS bill through the full Senate, something that has not been done in over a decade. Our bill makes strong investments in families, patients, students, workers, and the middle class, and it rejects poison pill riders. It builds on the strong work we have done to increase access to childcare and early learning and includes targeted funding to address the opioid epidemic, especially in our underserved areas. It includes significant new resources to address the truly alarming issues of maternal mortality, to help us understand why so many women in our country are dying as a result of childbirth and pregnancy and prevent this from happening. The list goes on and on. We still have some work to do, but we should be able to get this done in the coming days. I am going to keep working until we do. However, I am very concerned that President Trump continues to threaten to refuse to sign these bills and shut down the government. Just this week, we saw new reports that he is talking, once again, about shutting down the government to try to get the money for his ill- advised and wasteful border wall. President Trump told his voters that Mexico was going to pay for his wall, so maybe he is talking about shutting down the Mexican Government so that he can get money in Mexican spending bills. But if he is talking about trying to get American taxpayers to foot the bill, that is not going to happen. I hope Republicans in Congress will continue to stand with us to stay the course on these bipartisan bills. We have come far in this process by putting families first and rejecting attempts to insert partisanship and poison pill riders in all of our spending bills. We need to get this done. Thank you, Madam President. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, as ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, I would like to recognize a public servant deeply committed to protecting and improving the health of the American people, Ms. Anne Houser. Anne will retire in January, after a distinguished 48-year career at the National Institutes of Health, where she has for many years been the principal liaison with the Appropriations Committees. Over the course of her career, Anne has worked for eight NIH Directors, performing the essential but often overlooked role of helping the committees understand the agency's research and funding needs. It is the kind of low-key work that takes place behind the scenes, but has been essential to building the case in Congress for sustained increased investment in medical research. No matter the issue, or the time of the day or night that it might arise, Anne has always been there, supporting the case for research that will help lead to cures. Her honest, thoughtful, and helpful advice has been valuable to me and to everyone with whom she worked. In short, Anne has set the gold standard for how agencies can most effectively work with the committees that oversee them. Both within NIH and in Congress, Anne is recognized as a consummate professional and an independent thinker who understands the issues, gets to the bottom of problems, and communicates those issues clearly to Members of Congress, our staff, and to the researchers she works with. Thanks to the dedication of Anne, not only is the NIH working better, but Americans are better off as well. Her absence will be a loss for everyone who depends upon her, but I am glad that she will have more time to spend with her friends and family, and especially her grandson, Alex, of whom she is so proud.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, as ranking member on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and along with my colleague, Senator Alexander, the chairman, I would like to recognize a public servant deeply committed to protecting the health of the American people, Dr. Marcia Crosse. Dr. Crosse will retire on August 31, 2018, after a distinguished 35-year career at the Government Accountability Office, where she is currently a director with the Health Care Team. Over the course of her career, Dr. Crosse led the work behind more than 200 reports and congressional testimonies on a wide range of important public health issues, including the safety of drugs and medical devices; bioterrorism; infectious disease outbreaks such as SARS and the West Nile Virus; pandemic and emergency preparedness; biomedical research; and HIV/AIDS. She has helped shed light on problems that otherwise may have long gone unnoticed. Her work has not only led agencies to take action, but has also informed important legislative changes, including more effective medical device recalls, a risk-based approach to foreign drug inspections, clarification of FDA's authority to oversee drug compounding, and enhanced authority for FDA to better manage drug shortages. Her work has helped to improve the health and safety of families across the country for generations to come, and we are incredibly grateful for her service.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I am very pleased that the Senate is now considering legislation to fund the Departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education for the coming fiscal year. Both bills have been supported by broad bipartisan majorities. The Defense and Labor-HHS appropriations subcommittees are the largest of the committee's 12 subcommittees, with 19 members each, almost one- fifth of the Senate. Despite the diversity of views on our committee, each was reported out of subcommittee and committee with strong bipartisan support. As my colleagues know, these are the two biggest appropriations bills, which together comprise almost two-thirds of Federal discretionary spending. I note that the last time the Labor-HHS appropriations bill was on the Senate floor was more than a decade ago, so it is an especially welcome development that we are debating this bill here today. It is a testament to the work we have been able to do to push aside the partisanship and reject President Trump's budget requests and poison pill riders, and I am hopeful that this will continue. I would like to congratulate Chairman Shelby and Vice Chairman Leahy, as well as Senator Blunt, for their commitment to working in a bipartisan fashion to restore regular order to the appropriations process. This isn't the bill I would have written on my own, and it is not the bill Senator Blunt--or any other member of the committee--would have written on their own, but it is a good bipartisan compromise, and it would help so many workers, children, students, families, and communities if enacted. Overall, we rejected the President's push for massive cuts to investments we know are so important, in education, public health, research, and workforce training, to programs that affect workers, seniors, students, women, and so much more. I am particularly proud that Democrats and Republicans stood together to roundly reject Secretary DeVos's budget requests, from her attempts to privatize and voucherize public schools, to her massive cuts to education funding that would have hurt so many students. Earlier this year, we reviewed this harmful budget just as we saw teachers and parents around the country organizing and standing up for public education after years of budgets for education not keeping up with needs--because our kids shouldn't be forced to learn in crumbling classrooms with shabby textbooks and our teachers should be paid fairly for the important work they do. Secretary DeVos wasn't listening to these parents and teachers, and her budget calls for more cuts. It would eliminate afterschool programs for almost 2 million students, need-based financial aid that helps make college more affordable for millions of students, options for repayment and student loan forgiveness for millions of borrowers and their families, and grants that can be used to keep students safe and healthy through school-based mental health services. Despite proposing a discretionary budget that would cut $7.7 billion in Federal investments in education, the request includes $1 billion for programs aligned with Secretary DeVos's personal privatization agenda, but are not authorized by the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act. By contrast, the bill we are considering today chooses to invest in public schools and progress for all students, no matter where they live, how they learn, or how much money their parents make. Our bipartisan bill increases funding for the core Federal elementary and secondary education program, title I-A grants to school districts, by $125 million. This critical program reaches almost 90 percent of school districts and half of all schools. I would have preferred to invest even more, but this is a good step in the right direction, and I am glad we were able to get this done. Funding for meeting the 40 percent promise under I-D-E-A, our special education law, also goes up by $125 million. In the most recent fiscal year, Congress provided just 15 percent of special education funding, meaning State and local taxpayers are making up the $20 billion shortfall. While I would have invested even more, I am glad we were at least able to meet our commitment in this budget and take a good step in the right direction. Finally, I am glad that I was able to work with Senator Blunt to include $93.5 million for meeting the education needs of homeless children and youth. This increase will help school districts address the barriers homeless children and youth face, and if enacted, this would be the third year in a row of increased funding. Almost 41,000 public school students were homeless during the 2016- 2017 school year in my home State of Washington alone. That is an increase of almost 88 percent since the 2009-2010 school year. That is unacceptable, and this bill would take an important step to help address their needs. Making college more affordable is another priority in this bill. We were able to do this by rejecting the administration's proposals to eliminate grant assistance, cut work-study funding, and slash student loan relief that help make college more affordable for millions of college students and borrowers. The bill also addresses college affordability by increasing the Pell Grant maximum award by $100, to a new level of $6,195, for almost 8 million low-income students. When combined with the $175 increase in the maximum award included in the fiscal year 2018 omnibus bill, we are sustaining the inflationary increases that had been provided with mandatory funding that expired at the end of fiscal year 2017. These increases build on the bipartisan reinstatement of the year- round Pell Grant authority that Senator Blunt and I worked together to include in the fiscal year 2017 appropriations bill, which allows eligible students to receive up to 150 percent of the maximum award level for additional classes they take during the summer term--it is enabling students to complete their program of study more quickly and with less loan debt--and, in my home State of Washington, has already helped make college more affordable for an estimated 15,000 students. Finally, I am glad Senator Blunt and I were able to work together to provide an additional $8 million for the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, despite Secretary DeVos's attempts to cut funding and erode civil rights protection. This office addresses title IX enforcement on college campuses, among other important civil rights workloads, and is more important now than ever before. The bill also continues and builds on the massive and historic investments in childcare and early learning across the country. It maintains the increase in the Child Care and Development Block Grant that was provided in the fiscal year 2018 omnibus bill, the largest increase in Federal child care spending ever. States are already starting to increase childcare provider rates, improve quality to comply with the bipartisan CCDBG reauthorization law, improve services for special populations, and address long wait lists. I look forward to seeing the continued progress towards addressing our Nation's childcare crisis. Our bill also provides an additional $250 million for Head Start, providing grantees with a cost-of-living adjustment so they can keep up with the cost of inflation and providing additional funds for expanding programs' hours of operation. Investing in our youngest learners and dedicated early childhood workers is one of the smartest investments we can make. I consider these investments to be another important step forward and down payment on my Child Care for Working Families Act, which would help make childcare truly affordable, high quality, and accessible to all. The bill also rejects the President's proposal to eliminate crucial safety net programs. Instead of eliminations, it provides increases for the Community Services Block Grant, which helps fund community action agencies in every county in my home of State of Washington, and for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, an indispensable lifeline for households struggling to pay their energy bills. Our bill rejects proposed cuts and continues to invest in the title X family planning program, and I am going to keep fighting against this administration's attempts to sabotage this critical source of healthcare for vulnerable women and families. I am especially pleased that this bill includes significant new resources to address the truly alarming issue of maternal mortality in the United States. An American woman is three times as likely to die from childbirth as is a woman in Canada and six times as likely to die as a woman in Finland, and this disparity impacts women of color disproportionately. This is simply unacceptable, so I am very pleased that this bill includes $50 million at HHS for a new initiative to help understand why mothers are dying as a result of childbirth and pregnancy and prevent this from happening. We have included $12 million to expand data collection and surveillance at State maternal mortality review boards, consistent with a bill that Senators Heitkamp and Capito have been working on to help support these boards, and $38 million to expand evidence-based programs to prevent maternal mortality and advance maternal health equity. This is far from the last step we need to take to address this crisis, but it is an important step. This bill continues the major investments we included in the 2018 omnibus to address the opioid crisis, including over $3.7 billion to increase access to medication assisted treatment, mental health services, and provider training for substance use disorders, especially focusing on rural area, and an increase of $50 million for certified community mental health clinics and $25 million more for the Mental Health Block Grant. We all know the opioid epidemic is having a tremendous effect on millions of children and families, so this bill continues the fiscal year 2018 investments in child welfare services to help respond to the impacts of substance use on children and families. It provides additional funds to States to improve plans of safe care to help ensure infants with prenatal substance exposure and their families have access to the treatment they need. For the fourth year in a row, the bill makes significant new investments in the National Institutes of Health to support researchers' efforts to take full advantage of opportunities to make progress against human disease and disability. This includes the largest increase to date for Alzheimer's disease research, as well as more than $500 million to address the opioid addiction epidemic, and increased resources to combat the growing threat posed by antimicrobial resistance. The bill also includes important investments in high-quality workforce training programs that help workers get good jobs, improve the efficiency of businesses, and grow our economy. This includes $3 billion for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act State grants to provide support for our national workforce system and help approximately 20 million people each year train for in-demand careers. The bill includes $160 million for registered apprenticeship grants, an increase of $15 million, to expand support for the registered apprenticeship program that the Committees on Appropriations first established dedicated funding for in fiscal year 2016, and reject the President's proposal to create a duplicative nonregistered apprenticeship program that would open the door for any employer, for- profit school, or association to develop a lower-quality program. This focuses Federal dollars where there is strong evidence and a return on investment rather than on duplicative systems that do not guarantee quality training and provide fewer safeguards for workers and employers. The bill also includes $300 million for veterans training programs to help ensure our veterans have the supportive services they need to re- enter the labor force, including job training and placement. The Department of Labor's other important role is enforcing laws that protect worker health, safety, and rights in the workplace. The bill before us includes modest increases for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Wage and Hour Division for the first time in years. These are important investments for workers at a time when they need the support. Last year, wage and hour investigations recovered $270 million in back wages that employers owed their workers, money that is now back in the pockets of more than 240,000 workers across the country. The bill also rejects the cuts to the Women's Bureau and International Labor Affairs Bureau proposed in the President's budget. These proposals would have curtailed important work on eliminating the wage gap for women and deficiencies in labor standards implementation in trading partner countries. The bill rejects the President's proposal to reduce the budget for the National Labor Relations Board, which safeguards workers' ability to organize and collectively negotiate for better pay and working conditions. Finally, so many of us have been horrified by what we are seeing on the southern border, and many of us are hoping for even more action from this administration to address it right away and without any additional action from Congress. I was glad we took some action in this bill to restore the cuts President Trump proposed to the Office of Refugee Resettlement and that we took important steps to increase transparency and hold the administration accountable for its policies and actions, including requiring HHS to finally respond to the committee's requests for information on the resources ORR needs to appropriately care for every child in its custody. In summary, this bill offers a different direction than the one proposed by the administration. It focuses on helping people--on our workers, our students, our children, our families, and our economy. It will help our country compete in the 21st century, and it will help our communities to thrive. It is a good bill. It helps educate the next generation, protects our workers' rights and prepares them for good-paying jobs, cares for the sick and most vulnerable in society, and supports medical research that will heal the sick and extend life. I urge all Senators to support this bill and move us rapidly to final passage. Thank you.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, in February, the HELP Committee passed a bill to reauthorize the animal drug and animal generic drug user fee programs at FDA. That bill was the result of months of bipartisan work. During markup, we worked together to put aside differences and adopted an amendment from Senator Murphy increasing innovation in animal drug trial designs to advance more medicines for our pets and livestock-- similar to the work we did for humans in the 21st Century Cures Act-- and an amendment from Senator Paul to clarify the regulatory process for animal feed additives. We worked together because this bill has to pass by August 1 to avoid disruption to the hard-working employees at FDA who ensure our pets and food-producing animals have safe and effective drugs. Last month, the House Energy and Commerce Committee took our bipartisan bill that we worked on together and added a controversial amendment that expands the conditional approval pathway for animal drugs. Currently, the FDA can conditionally approve an animal drug for a minor species or for an uncommon disease in a major species. This narrow category of drugs can be approved, for a limited time, and sold to customers while the company collects data to determine whether the drug actually works. This pathway was supposed to spur innovation, but only four drugs have ever been conditionally approved in the pathway's 14-year history, and only one of those four was actually effective and gained full approval. That is not a very good track record. Nonetheless, the House bill expands that pathway to any difficult-to-develop animal drug that can address an unmet need and doesn't even define what qualifies as difficult. I have been very concerned that the undefined scope of this pathway sets a terrible precedent and, more importantly, doesn't uphold the gold standard of FDA approval that our public relies on. However, today Dr. Gottlieb has made public assurances to both me and our chairman that he intends to implement this provision with additional caution and restrictions, according to congressional intent. FDA has committed to promulgating regulations to define what it means for a study to be ``difficult.'' Importantly, FDA has publicly agreed that conditional approval is not an appropriate pathway for any human medical products or antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance is a large and growing global public health problem, and the rampant overuse of medically important antibiotics in our food supply compounds that problem. I am very pleased this bill requires FDA to report on its work to bring all medically important antibiotics under veterinary supervision, but there is more to do. I thank Senators Warren, Feinstein, Gillibrand, and Blumenthal for their leadership on reducing the nonjudicious use of antibiotics in animals. On Friday, Senator Warren sent a letter to FDA asking for additional actions and commitments to bring all medically important antibiotics under veterinary supervision and reevaluate duration limits for antibiotic abuse. I thank Mr. Gottlieb for his quick response to Senator Warren and his clear commitment to work with us on these issues, including greater transparency into the progress of removing unlimited durations of antibiotic use. I sincerely hope we can avoid these situations in the future, where deals struck between FDA and the industry, with little transparency, are then somehow demanded of Congress. Senator Alexander and I included language in this year's agricultural appropriations bill that makes clear Congress does not find this appropriate, and I hope the FDA and its regulated industries take that language seriously in future user fee negotiations. I support moving this bill forward today, but I do plan to conduct careful oversight into the implementation of this law and hold FDA accountable for any deviations from the commitments made to me today. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the letter addressed to Senator Alexander and myself from Scott Gottlieb and Steve Solomon be printed in the Record.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, although President Trump has spent the majority of his Presidency undermining workers and their economic security, today President Trump is taking a small step in the right direction by signing the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act into law. This doesn't undo President Trump's actions to roll back health and safety protections for workers or his efforts to make it easier for corporations to take advantage of their workers or his continued attempts to gut workforce training programs, including WIOA and our registered apprenticeships, but this bill makes clear that, when Republicans and Democrats work together and put the needs of students, workers, businesses, and educators at the forefront, even President Trump would not stand in the way. Now, I want to talk about what went into passing this law, what is included in it, and why that is so important. As we were working to reauthorize the Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, we heard from employers, workers, students, educators, advocates, and our own colleagues on the need to update this law. While I agreed reauthorizing Perkins was critical to giving workers and students the tools and skills they need to get better jobs and higher wages, we could not pass a law for the sake of passing a law; we needed to ensure this law improved the current Perkins program and was able to adapt to a changing 21st century economy. That meant putting aside partisanship and working together, across party lines, with the goal of improving career and technical education programs for the communities we represent. I am pleased we were able to move away from attempts to voucherize this program, an idea that was widely rejected by the CTE community because it would mean programs teaching career and technical education would receive less funding, and though the theory of privatization has been championed by some in this administration, including Secretary DeVos, it has never worked in practice. We also rejected attempts to change Perkins funding to competitive grants, which would make it significantly harder for communities to apply for and receive funding. Instead we worked together and focused on what businesses, educators, and students were asking for. The details here are so important, and I want to make it very clear where we landed in this agreement. To better improve career and technical education for students, workers, local businesses, and communities, this bill will require States, schools, and training programs to update education and job training programs to meet the needs of the local economy, ensuring students are being provided with the skills they need to find high- skill, high-wage, or in-demand jobs where they live. Because the economy is constantly changing, and new equipment, technology, and curriculum are needed to help students and workers keep up with technological advancements, this bill would authorize a new innovation grant program to allow States to explore new and creative ways to improve career and technical education that use evidence-based measurements to ensure students are still receiving high quality education and training. Updating career and technical education programs and promoting innovation is important, but we cannot lose sight of our top priority: improving the quality of the career and technical education students are receiving. For that reason, this bill appropriately balances State and local flexibility with protections and guardrails to ensure our students are receiving the best possible education and training. I want to dig a little deeper into these protections today because it is so important we get this right. First, on the role of the Secretary of Education, I want to be very clear: This bill does not prohibit the Secretary's authority to oversee this law in any new way. The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act gives States the ability to determine what education and training is most needed in their communities and what accountability levels those programs have to meet. At the same time, it ensures the Secretary has the ability and the authority to implement and enforce the law as we intended. This bill allows the Secretary to issue rules to implement the law, including notifying Congress before a rule is issued and allowing Congress to provide input on those proposed rules. Second, this bill includes a number of measures to support States and ensure their top priority is student success. Because regions of the country have different needs and economies, this bill will allow States to set their own levels of performance, but each State must meet minimum requirements when they set those levels of performance, including ensuring our most vulnerable students are making meaningful progress and performance gaps in the States are closing. Under current law, we have data on performance gaps and disparities, but no one is required to do anything about those gaps. So for the first time, in this law, States and local recipients will not only have to report data on performance gaps and disparities, they will have to describe how they will address those disparities and gaps. We also improved the quality of data in this bill. Right now, there are not many common definitions in the Perkins law, so it is hard for local businesses and communities to know which career and technical education programs are high quality and which programs need more resources to improve. This law establishes more common definitions so that the data collected going forward will be more meaningful and comparable among localities and States and will provide more actionable data to help local communities improve these programs. As I mentioned before, this bill gives States and local CTE providers flexibility to design their own improvement programs for States or locals failing to meet 90 percent of the goals they set for themselves, but it also includes basic requirements to ensure low-performing programs improve in the specific areas they are underperforming, something all parents, educators, and community members want for the programs that serve their children--because, if programs don't have to improve and help the students and workers who need it most, there is no way our communities will be ready for the economic challenges the 21st century holds for us all. Our bottom line should always be that we support students to succeed. If we aren't, then we have a responsibility to do better. This new law maintains the authority of the Secretary to hold States' feet to the fire to do just that. Finally, I want to thank my negotiating partners in this legislation, Chairman Alexander, Senator Casey, and Senator Enzi, for working with me on a bipartisan bill that makes important, needed updates to career and technical education, while maintaining guardrails to ensure States and programs receiving Federal money are focused on providing students and workers with the skills they needy and providing businesses with workers they need to compete in the 21st century economy. I also want to take a moment to recognize the hard work and long hours our staff put in to make this a bill we were all proud to support. I want to thank David Cleary, Bob Moran, Jake Baker, and Richard Petty from Senator Alexander's office, Garnett Decosimo from Senator Enzi's office, and Julia Sferlazzo from Senator Casey's office. I want to thank members of my own staff, including my staff director Evan Schatz, my deputy staff director John Righter, and my education policy director Kara Marchione. I also want to thank Amanda Beaumont, Katherine McClelland, Katharine Parham, Manuel Contreras, and Mairead Lynn for their hard work and support. This law shows that, if we keep students, workers, and businesses at the forefront, we can work together and build an economy that works for all. Thank you.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I want to start today by sharing a story that is very personal to me and that has informed my work and my values ever since it happened. When I was in college, a friend of mine--we were close and lived together in the dorm--went out on a date. She was raped. She got pregnant. She didn't know where to get a safe abortion, and she wasn't wealthy. So she knew she couldn't afford it, either. The botched procedure she ended up having left her, at a very young age, unable to bear children. I saw my friend hurt and frightened, alone and unable to get the care she needed because someone else's beliefs mattered more under our laws than her health and her future. That impacted me a lot, and it has stayed with me to this day. Let me tell you a few other stories. This is the story of a woman I met just a few weeks ago. When she was 23, fresh out of college, she became pregnant while living paycheck to paycheck in what she described as ``an extremely unhealthy and volatile relationship.'' She and her partner realized they were not ready to be parents and couldn't afford to raise a child, so they drove to a Planned Parenthood a few miles from her apartment. There, she was informed of her options. She was treated with respect and kindness and got a safe, legal abortion. Today, she is a writer and an editor and the mother of an adorable little boy, with another child on the way. Here is another story. This young woman became pregnant in her first semester of college after a contraceptive failure. Having a baby would not only have meant dropping out of college but returning to an abusive home. She was grateful to be in New Jersey when this happened, where she could get an abortion without a waiting period and where there are a number of providers. She wrote that abortion access was ``critical in allowing me to determine my life path'' and in escaping the abusive household she had grown up in. Finally, there is the story of a partner in a major law firm who was already the mother of a 3-year-old child. She was thrilled to find out she was pregnant with another child. But headed into the sixth month of her pregnancy, she and her husband were told that because of a rare heart defect, there was, in the best case scenario, just a 10-percent chance of the pregnancy making it to term, and there was less than a 1- percent chance of their baby making it to its first birthday--with no hope of a reasonable quality of life. There is no right answer when it comes to decisions like these. Some women, some families choose one way; some, another. But this woman and her husband made the decision to end the pregnancy. It was their family, their future--her choice. She says she knows she did the right thing for her and her family, as difficult as it was. A year later, she gave birth to a healthy son. She wrote: ``I have shared my story with my children and hope that should my daughter ever find herself in a position similar to mine, she will enjoy the same rights that were available to me.'' There are decades between my college friend's story and the three I just told and the historic ruling in Roe v. Wade, which affirmed that our Constitution protects a woman's right to control her own healthcare decisions. Roe and the rulings that have upheld it make clear what women across the country know at their core to be true--that reproductive freedom is essential to a woman's ability to control her future, plan her family, and contribute to her community in all the ways she may choose to, as those three women were able to. Reproductive freedom means women are more able to participate equally and fully in our country. And while I can't adequately express how frustrating it is to have to assert this in the 21st Century, we are stronger today because women in the United States are treated more equally than we were in the 1970s. In fact, former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen--the only woman to hold this position in the Reserve's 100-year history--has said that our country's economic growth in the last half-century was in large part due to women joining the labor force, and to continue the growth we have seen, we will need to do more to ensure that more women have a level playing field in the workplace and in society as a whole. But the progress women have made--and the prospect of future progress--truly hangs in the balance. Today, I want not only to emphasize how real this threat is but also to paint a picture of how much more unequal life would be for women in the United States of America should Judge Kavanaugh be confirmed and add a fifth vote on the Supreme Court for overturning Roe v. Wade and rolling back reproductive rights women have had for more than four decades. Let me say it again. The threat to women's reproductive rights is frighteningly real. It is real because, unless Democrats and Republicans come together, President Trump will follow through on his promise to overturn Roe. On the campaign trail, Candidate Trump assured extreme, anti-choice special interest groups that he would implement their agenda if elected. He established a litmus test for Supreme Court nominees and released a list of potential picks, each of whom had demonstrated opposition to a woman's right to choose. He said that under his Presidency, Roe would be overturned automatically once he had the opportunity to appoint Justices because they would all be pro-life. He said that women should be punished for having abortions. He chose a Vice President, Mike Pence, whose views on women and women's health are about as antiquated as smelling salts--and far more damaging. Candidate Trump aligned himself unequivocally with those who want to roll back women's rights. And while President Trump has broken promise after promise to workers and families, he has never once wavered in following through for those anti-choice special interests. He has done virtually everything he can to chip away at women's constitutionally protected reproductive rights from the Oval Office, whether it is proposing a domestic gag rule that would allow the government to interfere in provider-patient relationships, attempting time and again to defund Planned Parenthood, or trying to allow virtually any employer to decide to exclude birth control coverage from their employer-sponsored coverage. I could go on. Anyone who says President Trump isn't applying an anti-choice litmus test in this nomination or thinks it is unclear where President Trump's allegiance lies when it comes to women's health should take a look at what he has said and done. Unless they willfully ignore the facts, they will quickly realize that the President, far beyond any modern President, has championed the anti-choice cause and has found exactly what he is looking for in Judge Kavanaugh--a fifth vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. The best evidence that Judge Kavanaugh would overturn Roe is that extreme, anti-choice groups vetted his likelihood to do exactly that and sent him straight to President Trump. But I do want to address a few aspects of Judge Kavanaugh's records that, to me, expose how unqualified he is to make decisions that will impact women from all backgrounds for generations to come. When I examine the record and history of a Supreme Court nominee, I hope to see a breadth of life experience, the ability to walk in someone else's shoes. Judge Kavanaugh has not demonstrated either of those qualities. In expressing support for Justice Rehnquist's dissent in Roe--where the Justice argued for allowing restrictions on women's reproductive rights--Kavanaugh agreed with the idea that if a right is not explicitly stated in the Constitution, it must be ``rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people.'' But he made clear that he does not believe a woman's right to choose is rooted in the traditions or the conscience of our people. I am deeply concerned about who Judge Kavanaugh thinks about and trusts when he imagines the traditions and conscience of our people and makes those decisions accordingly. His opinions from the bench only heighten my concern. In one opinion, Judge Kavanaugh ruled to allow the Trump administration to block a pregnant 17-year-old who arrived alone at our borders from accessing an abortion until the government could place her with a sponsor. He felt she needed a ``support network'' around her before she was capable of making that decision, even though she had been seeking an abortion for months and had already met State level requirements. In another opinion, he expressed the belief that if a woman's employer doesn't believe in birth control, that employer shouldn't even have to fill out a one-page form to allow the woman to get birth control coverage directly from her own insurer. The ``traditions'' and ``conscience'' Judge Kavanaugh referred to may be, in his mind, that of historically powerful, very wealthy White men--first in powdered wigs and then in suits--who never faced the challenges women in these cases face. These women matter, too, and they deserve a Justice who accounts for their rights and liberties in his or her decisions. Unfortunately, Judge Kavanaugh's opinions indicate he will not do so. Instead, they display a fundamental lack of trust in women's abilities to make their own healthcare decisions. They also show something more: a very poor understanding of the unequal economic and social realities women continue to face in our country, despite the progress we have made, and the degree to which these differences make it all the more important that women be trusted and treated equally under the law, independently, and in their own right. If an employer tries to deny his employee affordable birth control because he thinks he knows better or if a politicized Federal agency is detaining a young woman in hopes that it can impose its beliefs on her or if a woman does not want to carry her rapist's child to term, our Nation's laws must affirm her autonomy because our laws are her place of last resort. But under Judge Kavanaugh's vision for our country, based on his assessment of traditions and conscience, women wouldn't have that last resort. Instead, a woman's ability to get reproductive healthcare would overwhelmingly depend, as it did before Roe, on whether she could afford it and, therefore, disproportionately on her race and ZIP Code as well. Our country as a whole would see outcomes like those we are already seeing in States like Texas and Mississippi, where abortion access is heavily restricted under policies Judge Kavanaugh has referenced approvingly. While women with resources have more options, women without resources see the providers where they had received affordable contraception and healthcare closed down because of anti-abortion politics. Reproductive healthcare--from sex education, to birth control, to abortion--becomes a privilege for the wealthy, rather than the right of every woman, regardless of who she is. That isn't fair. It is not right, and it truly isn't what people in this country want. President Trump said that Roe is a ``50-50'' issue in the United States. He is wrong. People in our country--Democrats, Republicans, women and men of all ages and backgrounds--overwhelmingly understand that abortion is a deeply personal decision, one our laws should allow women to make, just as every American's bodily autonomy should be their own concern and not their government's. Despite what the White House would have us believe, this is not a country that wants to follow President Trump, Vice President Pence, and five male Supreme Court Justices back to 1972. The only way to stop this from happening is for people to take action. I urge anyone who is concerned right now--women or men--to make that clear, loudly and immediately. If you have a story that shows why reproductive rights matter in our country, share it. If you haven't signed up to vote--or told your friends to--do it. One year ago this week, three of my Republican colleagues stood with Democrats and stopped President Trump's effort to enact TrumpCare, which would have gutted protections for patients with preexisting conditions, ended Medicaid as we know it, and more. That happened because people across the country knew what was at stake and spoke up, despite how long the odds seemed. That is what we need now. I am confident we can succeed again if people who care show it. The last story I will tell is one I hope women and men today will be able to tell their daughters and their granddaughters decades from now, should they ever need to hear it. It is that our country went through an extremely frightening time when one of the many rights on the verge of being taken away was a woman's right to choose. We thought about them--our daughters and granddaughters--and how important it is that each one of them be treated equally under our country's laws and have the opportunity to achieve the goals they set out to achieve. We did everything we could to fight back, and we didn't let it happen on our watch. I hope we make that our story. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, reserving the right to object to the Senator's request, families should have access to simple, straightforward information so they can make the food choices that are right for them. I was very glad to see that after 7 years of delays and foot- dragging, 7 years of objections from Republicans who didn't want to allow this commonsense law to be fully implemented, in May of this year, we finally saw this law implemented--by a Republican administration, no less. Yet, today, before us now is a proposal-- however well intended it may be--that would take us backward. This bill would undermine nutrition labeling. It would punish businesses along the way that have already fully implemented the law and would carve out an entire category of businesses from providing labeling in their stores. It would bar the FDA from conducting the oversight we all count on it to do. It would weaken consumer protections as well as protections for States and localities. Frankly, why? This is a solution in search of a problem. Restaurants across this country are already providing labeling, and the FDA has made it clear that it intends to work with, not against, businesses in implementing the law. Furthermore, many States and localities have required caloric labeling for years, and not one restaurant chain has been sued. So I am going to keep advocating for families being able to have access to clear, transparent nutrition information. I object.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor today with my colleagues in defense of the millions of Federal workers around the country who have been targeted by President Trump and his administration, including tens of thousands of workers in my home State of Washington. Federal workers go to work every day, performing jobs that often go unnoticed or unappreciated. They ensure that our grandparents receive Social Security and Medicare benefits. They investigate claims of unsafe working conditions or employers not paying workers what they are owed. Federal workers are the nurses and the doctors who take care of our veterans at VA hospitals and facilities. They are our first responders when natural disasters devastate communities, including thousands of men and women on the frontlines of the wildfires that today are ravaging the West. They help protect our drinking water and clean air as scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency. They educate us about our Nation's landmarks at our national parks, and so much more. They work tirelessly every day to make sure our lives are a little bit better. While it is the responsibility of government to ensure that every worker is able to go to work without putting their health or safety at risk, earn a living wage to support their families, and retire with dignity, the Federal Government has even more direct responsibility for its own workers and should be a model for treating workers fairly and protecting their rights. Unfortunately, since day one, President Trump has fought to roll back those worker protections and undermine their rights. Now he has taken a number of steps targeting Federal workers' right to join together and collectively bargain for better working conditions. Through a series of Executive orders, President Trump has made it harder for workers to organize, for their unions to effectively represent them when they have a dispute with management, and for Federal agencies to bargain collectively with their employees in good faith. These Executive orders target protections that were painstakingly negotiated and agreed to by both parties to make sure workers who are paid with our taxpayer dollars are treated fairly and that workplace disputes in the Federal Government are resolved efficiently and equitably. Again, the Federal Government should be a model for employers, demonstrating how to treat their workers fairly and with respect. By treating these Federal workers poorly, President Trump is sending a clear signal that this administration doesn't care about workers and will do nothing to intervene when corporate management mistreats their workers. These series of Executive orders are not the only way President Trump is making it harder for working families to succeed in this country. Since day one, President Trump has undermined worker protections, including the right to overtime pay and collective bargaining, and made it harder for working families to become economically secure. Now he has nominated another anti-worker, anti-union judge to our Supreme Court. Last month's Supreme Court decision in Janus made it clear that working families have to have a fair voice in the highest Court in the land. Judge Kavanaugh's record proves he wouldn't be a fair voice for working families. Throughout his long career, Judge Kavanaugh has sided with corporate special interests at the expense of their workers and rights. He has argued against health and safety standards for workers-- a view not shared by other members of the circuit court. He has argued against workers' rights to be paid fairly for the work they do and repeatedly has been hostile toward workers' rights to organize and join a union and speak up together for better wages and working conditions. Judge Kavanaugh has used his power as a Federal judge to try to create loopholes for corporations to avoid negotiating with unions and has even argued that some immigrant workers don't have a right to organize or collectively bargain. Judge Kavanaugh's record is not one of someone who will be balanced and who will listen to each case without bias. It is the record of someone who has consistently sided with corporations and management, and I fear he will do the same on our Nation's highest Court. I fear that Judge Kavanaugh's pro-corporate, anti-worker record is exactly why President Trump and Republicans in Congress are pushing so hard to get him on the Supreme Court. I am proud to join my colleagues on the floor today to stand for our Federal workers and for their families. I urge every worker who believes that our economy should work for them, not just for corporations and special interests, to make their voice heard. Call, write, and text your Senators, and urge them to oppose this nomination. Our government, our economy, and our country are strongest when workers are able to make their voices heard and are part of this process. I hope my colleagues across the aisle who care about the economic security of our working families and the middle class will join us in pushing back against President Trump's harmful Executive orders and opposing this anti-worker Supreme Court nominee. Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I wish to thank the Senator from Connecticut. I, too, join him in being very proud, as we were a year ago, to see Congress stand with families across the country who did not want to see their healthcare rolled back. A year ago, as Senator Murphy said, President Trump tried to make good on his campaign promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act and to jeopardize healthcare for millions of people. A year ago, the President tried to jam TrumpCare through Congress. It was a harmful, mean- spirited bill that would have spiked premiums and gutted Medicaid and scrapped protections for people with preexisting conditions, which would put families back at the mercy of big insurance companies. But people across the country stood up, they spoke out, and they made it absolutely clear that they did not want President Trump to take away their healthcare or give power back to those insurance companies. During that debate, I heard personal stories from patients and families all over my State of Washington who were concerned about TrumpCare because it would make it harder to get the care they needed. I heard stories like Julie's. Julie has a genetic condition. As a result of that, she has had four--four--different types of cancer. She has had four different organs removed during treatment. She has had her diet severely restricted, and her life has dramatically changed. But she is a fighter. She had excellent care, and she ultimately won each of those four battles with cancer. However, without protections for people with preexisting conditions, her healthcare costs could skyrocket. If President Trump had his way, Julie could not get the care she needed, and, by the way, she is not the only one. I also heard from families like the family of a woman named Vanessa. When Vanessa was pregnant, she learned that her daughter would be born with significant health challenges. In fact, her daughter Cheyenne had her first surgery when she was just 20 days old, and she would have two more before her very first birthday. Even though Cheyenne was born with preexisting conditions that would be costly to treat for years to come, Vanessa, her mom, was able to get insurance through our State exchange and get her daughter the care she needed. But if President Trump had his way, that might not be possible. Last year, in the midst of the TrumpCare debate, I shared Vanessa's story, Julie's story, and many stories from families in Washington State, and I heard even more that I would love to share. People from other States across the country were also reaching out and letting their Senators know how damaging TrumpCare would be for their family and urging them to vote against it. It worked. Last year we came together and gave President Trump's healthcare repeal scheme a big thumbs down. Unfortunately, that has not stopped President Trump from doing everything he can to sabotage families' healthcare from the Oval Office. When he couldn't jam through TrumpCare, instead he jammed through a partisan tax bill that gave cuts to big insurance companies and drug companies and paid for them with steps that even his former Health and Human Services Secretary confessed would drive up families' premiums. He slashed investments that help people understand their healthcare options and get coverage. He handed power back to the insurance companies by expanding loopholes for junk plans and making it easier to ignore patient protections, including protections, by the way, for women, for seniors, and for people with preexisting conditions. The Trump administration is even refusing to defend preexisting protections in court, both abandoning its duty to defend the law and ignoring the will of the people across the country who want them to fight for these protections. While President Trump has broken a lot of promises, it is clear that he has never wavered in his promise to undermine healthcare for our families, and he has never failed to put insurance companies ahead of patients. That is why his decision to nominate Judge Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is such an alarming omen for families' healthcare. As a candidate, President Trump left no question that he would nominate far-right Supreme Court Justices who would strike down the Affordable Care Act and jeopardize care for millions of families. To be sure that candidates met that extreme ideological standard, he had them vetted by extreme, ideological conservative groups. We know that President Trump chose Judge Kavanaugh because he has no doubt that Kavanaugh will support his efforts to sabotage family healthcare and make it harder for people to get the care they need. We know that preexisting condition protections are on the line. We know that stopping Kavanaugh's confirmation isn't a matter of partisan politics. For many families in our country, it is a matter of life and death. We know we can stop it if people across this country do exactly what they did to beat TrumpCare--stand up, speak out, and make clear that families who didn't want their healthcare stripped away last year don't want it stripped away this year either. I have heard from many families concerned about this, and I know others are sharing their stories as well. So I hope that our Republican colleagues are listening even more closely than they were last year and that more of them will join us on the side of patients and families, not the President on the side of insurance companies. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to join my colleagues in making it clear just how high the stakes are when it comes to our Nation's highest courts--for our families, for our communities, for our country, and for our future. Since the day he took office, President Trump has made one move after another to turn the White House and the entire executive branch into a tool for those who have the most power, the most money, and the most influence to get even more power, more money, and more influence. From our public schools to our public lands and more, it is hard to find any Trump administration decision where the bottom line didn't come first. But it is not just his administration. President Trump has systematically worked to roll back decades of progress through our courtrooms, from the Supreme Court on down, which will have long- lasting impacts stretching far beyond his time in the White House. I know some of my colleagues were here last night to talk about the absolutely egregious circuit court nominees who would do everything they can to whittle away at our rights and freedoms as Americans. I want to talk about that for a bit as well, but I want to take some time first to talk about a nominee who would sit above those circuit court nominees in our Nation's Supreme Court and who, if confirmed, would overturn Roe v. Wade, eliminate protections for patients with preexisting conditions, reverse settled law and precedent, and give these extreme circuit court nominees even more room to do damage to our Constitution, our laws, our freedoms, and our way of life. It is telling that President Trump and his Republican and special- interest allies are desperately trying to make the case that Judge Kavanaugh isn't well outside the mainstream, far outside the bounds of reasonable, and deeply opposed to what people across the country want when it comes to their rights and freedoms being protected. They may try, but they will not succeed because the record is clear and the facts are clear. Judge Kavanaugh is an extreme pick who would be devastating for our country if he is confirmed, and we need to do everything we can to stop it. So I am standing here right now, on behalf of the families in my home State of Washington and across this country, to be very clear about what is at stake if President Trump and his enablers continue to try to turn our judicial system into one that works for massive corporations and special interests and against regular families. Earlier today, a number of my colleagues stood in this spot to sound the alarm on what is at stake for our environment and our public health if the balance of this Court swings toward President Trump and his extreme special interests. I want to expand on those concerns, and I want to talk about just a few of the many issues that Judge Kavanaugh would impact should he be confirmed and how awful this would be for our families, communities, students, and workers and for our environment, our elections, our country, and more. But before I get into some other issues--and, again, just a few of many--I want to start with two that I believe are most important and that every woman, every man, and every family should be thinking very hard about: protections for patients with preexisting conditions and Roe v. Wade. First, President Trump has broken promise after promise he made to workers and families on the campaign trail, but he has never once wavered in keeping promises he made to extreme, ideological, rightwing special interests. President Trump said he would make taking away patient protections-- like those for preexisting conditions--and gutting policies that have made healthcare more affordable for millions a top priority. He failed to jam a bill through Congress here to make those things happen. So he has done everything he can to attack patients' healthcare from the Oval Office. His biggest attack yet is Judge Kavanaugh--an extremely conservative nominee vetted by those same rightwing special interests who President Trump is so determined to keep happy, a judge who those special interests picked because they know he will help them undermine affordable healthcare from the Supreme Court Bench. I believed President Trump when he said he was determined to undermine patients' healthcare in order to satisfy rightwing special interests. Healthcare coverage, especially for people with preexisting conditions, is on the line with this nomination, and we cannot afford not to take this threat seriously. That is not the only healthcare issue under threat. President Trump said he would appoint Supreme Court Justices vetted by these groups for their willingness to overturn Roe v. Wade. He said women should be punished for having an abortion. In office, he and Vice President Mike Pence have done virtually everything they can to restrict women's access to healthcare and to chip away at women's constitutionally protected reproductive rights. Unless women and men across the country stand up to stop them, they will succeed in putting another Supreme Court Justice who has the ideological rightwing's stamp of approval when it comes to striking down Roe. There is no sugarcoating this. We are on the precipice of five men voting to overturn a historic ruling that has made women healthier and made them more equal and more free in the United States. We cannot let that happen. Those are two issues that so many of us are focused on, and they are so important, but they are far from the only ones. Another key issue I want to briefly mention today is the rights and freedoms of our LGBTQ friends, coworkers, neighbors, and fellow Americans. We have made progress, but there are many questions and cases in this area that will come before the Supreme Court in the coming years--whether it is questions regarding equality under the adoption laws for all couples or the rights of a couple to buy a wedding cake, whether transgender troops can serve their country, whether someone can continue being fired simply for being LGBTQ, and more. So there is a whole lot at stake. Anyone who cares about this issue or anyone who simply believes that everyone in this country should have fundamental rights and freedoms--no matter who they are or who they love--should join us in rejecting Judge Kavanaugh. That is not all. We have known from day one that President Trump would be hostile toward our bedrock environmental laws, that he was eager to do the bidding of the coal, oil, and gas industries, that his slogan of putting America first actually meant that the United States would be dead last in the fight against climate change, and that Trump's economic agenda has more to do with rolling back rules that help to keep our kids safe from toxic pollutants, protecting our drinking water, or preventing health problems in senior citizens--the ones those special interest groups try to call pesky regulations and what the rest of us moms, grandmothers, and ordinary people call commonsense protections. But it is apparently not enough just to attack our environment for the administration. If you really want to shape our Nation's environmental laws for generations to come, you put someone on the Supreme Court for life who will consistently side with the massive corporations and special interests that put profits ahead of the health and well-being of families, and, boy, did those CEOs and special interests hit the jackpot with President Trump's nominee. You don't have to spend long looking at Judge Kavanaugh's record to see that, should he be seated, nearly five decades of environmental protection are at risk, including the protections enshrined in the Clean Air Act, which has significantly cut the smog, soot, and chemicals that choked communities prior to 1970 and prevented hundreds of thousands of premature deaths and cases of heart disease in the years sense. Also at risk is the Clean Water Act, which, if erased, would take us back to the bad old days before commonsense protections--like when the Cuyahoga River was so polluted that it caught fire; when shellfish beds were closed in Puget Sound, nearly decimated by pollutants; or when an estimated 20 million gallons of sewage effluent flowed into Lake Washington every single day. I could go on and on about the strides our country has made to keep our families safe, but the bottom line is that because of our landmark environmental laws--like the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act--our rivers are cleaner, our air is easier to breathe, and families are better protected than ever before. Though we have a lot of work yet to do, it would be a grave mistake to go backward, and that is just what so many people fear would happen with Judge Kavanaugh on the Bench, given his past rulings and given the test that President Trump applied and his commitment to only nominate someone screened and approved by the extreme right, especially his stance that could take decisions away from our Nation's scientists and nonpartisan professionals and put those decisions into the hands of special interests. That takes me to another issue I want to run through briefly: making sure our elections in this country are free and accessible and that corporations don't have a louder voice in our process than ordinary voters. These are issues where our courts have failed to serve us well in recent years, but by confirming Judge Kavanaugh, we would be cementing this awful pattern for a generation and making necessary reform so much more difficult. Judge Kavanaugh will continue his habit of ruling to make it harder and harder for citizens to vote and have a voice in this democracy. We know this. We saw how he ruled in favor of stricter voter ID laws--ones where the intention to make it harder for Americans to vote was clear and absolutely the wrong way to go. We cannot have a Supreme Court that continues to allow voter suppression. So I ask my colleagues: If you believe that voting in our country should be open to all and that people shouldn't have less access to the voting booth because of where they live or the color of their skin, join me in rejecting this nominee and demanding someone who will protect our elections and our democracy. If you believe that Citizens United was an awful decision that perverted the First Amendment and put shameful amounts of power into the hands of the mega rich and the biggest corporations, join me in rejecting this nominee and demanding someone who would put our ordinary voters first. If we can't stem the flow of dark, unaccountable money in politics, and reverse the tide of the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations being allowed to have the loudest voices in our elections, we are going to keep running into massive challenges as a nation. Without a Supreme Court willing to do that, without rejecting Judge Kavanaugh and demanding someone else, we can't do that. Giving the most powerful among us an advantage in our elections is not the only way Judge Kavanaugh is working for those at the top, and I want to briefly discuss another. Last month's Janus decision made it clear that workers and their unions need a fair voice on the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, Judge Kavanaugh has a long record of weakening worker protections, undermining union rights, and making it easier for corporations and special interests to tilt the scales of justice in their favor. I would urge my colleagues who claim to care about the rights and economic security of working families to join me in rejecting this nomination and put the power back into the hands of working families and the middle class. This point is especially potent given the disgrace we witnessed in Helsinki. Every American should be deeply concerned about President Trump putting someone on the Supreme Court who is prepared to protect him from legal attack and do his bidding. As we all watch, many of us in horror and dismay, as President Trump continues to do everything in his power to try and discredit the Mueller investigation, we cannot forget, for a moment, that his Supreme Court nominee suggested in a 2009 law review article that a sitting President should not be subjected to criminal investigation or civil or criminal litigation. Does anyone think, for one second, this isn't something President Trump was looking for? Is there anyone who has seen how President Trump has acted, listened to what he said who thinks he is not thinking about what happens if something related to this investigation goes to the Supreme Court? President Trump controls the White House. His Republicans control both Houses of Congress. The last thing we need, the last thing any American who truly cares about our country should want is to place the last remaining branch--the final branch intended to be independent, to put our Constitution first--into the hands of a Trump lackey. That would be awful. It would eliminate even the pretense of checks and balances. If Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed, with his record and given what we know about President Trump, that is exactly what would happen. If you believe we should be taking the Russian election interference into U.S. elections seriously, join me in rejecting this nominee and demanding someone who would be truly independent and place an appropriate check on Executive power. If you believe a President is not above the law, join me in rejecting this nominee and demanding someone who will take our Constitution and our judicial independence seriously. If you believe Executive power is not unilateral and that real checks and balances are required, join me in rejecting this nominee and demanding someone who will clearly and unequivocally make sure that continues to be a reality. Finally, I want to highlight Judge Kavanaugh's troubling record on commonsense gun safety. This is an issue that certainly hit close to home for far too many people in recent years. Churches, schools, concerts, it seems like no place is immune to the rampant gun violence happening in the country, which is why millions of Americans have taken to the streets in recent months to demand action. Yet, at the same time, Judge Kavanaugh has taken a far more expansive interpretation of the Second Amendment and has vigorously argued that assault weapon bans are unconstitutional. His position is far more extreme than even the late Justice Scalia. It is no wonder the NRA immediately applauded Judge Kavanaugh's nomination and has pledged now to spend untold amounts to seal the deal on his confirmation. Those are just a few issues weighing on so many people's minds right now. I could go on about what is at stake if President Trump turns his White House, and potentially now the judicial system, into one that favors the powerful few. I would like to close by saying there are few things I take as seriously as a Senator than my duty to consider and vote on a Supreme Court nominee. In my time in the Senate, I have had the opportunity to consider nominees from Democrats and nominees from Republicans. I voted for some of them, I voted against some of them, each on their merits, and each based on how I think they would serve. This time is different. We know exactly where President Trump's Supreme Court nominee will fall on the specific issues, no matter what vague answers Judge Kavanaugh chooses to deliver through this process. Why do we know this? Because President Trump told us openly, publicly, and repeatedly. The President laid out specific tests and promised to only pick nominees from a prescreened list of people who would absolutely meet them. Nobody should be fooled. Judge Kavanaugh is a rubberstamp. He will stand with special interests over families, and he will take our country in the wrong direction. I urge my colleagues, stand with me in rejecting Judge Kavanaugh's nomination and join me in calling on President Trump to send us someone who would stand with women, with our workers, with our families, and who would truly commit to respecting settled law and the rights and freedoms we all hold dear and the longstanding protections that help keep our families safe and healthy. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

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

Mrs. MURRAY

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

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I have come to the floor to oppose the nomination of James Blew for Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development at the Department of Education. I am opposing this nomination on behalf of the millions of parents, students, and teachers who made it clear during Secretary DeVos's confirmation process that they believe the Department of Education's top priorities should be helping to educate our students and supporting our public schools. They made it clear when they posted on social media, voicing concerns about Secretary DeVos's lack of experience and knowledge during her hearing in front of our HELP Committee, when they overwhelmed the Senate switchboard urging their Senators to vote against her nomination, and when they took to the streets to protest her nomination and her ideological agenda. They made it clear that they believe every student has the right to a high quality public education--no matter where they live, how they learn, or how much money their parents make. Despite an unprecedented tie-breaking vote by Vice President Pence, Secretary DeVos has ignored the public's overwhelming rejection to her extreme ideology. Instead, she continues to promote her privatization agenda, trying to shift taxpayer funds away from our public schools. She is ignoring key parts of our Nation's K-12 law by refusing to hold States accountable for the success of our most vulnerable students. She is making it easier for predatory for-profit colleges and corporations to take advantage of students, rolling back protections for students and dismantling the unit that investigates claims of fraud and abuse. Time and again, she is failing our students and her duty to protect their civil rights. She has tried to shrink the Office for Civil Rights, has rescinded guidance for schools on how to investigate claims of campus sexual assault, and has rolled back rules that protect transgender students, students of color, and students with disabilities. All of those students, parents, and teachers who voiced their concerns about Secretary DeVos during her nomination have not gone away. They are still making their voices heard, demanding that the Department of Education start standing up for students. Unfortunately, Mr. Blew, whose nomination is before us, has made it clear that he is cut from the same cloth. During his career, Mr. Blew has advocated for vouchers. He has failed to adequately support teachers with the tools they need to help their students succeed. He has even worked closely with and helped to fund Secretary DeVos's privatization efforts. The Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development advises the Secretary in developing and implementing policy, which impacts every student in our country. It is a critical position. Given the actions and decisions by Secretary DeVos, it is very clear that we need an independent voice in this position. Unfortunately, Mr. Blew has proven that he is not up for that challenge. For that reason, I will vote against his nomination. I ask my colleagues to do the same. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, just yesterday the world watched as President Trump, standing in front of the American flag, side by side with Vladimir Putin, not only betrayed the dedication of the men and women of the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement communities but then showered praise upon the Russian President--the man who directed the interference of our elections. This prompted outcry from Members on both sides of the aisle, as it should. I read statements from my colleagues that were very strong in condemning President Trump for putting Russia ahead of the United States, using terms like ``shameful'' and ``disgraceful,'' and not just from Republicans who bravely stood up to this President before. I heard from Members of Congress and even from some FOX News contributors, unable to twist themselves into defending this President at this moment, as he so clearly undercut our own country. I am glad they spoke up because words matter. But do you know what also matters? Action. So now, I ask: What will congressional Republicans do about it? Many Republican Members of Congress are acting as if they just have a Twitter feed, as if they aren't the party in control of the Senate and the House, as if they don't have the ability to actually make a difference and demand change. That is absurd. The time for handwringing and hoping the problem goes away is over. With the power to call up legislation and hold hearings, Republican leaders do have options, and they certainly have a whole lot of Democrats who stand ready and willing to help. It is truly horrifying and deeply alarming that President Trump failed to use that moment to push President Putin to end his attacks on our country and our elections, and he failed to condemn the Kremlin's interference in the elections of our allies; or Putin's support of the brutal Assad regime and connections to chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian Government; or the illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula; or the 2014 downing of MH17 over Ukraine, where 295 people were killed; or the murder of journalists and opposition politicians; or the use of chemical weapons; or the undemocratic authoritarian and oppressive rule of the Putin regime and how it actively works against our American principles. Instead of standing up for our values and our national security, our President defended Putin on all fronts. Instead of putting America first, he performed Putin's bidding by attacking our closest allies and trying to dismantle NATO. Today, I know President Trump tried desperately to backtrack, but we know where he stands, and we all heard what he said on the world stage just yesterday. It is appalling, inexcusable, and unworthy of the President. So my message to every Member of the Senate and to every Member of the other body is clear. It is time to strengthen the sanctions against Russia for its aggression around the world and to demand answers from Secretary Pompeo and the other members of the Trump national security team, especially about what the President may have promised Putin during their closed-door meeting, and for them to provide Congress--all of us--with any notes from the meeting that may exist. We need them to stand up for and protect the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the special counsel; to insist that the President demand the extradition of the 12 Russians indicted for their attacks on our elections; and to pass election security legislation. This is not a partisan issue. This is about defending the integrity and foundational values of our Nation. This is about Congress doing its constitutional job and holding the President accountable for his shocking and repeated failures. This is about telling our allies around the world that they can still depend on the United States. This is about putting the country before the party. Stand not just with Democrats. Stand with people across the country by taking action to hold Russia accountable and to protect this country from future attacks. Ask President Trump why he is choosing to defend Russia and blame America, and ask what or who is motivating him, because it certainly is not the American people, our security, our values, or our future. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor in support of the nomination of Scott Stump, to be Assistant Secretary of Education for Career, Technical, and Adult Education. As President Trump and Secretary DeVos continue to roll back protections for students and make it easier for predatory for-profit colleges to take advantage of our students, students need someone at the Department who will remain committed to putting them first no matter what Secretary DeVos tries to pressure him to do. Although most of the nominees President Trump has picked for the Department have pledged their allegiance to Secretary DeVos and her agenda, I believe Mr. Stump will be different. If confirmed, Mr. Stump would be responsible for advising Secretary DeVos on career and technical education, adult education and literacy, and community college education while overseeing over $2 billion in funding to provide our students and workers with the education and skills they need to compete and get ahead in the 21st century. Mr. Stump's resume shows he is a nominee who is qualified for this position. He has served as the assistant provost for career and technical education for the Colorado Community College System. He was elected by his peers to serve as the president of the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium. He also earned the support of a number of key stakeholders and advocacy groups. If confirmed, Mr. Stump would be responsible for adult education and literacy, which would help adults get the basic skills they need to be productive workers and family members and citizens, and which would help community colleges ensure students have the education and skills they need to advance in their education and their careers in order to remain competitive in the 21st century. Finally, the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education at the Department of Education is responsible for implementing the Perkins Career and Technical Education Act. It is a critical law that gives students and workers the education and skills they need to succeed, and it provides businesses with a high-quality talent pipeline of workers with in-demand skills to compete in a 21st century economy. Last month, members of our HELP Committee set partisan differences aside and passed the reauthorization of the Perkins CTE Act, which makes important updates to support an education system that prepares students and workers for an economy and a country that works for everyone. In order to help students, workers, and businesses compete in a rapidly changing global economy, it is critically important that we pass that reauthorization, which would allow programs to adapt to the unique needs of their communities and continue to provide students and workers with the education and training that is necessary for them to get better jobs, earn higher wages, and climb up the economic ladder. As Members of Congress, we should always be looking for ways to help make people's lives better, which is why I hope we can advance this long overdue bill to the floor in a timely fashion. If the Senate confirms Mr. Stump, I hope he will remain committed to putting students and workers first no matter what pressure he gets. If he is able to do that, I look forward to working with him to help provide high-quality education and to ensure that, above all, our focus is on students and their success. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY

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

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor to discuss my strong opposition to the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. There are few issues I take more seriously as a Senator than my duty to consider and vote on Supreme Court nominees. It was watching the Clarence Thomas hearings and seeing how my voice and the voices of people like me all across the country were not being heard that got me to run for the Senate in the first place. I believe it is one of the most important jobs we have on behalf of our constituents. During my time in the Senate, I have had the opportunity to consider nominees from Democrats and from Republicans. For each one of these nominees, I made my evaluation and based my decision on their experience and record and on my understanding of whether they would uphold the Constitution and protect our rights and freedoms. I voted for some of them, including a nominee from President Bush. I voted against some of them, each on their merits and each based on how I thought they would serve, but this time is different. There will still be scrutiny. There absolutely needs to be. This time we know everything we need to know already. This time, the balance of the Court is on the line. We know exactly where this nominee will fall on specific issues, no matter what vague answers he chooses to deliver throughout this process. We know this because President Trump told us openly, publicly, and repeatedly. More than any President I have seen, he has been explicit about what he expects from his nominee. He has laid out specific tests and promised to only pick nominees from a prescreened list of people who would absolutely meet them. Here is what he has said, and here is how we know exactly what this nominee will do. President Trump has said he wants a nominee who is fully committed to overturning Roe v. Wade, criminalizing abortions, and rolling back women's ability to access contraception and other basic healthcare. On the campaign trail, he promised that Roe v. Wade ``can be changed'' and that he was going to be ``putting pro-life justices on the court'' so that it would be overturned ``automatically.'' He has said he wants a nominee who would immediately declare healthcare reform unconstitutional and cut off access to care for people with preexisting conditions. On the campaign trail, he criticized Chief Justice Roberts because he--this is him--``should have, frankly, ended ObamaCare, and he didn't'' and promised ``a strong test'' for a ``strong conservative'' who would be different from Roberts on healthcare. He has made it clear that he wants a nominee who would keep handing more power to massive corporations and the wealthiest Americans and keep diluting the power of regular voters. He has made it clear that he wants a nominee who would eliminate protections that preserve the air we breathe and the water we drink. He has made it clear that he wants a nominee who would roll back the rights and freedoms for our workers, for LGBTQ Americans, and for so many others. So there is no doubt. It could not be any clearer. For a nominee who would swing the balance of the Court--I am going to believe that President Trump has told us the truth, and I am going to believe that the extreme rightwing groups who wrote this list for him are sure about where this nominee stands. So I want to be very clear to anyone who may doubt it or who may think they need to learn more before making a decision. A vote for President Trump's Judge Kavanaugh is a vote to allow five men on the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, criminalize abortion in America, and roll back the progress we have made to help more women and girls access the basic healthcare they need. A vote for President Trump's Judge Kavanaugh is a vote to put the government, bosses, and men in charge of the reproductive rights and freedoms of women and girls. A vote for President Trump's Judge Kavanaugh is a vote to go back to the days when women had to go into back alleys for healthcare, when women had to ask for permission, when women were shamed, and when women and girls died because of the laws of our land. We unfortunately already know all too well what this looks like because there are States nationwide where extreme politicians have chipped away at women's healthcare rights and have been waiting for exactly this moment--for someone exactly like Judge Kavanaugh--to go even further. But that is not all. A vote for President Trump's Judge Kavanaugh is a vote to end protections for people with preexisting conditions and go back to the bad old days when insurance companies were in charge and people would have to pay more or be cut off from care simply for being sick. A vote for President Trump's Judge Kavanaugh is a vote to give massive corporations even more power over our economy, our workers, and our elections. A vote for President Trump's Judge Kavanaugh is a vote to eliminate environmental protections and make our air and water dirtier and less safe, erasing so much of the progress we have made in recent decades. A vote for President Trump's Judge Kavanaugh is a vote to step back from the progress we have made to expand rights and freedoms and basic human decency to LGBTQ Americans. I could go on, and in the coming days and weeks, as we learn even more about the ways Judge Kavanaugh will fulfill President Trump's promises, I absolutely will. I voted against Judge Kavanaugh when he was nominated for the circuit court, and I strongly oppose this nomination now. I will be urging my colleagues to stand with me in rejecting him and calling on President Trump to send us someone who will stand with women and workers and families and who will truly commit to respecting settled law and the rights and freedoms we hold so dear. I will be here urging people across the country to stand up and speak out and make their voices heard. This is a critical moment right now. The U.S. Senate has the power to stop this Court from swinging against our rights and freedoms, and every Senator needs to know they will be held accountable for their vote. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Oregon. Retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy I would just say I have been planning to come to the floor about a specific issue related to women's healthcare and rights and freedoms, but before I get to that, I want to comment on the news that is clearly very closely connected. It is clear that Justice Kennedy's retirement comes at a pivotal point in our Nation's history, when so many of our values are under attack by a President who has spent every day in office testing the limits of our Constitution. I share the deep concern of so many families across this country who are already suffering under the Trump administration and fear further erosion of the progress in this country. So, first, I want to be clear. I am hopeful that Republican leaders go back and look at what they said very recently and give families across the country the opportunity to weigh in with an election before moving forward to fill this seat. We don't know whom President Trump will nominate just yet or when he will make that nomination, but I want to go back to something my dear friend and colleague Senator Kennedy said because it highlights the stakes right now. He was talking about an extreme nominee, Robert Bork. He said: Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is often the only protector of the individual rights that are at the heart of our democracy. Robert Bork was rejected, and Justice Kennedy took his place. Today, we face similar stakes right now, in this moment. Voting rights are at stakes. LGBTQ rights are at stake. The right to organize collectively is at stake. Those are just a few. There are a lot more. Families across the country are paying attention, and they are going to be watching what President Trump and individual Members of this Senate do right now. This is what they are going to want to know: Will their rights be protected? Will their freedoms be secure? Will the Supreme Court put people like them first, or will they stand with special interests, big business, and the most extreme ideologues in our country? Those are the questions people across this country will be asking. That is the conversation I expect we will have here in the Senate, and that is what President Trump should be considering as he thinks about this issue and hopefully as he slows this down and gives people across the country a chance to weigh in. Women's Healthcare Mr. President, one issue I know women across the country will be focused on and asking about is their constitutionally protected right to control their own healthcare decisions affirmed in Roe v. Wade, because, let me be clear, women and men in this country understand how directly tied this right is to a woman's freedom and economic security, and they overwhelmingly do not want to see that right rolled back. Today is the anniversary of a ruling that further upheld women's constitutionally protected reproductive rights, and I want to take a few minutes today to discuss what this decision meant for women's lives and why we will not stop fighting to protect the progress we have made. Almost half a century ago, in its historic Roe v. Wade decision, the Supreme Court ruled that every woman, no matter where she lives, has the constitutional right to make her own decisions about her body, her family, and her future, including the right to safe, legal abortion. But a right means nothing without the ability to exercise it. While Roe v. Wade has been the law of the land for years, extreme conservatives have continually tried to undermine the Court's decision by peddling ideological policies that would make it hard for women to exercise their reproductive rights. Women across the country have not been silent about these efforts and neither has the Supreme Court. Two years ago, the Court reaffirmed the rights enshrined in Roe v. Wade when it ruled in favor of Whole Woman's Health and struck down an anti-abortion law in Texas that was designed to make it harder for women to access the care they need. The law in Texas attempted to undermine women's reproductive freedom by putting access to that care far out of reach for women. If it had been allowed to stand, the law would have closed three-quarters of the clinics in the State that provided abortion services. If it had been allowed to stand, hundreds of thousands of women would have no option but to travel hundreds of miles for their reproductive health services. The Texas law didn't stand; women's constitutional rights did. That Supreme Court ruling sent a strong message, one women have been making for years, and one we continue to make clear today: Politicians have no business interfering with a woman's most personal decisions. Unfortunately, many people on the right continue to ignore that message. Unfortunately, they have continued to push for damaging, extreme policies that ignore the Supreme Court, the Constitution, and women across the country. From day one, President Trump and Vice President Pence have made it clear that turning back the clock on women's health and reproductive rights is a top priority for them. They recently proposed a harmful domestic gag rule on Federal family planning funds designed to restrict access to healthcare for women, interfere with care providers' ability to talk about the full range of reproductive health services with their patients, and ultimately make it harder for women to exercise their healthcare choices and constitutional rights. That is just the latest of so many extreme and ideological steps, statements, policies, and appointees that have repeatedly shown the Trump administration's hostility to women's rights. We are still seeing radical Republicans in many States pushing to put up new barriers, like those that were struck down in the Whole Woman's Health case, to prevent women from making their own healthcare decisions--barriers that would allow perhaps a woman's ZIP Code or her income to determine whether she is able to get the care she needs. We are also still seeing that every time far-right politicians try and bring us a step back, women and men across the country are stepping forward and speaking out against them, and that is not going to stop. We are going to continue to defend women's reproductive rights, on all fronts and against all attacks. One effort to do that in Congress is the Women's Health Protection Act--legislation I am very proud to cosponsor--that would help protect women's constitutional rights to safe, legal abortion care and bring down harmful, ideological barriers to that care, like the one struck down in Texas, once and for all. I remember being in the room when the Supreme Court heard the Whole Woman's Health case and hearing the skepticism from many Justices as they asked thoughtful questions about Texas's flimsy excuses for trying to undermine women's rights. I remember being outside of the Court shortly afterward and seeing all the women and men making their voices heard and fighting for those rights. I remember being moved by the personal stories shared by so many women about what the right to make their own personal decisions meant for their health, for their family, and their opportunities in life. I am not going to let anyone forget those stories, including President Trump, Vice President Pence, and far-right politicians across the country. I am not going stop defending women's health and reproductive freedoms. I am not going to stop fighting to make sure our daughters and granddaughters have stronger rights and more opportunity, not less. I am not going to stop, and I know women and men across the country aren't going to either. There is no question in my mind that people nationwide understand just how important a woman's ability to control her own healthcare decision is. This is not about politics. It is about women's health. It is about their economic security, about a woman's ability to contribute fully and equally in our country. I am confident people across the country who do not want to go backward will stand up and make their voices heard and reject President Trump and Vice President Pence's extreme ideology wherever it rears its head. I am hopeful that President Trump takes this to heart as he thinks about his Supreme Court vacancy. I am hoping my Republican colleagues are paying attention. I am truly hoping President Trump decides to listen to people across the country, listen to what Republicans just said recently, and not jam a nominee through before people have a chance to weigh in. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleague from Hawaii for sharing her personal experience of how that felt because that is so important for us to hear. I thank the Senator from Oregon and all the Senators who are out here tonight to speak on this. I may be only one person, but today I bring to the floor of the Senate the outrage, the pain, and the frustration of millions of people in my home State of Washington and across the country who see what President Trump has been doing on our southern border, who have been watching the pain this forced family separation has caused so many innocent children, who have begged the President to pick up the phone, sign a piece of paper, do whatever it takes to make it stop, who have refused to be silenced as President Trump carries out his hateful and divisive attacks on immigrants, and who heard a recording with desperate cries of children calling for their parents. When I heard that, my heart stopped. Like every mom, like every human being, I just wanted to reach out and comfort that child. I could only think of how his mother felt because I assure you, whether she was in that room, a room 100 miles away, or a room 3,000 miles away, like every mom, she heard her child's cry, too, and her heart was broken. While today we saw President Trump change his story about whether he did, in fact, have the ability to make it stop, there are a lot of questions that remain--questions that actually I and others have been asking the Trump administration for weeks that have gone unanswered, like exactly how these parents are being informed about their children's safety. Where are they? Where are they being located? When will they be reunited? Those are just a few. There are more. President Trump says the Executive order stops the separation. Does that mean starting today? Next month? When? What about the thousands of children who have been removed? Will they ever see their parents again? When? Where? How? I have not gotten answers from the Secretary of Health, Alex Azar, whose Department should be focused on families' health and well-being but has instead spent that time complicit in a policy of separating families and traumatizing parents and children alike. Even experts, such as the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said that the practice of intentionally inflicting trauma on young children is child abuse. While it is a good thing that President Trump dialed back his systematic child abuse, it is not enough. We are not going to say everything is OK now. We are not going to stay quiet because while we are still digging into this new Executive order, here is what we do know right now: If this is implemented, there will continue to be zero tolerance for all asylum seekers, including domestic violence survivors. It is a system of locking up children by the thousands, all carried out in our great country's name. I just read the story of a woman named Blanca who left El Salvador after she received threats on her 8-year-old son's life. She took those threats seriously, she said. Why? Because another family member had already been kidnapped. And as Blanca said, when the extortionists don't get their money, they kill people. So Blanca left everything behind to seek safety for her son. Two months ago she arrived at the U.S. border to seek asylum. Blanca said that was the last time she saw or talked to her son, Abel, whose last words to her were ``Mom, don't leave me.'' That is the last thing she heard. Blanca now sits in a Federal detention center at SeaTac in Washington State where she told her story through tears to an AP reporter. Her son, she has been told, is in custody in upstate New York. That is 3,000 miles away from her, and she doesn't know when or if she is ever going to see him again. Blanca's story is horrifying. It is sad. Unfortunately, it is not unique. She is one of thousands of parents and children who fled violence and persecution only to find a new nightmare upon arrival in the United States of America--a nightmare caused deliberately, for no good reason, by President Trump, who has chosen to scapegoat asylum seekers and put their children into detention centers for an undetermined amount of time. We are better than this. We must be better than this. Turning children into bargaining chips or leverage points or deterrents--that kind of cruelty should not be an option in this great Nation. In recent days, my office has been flooded with thousands of calls and emails and letters from moms and dads and grandmothers and grandfathers--people from all walks of life, from every community I represent--who are angry at the President's new zero tolerance policy and who are horrified by these families who are being ripped apart. So I know I am not alone. If we can find hope in one thing, it is knowing that all those calls and emails and letters--all of that outcry--got through to the President to change course on one of his most heartless policies yet. But we cannot let up now. President Trump has claimed for days he needed congressional action to do anything at all. Today, he proved that to be simply untrue. So now we know President Trump will bow to stern pressure of a stern moral movement. Families in Washington State and in every State across the Nation are continuing to demand action, and I am going to keep working to make sure their voices are heard for the sake of so many who seek refuge in our great country and those who believe in the kindness and respect and compassion that does make this country great. Thank you. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I join Senator Cassidy and many of our colleagues in recognizing one of Washington State's favorite sons-- Spokane's own Steve Gleason. I have to say, as a fellow Cougar, sponsoring this legislation to recognize Steve's legacy of excellence--from Martin Stadium in Pullman, to the NFL, to his avid work as an advocate in the health world--was a no-brainer for me. But our bill to award Steve the Congressional Gold Medal--the highest honor Congress can bestow on an American citizen--has been embraced and cosponsored by more than 70 Members of this Chamber from both sides of the aisle is a testament not just to the incredible respect Steve has garnered across our Nation as a standout athlete but to his inspiring leadership and tireless advocacy that has made an indelible impact on our Nation and our culture. Of course, Steve's skills and talents on the football field are legendary. Many will not soon forget that iconic blocked punt at the Superdome in 2006--a play that helped lift up the spirits of an entire community that was still struggling in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Yet it has been Steve's work off the gridiron that has had perhaps the most lasting impact on our country and on our future. Since being diagnosed with ALS in 2011, Steve has become a passionate warrior for ALS survivors and their families. Through his Gleason Initiative Foundation, Steve actively supports critical research efforts to combat ALS and helps to raise much needed public awareness about the condition while also providing ALS patients with leading-edge technology, equipment, and services to help them not only live with their ALS diagnoses but to thrive. In motivating others by his lived example, Steve, together with his wife, his mother, and everyone at Team Gleason, has inspired hope in individuals throughout Washington State and across the globe, and he has undoubtedly changed countless lives for the better. Few people make Washington State as proud as Steve Gleason, and I am delighted to sponsor this legislation to award him the Congressional Gold Medal. I urge our colleagues to support our efforts. I thank my colleague Senator Cassidy for his leadership on this and for working with me on an important piece of legislation that will recognize an incredible human being. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I wish to thank my colleague from Virginia for his personal, compelling reason why what the administration is doing is so wrong. That could happen to anyone, and does happen to everyone, and I so appreciate that. I thank my colleague from Connecticut for bringing us together today to highlight this. There is so much going on in the country, and we don't want this to get lost because it will impact every single family. We are here today to talk about President Trump's ongoing effort to sabotage healthcare for literally millions of families in our country. As we talked about last week, the Trump-Pence administration showed, once again, that there is no limit to how low and how baseless they will go to appeal to extreme Republican donors and their special interests. President Trump's Department of Justice announced it will ignore years of precedent and abandon its duty to defend our laws in court. It will abandon our laws that prevent insurers from denying people with preexisting conditions coverage or charging people more because of their gender or raising premiums without limit for seniors. This decision also makes it clear President Trump is ignoring the lessons he should have learned last year. Around this time last year, Republicans were trying to jam through the President's partisan healthcare bill, filled with proposals that would have scrapped those patient protections, spiked premiums and healthcare costs, imposed an age tax on our seniors, gutted Medicaid, and thrown our entire healthcare system into chaos. The TrumpCare bill ultimately failed as people across the country stood up, spoke out loudly, and made it very clear they didn't support President Trump's sabotage agenda. President Trump didn't listen. Instead, he has continued to undermine healthcare for our families at every available opportunity, and Republicans have been lockstep with them the entire way; like when President Trump expanded loopholes to allow junk insurance plans that don't include important consumer protections; like when congressional Republicans jammed through a partisan tax bill to undermine our healthcare laws; like when President Trump announced radical new restrictions on Federal family planning funding based on ideology that would result in less access to healthcare for millions of women across the Nation and a gag rule that will interfere with providers' ability to talk about the full range of reproductive health service with their patients. Those steps were all designed to make it harder for women and families to get the care they need. Last week, President Trump's administration took yet another step to undermine the healthcare system. In a nearly unprecedented move, the Trump administration announced it would no longer defend the Affordable Care Act in court. The Trump administration announced it would abandon the parts of the law that prevent healthcare discrimination against women, against seniors, and against those with preexisting conditions. That decision goes against years of legal precedent. It goes against, for sure, the wishes of families across the country who want their government to care about patients, not partisan politics. It even goes against the promises of many Republicans who claimed they were going to fight for those important patient protections. Republicans may not be listening, but I have to tell you, families across the country have been speaking up loud and clear. They want us to fight for them and for their healthcare policies that can help them get the care they need. While President Trump and Attorney General Sessions have never fought for patients--as their latest decision makes abundantly clear--Democrats have never stopped fighting for them, and we are not going to stop now. We remain dedicated to working toward commonsense solutions that help bring our healthcare costs down and begin to fix some of this damage that has been done by President Trump. We actually had a bipartisan deal that would have accomplished that goal, but, unfortunately, Republican leaders made very clear from the start they are not interested in lowering premiums, they are not interested in stabilizing our marketplace, and they are not interested in fixing this problem. Instead, they are interested in helping special interests, they are interested in donors, and they are interested in catering to the extreme right. Despite their move to throw a wrench in our important bipartisan work, I want you to know Democrats are at the table, and we will be here all of August ready to work to fix this for families in Washington State and across the country. I hope, going forward, cooler heads will prevail and Republicans will return to the table and join us on finding solutions to lower patients' costs and strengthen healthcare in our country rather than continuing to help President Trump sabotage it. That is what the people in my State want. I know that is what families across the country want. Mr. President, I yield the floor.