Would yield the floor and recog. Mr. Wyden i ask unanimous consent to vacate the quorum call. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Wyden thank you, mr. President. Mr. President and colleagues, chairman hatch was on the floor a bit ago talking about the Childrens Health Insurance Program, and because his remarks greatly misleading, i thought it was important, having heard my good friend my longtime friend earlier. I thought it was important to come to the floor this afternoon and set the record straight about the Childrens Health Insurance Program. The fact is the chairman and i did negotiate an important Childrens Health Insurance Program extension back in september, bipartisan, and i put in a lot of time both inside this congress and outside the halls of congress in order to line up bipartisan support for that effort. And we did, in fact, in the finance committee have near unanimous bipartisan support. That was months and months ago. The fact is at that point the Childrens Hea
Quorum call a senator is the senate in a quorum call . The presiding officer we are. A senator i ask the quorum call be suspended. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Thune mr. President , today, as they do every year at this time, tens of thousands of americans from across the country, including from my home state in south dakota, will march from the National Mall to the United States Supreme Court to stand up for the right to life. The march is always inspiring. The huge crowds who come year after year, the commitment and enthusiasm of the participants. And most of all, mr. President , the young people teenagers, college students, young adults. Abortion has been an ugly scar on our nation for a long while now. But seeing all these young people at the march for life every year fills me with hope, because i know that these young people get it. They know that life matters, and theyre ready and willing to stand up and say that. Stand up for the hundreds of thousands of unborn am
[applause] [applause] [inaudible] [inaudible] [chanting] [inaudible] [inaudible] [applause] [applause] thank you. Senate resident, house speaker, democratic and republican leaders, esteemed members of the new mexico legislature, honorable members of the judiciary, new mexico governors, distinguished guests. The states first gentlemen, my husband. [applause] my beautiful sister. [applause] my stepson, his wife. [applause] and of course, the precious first granddaughter. [applause] my fellow new mexicans, im honored to join you for the state of the state address and to open this legislative session. I was actually going to forgo the speech this year. And let you guys get right to work. But since you all demanded that i explain myself more, sit back and relax because i got things to say [applause] in all seriousness, im glad to be here with you today. Last year we met together under very different and difficult circumstances. This deepest crash in oil and gas prices in state history. Deva
Devastated our state, across the last two fiscal years we faced a 600 million shortfall and the prospect of emptying the states accounts. It was bleak. Facing economic and physical adversity. And years and managing through hard times much harder. Political dysfunction in washington. The federal government and active acrosstheboard spending cuts, cut defense spending in particular, thousands of federal government jobs were lost and private local companies that worked with the federal government were forced to scale back or d float. They shut down the federal government, and the bottom fell out of the energy market, lost 10,000 oil and gas jobs, steady economic all of it, responsibility to handle. Adversity can breed apathy, reform and innovation, in new mexico in the midst of these head winds, we chose the right path. We didnt lean on the crutch of the federal government, we set a new course and chose diverse city of our economy instead. And despite the insistence of trump we didnt take