The presiding officer the senate will come to order. The chaplain will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Almighty god, from whom comes all holy desires, we thank you for all those who give their lives to serve you and country. May they realize that they are doing your work on earth when they strive faithfully to follow your precepts. Use our lawmakers to bring comfort, renewal, and empowerment to our nation and world. Take them along yet untrodden paths, through perils unknown, to your desired destination. May they live in peace and contentment, resting in the knowledge that you are directing their steps. We pray in your merciful name. Amen. The presiding officer please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The presiding officer the clerk will read a communication to the senate. The clerk washington d. C, september 14 , 2017, to the senate under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable john hoeven , a senator from the state of north dakota, to perform the duties of the chair. Signed orrin g. Hatch, president pro tempore. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell today senators will keep working to pass the National Defense authorization act, the legislation that authorizes the resources, capabilities, pay and benefits that our Service Members rely on to be successful. The Operational Missions and tasks ahead for our men and women in uniform are as profuse as they are challenging. Thats why its essential that we meet our commitment to them by providing the equipment and the training they need to accomplish their missions. We should always remember that we have an allvolunteer force and in turn we must support our warriors with the pay and benefits they and their families count on at home. This National Defense authorization touches on every one of these issues. Weve already made an initial down payment toward rebuilding the military and restoring combat readiness with the spring funding bill. Lets take this opportunity to add to that progress now. As chairman mccain pointed out yesterday, this bill is the product of hard work from both sides, and Committee Republicans and democrats offered scores, scores of amendments that were ultimately adopted to the bill thats before us. In all, 27 of the Armed ServicesCommittee Members voted to favorably report this bill out. So theres no reason it shouldnt earn the same kind of bipartisan backing from the full senate now. I look forward to taking a vote in support of the men and women in uniform who courageously put their lives on the line to protect and defend each of us. As i do so, ill be thinking of the Service Members and their families back in my home state of kentucky, and i know so many other colleagues will be thinking of the Service Members in their home states and those deployed abroad as well. So lets keep working to bring this National Defense authorization bill over the finish line. Now on another matter, mr. President , in recent weeks the plight of the rohinga has received Great International attention. Even in the best of times, this beleagured ethnic minority has eeked out a marginal existence in burmas state. Rohinga are stateless and have faced discrimination and isolation. Media reports indicate that their existence has gotten much worse over the past several weeks. Im deeply troubled by the humanitarian situation along the burmesebangladeshi border and the vie lance in the violence in the roquin state must stop. Publicly condemning aung san is not constructivive. Yesterday i had a chance to speak with suu kyi on the phone. I would emphasize that shes the same person she was before. Her position in the burmese government is an exceedingly difficult one. She is state counselor, but by law her civilian government had virtually no authority over the burmese military. According to the burmese constitution, the army is essentially autonomous and it has control on the ground of the rohingya situation. Unfounded criticism of suu kyi exaggerates her ability to command the military which the burmese constitution does not actually allow her to do. And the political evolution of Representative Government in that country is certainly not over. She must and is working to promote peace and reconciliation within her national context, but burmas path to a more democratic government is not yet complete and it will not miraculously occur overnight. So id like to report to the senate that during our call, dol su agreed with the need for immediate and improved access of humanitarian assistance to the region, particularly by the International Red cross. And she conveyed that she is working toward that end. She reiterated her view of the universality of Human Dignity and of the pressing need to pursue peace and reconciliation among the communities in Rakhine State. She emphasized to me that violations of human rights will need to be addressed. Moreover, she stressed that the situation in Rakhine State is a protacted, longstanding problem and shes trying very hard to improve conditions. We will soon receive a followon briefing from her office. Right now the most important thing is for the violence in rakhine to stop and to try to ensure the flow to bangladesh to help the refugees and internally displaced persons. That, mr. President , is where our focus should be. Burmas path burmas path to Representative Government is not at all certain and is certainly not over. And attacking the single political leader who has worked to further democracy within burma is likely to hinder that objective over the long run. One final matter, comprehensive tax reform represents the singlemost important action we can take now to grow the economy and help middleclass families get ahead. Its the president s high priority. Its a priority we share here in congress, the work of the tax writing committees on tax reform goes back literally years, and it continues today. This morning the Senate Finance committee will hold another in a series of hearings on comprehensive tax reform. Under the leadership of chairman hatch, the committee is working to simplify the tax system to make it work better for american individuals, families, and businesses. As chairman hatch knows, our current tax code is overly complex with rates that are too high and incentives that often make literally no sense. Senator hatch understands how our broken code makes it harder for american businesses of all sizes to compete and win in an increasingly competitive global economy. How it actually incentivizes our companies to shift operations and american jobs overseas. Chairman hatch and colleagues on both sides of the aisle understand how our broken code makes it harder for middleclass families to succeed, how it depresses wages, weighs down job creation and crushes opportunity. Its time to fundamentally rethink our tax code to make taxes lower, simpler, and fairer for American Families. Now fortunately weech we hava once in a Generation Opportunity to do that. This mornings hearing in Senate Finance is a part of the wide ranging conversation to shift the economy into high gear after eight years of an obama economy that too often hurt the middle class and seemed to hardly work for anyone but the ultra wealthy. With lower taxes and a growing economy, jobs can come back from overseas and stay here. Families can keep more money in their pockets to spend in the way they want to. And individuals can have access to more opportunities to buy a new home, to start a business or to send their kids to college. To put it simply, our efforts are about more jobs, more opportunity and more money in the pockets of the middle class. Without tax reform, American Families will be forced to continue living under an unfair tax code with rates that are too high. American jobs will continue to be shipped overseas and Small Businesses will be increasingly uncompetitive against foreigner foreigner foreign companies. Mr. President , that is not going to benefit the middle class. That does not benefit the middle class. These are the real consequences of the current tax code and we should all want to Work Together to put an end to it. Our friends on the other side of the aisle say they support comprehensive reform of the system. I hope theyll join us in this effort in a serious way. Finally, id like to thank President Trump and his team for their work throughout this tax process. Well continue to regularly engage with them working together to bring relief to the American People. Id also like to thank chairman hatch for his leadership on this issue, along with my colleagues ill keep working to deliver relief and economic hope to our middle class. The presiding officer the Senate Democrat leader. Mr. Schumer good morning, mr. President. Now, as we continue to work on the ndaa, the democratic side is committed to working with the republican side in good faith to finish this very important legislation. Im pleased the managers have been able already to include more than 100 amendments in the substitute. I hope we can do another package today. Senator mccain and reed are managing this bill with their usual great skill. I very much appreciate their hard work. I particularly know how important this legislation is to senator mccain. He wants to see it through, see it through as soon as possible. Now, and were going to help in that regard, of course. Now, mr. President , last night leader pelosi and i had a constructive meeting with President Trump and several members of his cabinet. One of our most productive discussions was about the daca program in which we all agreed on a framework. Pass daca protections and Additional Border security measures, excluding the wall. We agreed that the president would support enshrining the daca protections into law. In fact, something he stated for a while needed to be done, and encourage and the president would also encourage the house and senate to act. What remains to be negotiated with the details of Border Security with a mutual goal of finalizing all the details as soon as possible. While both sides agreed that the wall would not be any part of this agreement, the president made clear he intends to pursue it at a later time, and we made clear that we would continue to oppose it. The president and if you listened to the president s comments this morning, director mulvaneys comments this morning, it is clear that what leader pelosi and i put out last night was exactly accurate, confirmed again this morning by our statement, by the president s statement before he got on the helicopter to go to florida and director mulvaneys comments. We have reached an understanding on this issue. We have to work out details. We can Work Together on a Border Security package with the white house and get daca on the floor quickly. Let me talk for a minute about Border Security. We democrats are for Border Security. We passed a robust Border Security package as part of Immigration Reform in 2013, as you, mr. President , know better than anybody else. Were not for the wall. Well never be for the wall. Its expensive, its ineffective, it involves a lot of difficult eminent domain, taking peoples property, and, apparently, its not being paid for by mexico. In fact, i listened to fox news this morning im starting to do that to see whats going on over there and they keep saying the president promised a wall in the campaign. Yeah, he also promised that mexico would pay for it. Wheres mexico . They have said 12 times theyre not paying for it. Thats not the promise he made. And finally on the wall, it sends a terrible symbol to the world about the u. S. , about who we are, what kind of country we are. For decades, since the 1880s, a beautiful statue in the harbor in the city in which i live has been the symbol of the world to america, that great torch symbolizes what a noble land we are. Can you imagine if in future decades that symbol was replaced by a big, foreboding wall . Thats not who america is, was, or hopefully will be. Now, were for sensible Border Security. As i mentioned. And there are a lot more effective ways of securing the border than a wall. A wall can be scaled over. For those who love the wall, they have heard of ladders. A wall can be tunneled under. Im sure those who support the wall have heard of shovels. Its a medieval solution for a modern problem. A game of thrones idea for a world that is a lot closer to star wars. And the thing is we have new modern Solutions Using our best technology. We discussed some of them at the white house last night. Drones. These drones can spot the difference from a deer or a human being crossing the border. We have great sensory equipment. Our military has specialized in this kind of stuff. A lot of its made in syracuse, new york, im proud to say. We can rebuild roads along the border, talk to the people on the border patrol, and they say a lot of places dont have roads. So if they see someone crossing the border, they cant get to them. And, of course, there is the bipartisan mccallthompson bill in the house that has broad bipartisan support that sets certain standards. Every one of these ideas would provide better, more effective Border Security than a medieval wall. So there is still much to be done. We have to put meat on the bones of the agreement. Details will matter, but it was a very, very positive step for the president to commit to daca protections without insisting on the inclusion of or even a debate about border walls. Now, on the equifax data breach, mr. President , what has transpired over the past several months is one of the most egregious examples of corporate malfeasance since enron. Equifax has exposed the most sensitive personal information of over half of the United States citizens. Names, addresses, Social Security numbers, drivers licenses, and in some cases even their credit history. Clearly, there were inadequate Data Security standards at equifax, which is doubly troubling and deeply troubling on a number of levels. When youre a Credit Agency like equifax, you have two principal jobs, calculating and reporting accurate Credit Scores and protecting the Sensitive Information of individuals that are funneled through that process. Equifax stunningly and epically failed to perform one of its two essential duties as a company, to protect Sensitive Information of the people in its files. That is unacceptable, and theres no other word for it. Even following the failure by equifax, this huge, massive failure, the company and its leadership failed to communicate this breach to the public effectively. And in the aftermath of the announcement failed to address public concern. The company knew about the breach and did not notify consumers that their information had been compromised for far too long a period. Because equifax waited so long to report the breach, consumers were put behind the eight ball. Their information was potentially compromised without their knowledge. They had no ability to protect themselves. Meanwhile, hackers could attempt to take out loans in their name. Potentially use the information for Identity Fraud to perpetrate a number of fraudulent schemes with Sensitive Information these horrible hackers have obtained. Once the breach was eventually announced, consumers found themselves forced to provide Sensitive Information to equifax in order to verify whether they were impacted by the breach. In order to sign up for the companys Credit Monitoring Services, customers were forced to agree to terms prohibiting their ability to bring a legal claim against equifax. Is that disgusting . Equifax creates the problem and then says customer, if you want to solve it, you have to give up your rights. Outrageous. Equifax was saying we royally screwed up, but trust us, we wont screw up again, but if we do screw up, you cant sue us. To make matters worse, in the weeks leading up to the announcement of their breach, while customers were in the dark, several executives at equifax sold off their stock in the company. They claim they had no knowledge of the breach. If they did, it would be one of the most brazen and shameful attempts of Insider Trading that i can recall. So we need to get to the bottom of this, the very bottom, a murky bottom, the dirty bottom. The senate must hold hearings on the Equifax Breach where these executives are called to account. There is no question about that. But beyond that, five things need to happen in the near future. Id like to see them in the next week. Equifax must, first, commit proactively to reach out to a