Vote the presiding officer are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or wishing to change his or her vote . If not, the yeas are 51. The nays are 49. The concurrent resolution as amended is agreed to. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell tonight we completed the first step toward replacing our broken tax code by passing a comprehensive fiscally responsible budget that will help put the federal government on a path to balance. The budget also gives us the tools we need to strengthen our economy after years of stagnation under the previous administration. We have a onceinalifetime opportunity to replace a failing tax code that holds americans back with one that actually works for them. To middleclass families across america, we have a very simple message we want to take more money out of washingtons pockets and put more in yours. Now with this budget, were on a path to delivering muchneeded relief to american individuals and families who have borne the burdens of an unfair tax code for entirely too long. So i want to particularly thank chairman mike enzi and the members of Budget Committee and the staff for their extraordinary work on this budget. Now, mr. President , i ask the chair to lay before the body the message to accompany h. R. 2266. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk resolved that the house agreed to the amendment of the senate to the bill h. R. 2266 entitled an act to amend title 28 of the United States code and so forth and for other purposes with an amendment. Mr. Mcconnell i move to concur in the house amendment to the Senate Amendment to h. R. 2266 and i send a cloture motion to the desk on the motion to concur. The presiding officer the clerk will report the cloture motion. The clerk cloture motion we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to concur in the house amendment to the Senate Amendment to h. R. 2266, signed by 17 senators. Mr. Mcconnell i ask the reading of the names be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i move to concur on the house amendment to the Senate Amendment to h. R. 2266 with a further amendment. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk the senator from kentucky moves to concur with the house amendment to the Senate Amendment to h. R. 2266 with an amendment numbered 1568. Mr. Mcconnell oi ask the reading be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i ask for the yeas and nays on the motion to concur with amendment. The presiding officer is there a sufficient second . Yes, there appears to be. The yeas and nays are ordered. Mr. Mcconnell i have a Second Degree amendment at the desk. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk the senator from kentucky, mr. Mcconnell, proposes an amendment numbered 1569 to amendment number 1568. Mr. Mcconnell i ask that the reading be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i move to refer the house message on h. R. 2266 to the committee on appropriations with instructions to report back forth with an amendment numbered 1570. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk the senator from kentucky mr. Mcconnell moves to refer the message to accompany h. R. 2266 to the committee on appropriations with instructions numbered amendment 1570. Mr. Mcconnell i ask for the yeas and nays on my motion. The presiding officer is there a sufficient second . There appears to be. The yeas and nays are ordered. Mr. Mcconnell i have an amendment to the instructions. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk the senator from kentucky mr. Mcconnell proposes an amendment numbered 1571 to the instructions of the motion to refer. Mr. Mcconnell i ask the reading be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i ask for the yeas and nays on my amendment. The presiding officer is there a sufficient second . There appears to be. The yeas and nays are ordered. Mr. Mcconnell i have a Second Degree amendment at the desk. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk the senator from kentucky mr. Mcconnell proposes an amendment numbered 1572 to amendment numbered 1571. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the majority whip. Mr. Cornyn mr. President , i just want to take a few minutes following the remarks of the majority leader to thank chairman enzi, the bill manager, and the whole Budget Committee for the tremendous work thats been done on this budget resolution. I also want to express my gratitude, our collective gratitude to the Budget Committee staff thats done just such her heroic work to get us thus far. This might be the well run time during my time of the senate. Certainly the fact that mr. Enzi has gotten us to this point this time of night, i think he is to be commended for that. The resolution has gone through regular order from the start working its way through the Budget Committee where amendments were considered and adopted from both sides. Chairman enzi has been a very effective floor manager as weve been considering the budget resolution, obtaining consensus from both sides of the aisle to ensure that the senate has considered a number of amendments in a timely fashion, something thats not so always common around here. So i just want to take a moment to note the great job that the chairman has done in getting us to this point. Because as we all know, without a budget resolution there will be no tax reform. So this is the first step to getting us to progrowth tax reform which will unshackle the Sleeping Giant of the american economy, something from which we will all benefit, all americans will benefit. Mr. President , i yield the floor. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from new jersey. Mr. Menendez mr. President. Mr. President , having been away for awhile from the senate, im pretty amazed to come back today and see a budget that is passed that throws away years, years that ive listened to here of rhetoric about fiscal conservatism. The Senate Passed a budget that adds 1. 5 trillion trillion to our National Debt. A budget that sloshes Seniors Health care by 473 billion. It decimates the Medicaid Program for parents and grandparents in Nursing Homes and those who are disabled and those who are among the poorest with cuts of over 1 trillion over the next decade. In total, the republican budget would cut more than 5 trillion over the next decade from education, health care, affordable housing, child care, nutrition assistance, transportation, and other programs that all americans rely on. So the question many new jerseyans will be asking me is why . Why do republicans in congress add 1 trillion, 1. 5 trillion to our National Debt while slashing the Medicare Program . And the answer is simple. Were on a pathway to provide massive tax breaks to corporate interests, special interests and the wealthiest 1 . This has been a republican agenda for as long as i can remember. What i find most galling is this budget plan is meant to set up a special process we know here as reconciliation to pass the trump tax plan, a plan which by their own admission will raise taxes on middleclass families. So think about that. The Republican Party is not adding 1. 5 billion to the debt to pay for massive tax breaks for the wealthiest among us. I should say trillion. 1. 5 trillion to the debt to pay for massive tax breaks for the wealthiest among us. They arent even guaranteeing that middleclass taxes wont go up. What the republican budget fails to realize is that budgets are not just about numbers. Budgets are about people, their hopes, their dreams, their expectations for a better life for themselves and their children. So my view is this budget sells america short. Its not what the American People believe our collective values would be. Hardworking families want us to Work Together and pass a budget that addresses their concerns. They want safe communities, not a budget that threatens to cut the firefighter grants stretching local budgets thinner. They want peace of mind when they reach their golden years, not a budget that raises their health care costs. They want a tax proposal that cuts taxes for the middle class and working people, not more tax breaks for the folks that have been rigging the system against us. People are willing to do their part, if everyone is sharing in the sacrifice. But this budget fails that test. It fails to recognize that we are all in this together and should benefit together, sacrifice together, each of us working for the betterment of all of us. In another area where its critical that we come together not as 50 separate states but as the United States of america is to help the 3. 5 million american citizens living in puerto rico. And i have serious concerns that the current Disaster Relief package currently being considered by congress falls far short of that. Tomorrow will mark one month, one month since Hurricane Maria devastated the island of puerto rico, leaving in its wake a trail of destruction, despair and suffering. One month later and still 88 of our fellow americans in puerto rico dont have power. One month later and still onethird of the island lacks access to clean, safe drinking water. And outside the city of san juan, the situation is even worse as nearly twothirds of people still remain without water. So let me just pause for a moment to think about that. Think about it. An entire month without clean water, without water to bathe, to cook with, or simply to drink. How many of us can even imagine such an existence . More than half of the islands cell towers are down, which is not just an inconvenience, its a threat to safety. Imagine the sense of isolation and desperation when your power is out, when youve run out of potable water, none on the way, and you cant even call for help. As bad as it looks on tv, the situation on the ground as i saw it is tragically worse, and im concerned that the package were considering now is both inadequate in scope and unfair in treatment. Inadequate because its just a fraction of what Puerto Rico Needs to recover. Unfair because it treats the people of puerto rico different than florida and texas even though they are United States citizens. While all three areas were devastated by Natural Disasters, only puerto rico is being required to pay back federal disaster assistance. Thats right. Unlike florida and texas, the majority of puerto ricos assistance is coming in the form of a loan. While there are a lot of things the people of puerto rico need from their federal government, one thing they absolutely dont need and simply cant afford is billions of dollars of more debt. And this isnt a normal disaster loan. No, just like Everything Else with puerto rico, this loan comes with a major stipulation. While disaster loans are normally forgiven according to a standard formula under the stafford act, this package overrules longstanding law and leaves the decision entirely in the hands of the secretaries of treasury and Homeland Security. And while disaster loans are normally used to help people be able to be safe and start the recovery process, this legislation gives the secretaries of treasury and Homeland Security the authority to control how puerto rico spends the money. So if secretary mnuchin decides that some or even all of the loan should be used to pay his friends on wall street, there is nothing puerto rico can do to stop him. If he decides that debt bondholders are more important than those who are suffering in darkness, there is nothing they can do to stop him. So instead of being treated like the rest of the country, puerto ricos left at the mercy of treasury secretary mnuchin. Theyre at the mercy of someone who made his fortune off the backs of seniors and hardworking families who lost their homes in the foreclosure crisis. Do we really think that someone who callously rejected the pleas of struggling families to save their homes and instead put them on the fast track to foreclosure is going to suddenly change now for the 3. 5 million american citizens in puerto rico . Does anyone really believe that he is going to put the people of puerto rico first . What a tragedy it would be if instead of helping our most vulnerable citizens this loan was used to pay in whole or in part off vulture funds. We need people saved, not bondholders. We need a response that answers puerto ricos call. And instead of continuing to treat puerto rico like a foreign country, make them start a tab at the u. S. Treasury while they are vulnerable and pleading for help, we need to treat them just like their fellow american citizens in florida and texas. We need to provide unconditional assistance, real dollars to rebuild roads, the electrical grid, and put people back in their homes and businesses. We need to address the massive medicaid cliff which is forcing even more doctors and nurses off the island and threatening the health of the people of puerto rico. And we need strong protections to make sure that Disaster Relief stays with the people of puerto rico and where its needed the most. So, mr. President , let me close by saying i grew up believing that the United States was the greatest country that has ever the world has ever seen. I still believe that today as strongly as ever. Ultimately, our response as it relates to the people of puerto rico is not just the people of puerto rico, but about all of us. Its about our values, who we are as a people, who we are as a nation, how we respond to this crisis will test the collective conscience of our nation, and it will define us. As i have said many times, i have never shied away from voting for flooding in the mississippi, wildfires in the west, for hurricanes like katrina, and any other Natural Disaster that has faced our country with our fellow americans. I was amazed when i had to struggle and fight here on the senate floor when for the first time in, i dont know, in my lifetime that we had to fight to get assistance for super storm sandy in the area. It took a major fight with people voting no, even though i always voted yes. Now, the people of puerto rico dont have a United States senator to cast their vote for them or to raise their voice for them. But for so long as i am a member of this chamber, i am going to continue to prick the conscience of the senate to understand that if we go down, walk to the vietnam wall and see those names, a disproportionate number of them are americans of puerto rican descent who wore the uniform, gave their lives, made the ultimate sacrifice. They didnt leave the conflict early. They gave it their all. We cannot leave them early, nor should we leave them short. Thank you, mr. President. With that, i yield the floor. Mr. Enzi mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from wyoming. Mr. Enzi mr. President , i am going to contain my remarks to the budget and its process. For several days, in fact, for several weeks, i have been of listening to the same rhetoric of what this budget will do. This budget is a special process. It does outline a plan for what we can do over ten years. Thats a long time. I dont know that we ever make it past the first year. In fact, some budgets dont last more than 40 days before we waive the budget. But we need to have a blueprint, this is a blueprint that covers ten years, and in spite of some of the rhetoric that this bill will not do any of the things that have been claimed. The reason it will not do any of the things that have been claimed is that anything in the budget requires action by another committee before it can be done. Maybe they will take what we had in the budget and do that. Usually they dont. If they did, we could balance it, in this case, over a tenyear period. Thats too long. Interest is going to eat us alive before that time. Were going to have to do something else. Now, i remember when president obama came into office, he had an idea. He said the economy was too sluggish, so he was going to do a stimulus bill. They are complaining about this trillion and a half, perhaps, that might be part of the flexibility for doing tax reform. We did more than that in stimulus, and it didnt work. It went in the hands of a few people. Some of it never did get used. Some of it went to very few people. It was supposed to be shovelready projects. Some of those projects havent been done yet. So that didnt work. We have had a slow economy. In fact, it seems to be slowing down, not speeding up, until last november. Last november, people showed a sign of hope, and the economy started going the other way. Its reflective in the stock market and some of the Commodity Prices because they felt that those could be produced again. And we decided we had to try a different approach. A different approach is to try to put the money in the hands of the hardworking americans. Thats the middle class that some of the people talked about. Its the poor that some of the people talk about. Its everybody. When we do tax reform, it will affect everybody. In fact, there are even some studies that show that when you do the Corporate Tax, it increases money for individuals. Individuals that are working because it will drive up there will be more competition for people and it will drive up wages. Some economists have pointed that out. But rather than argue with the Congressional Budget Office about how much the change is going to be, we said go ahead, do your static one just as throw no change were made at all. And were willing to bet that there will be a very slight increase that will cover what were