Transcripts For CSPAN2 U.S. Senate 11082017 20171108 : vimar

CSPAN2 U.S. Senate August 17, 1109

Today there will be nominations and senate will look at the president s pick for the Labor Relations board and awaiting action in epa nomination for assistant administrator of the air and radiation office. Now to live coverage of the senate here on cspan2. The president pro tempore the senate will come to order. The chaplain, dr. Barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. God, our father, help our lawmakers this day to do your work faithfully and well. Prepare them to be soberminded and filled with your spirit, accomplishing tasks that receive heavens approval. Lord, keep them from deviating from integrity, as they strive to ensure that their conduct rightly represents you. May they live lives of holiness and goodness, being as kind to others as they would wish them to be to them. Lord, prepare us all to stand before you in peace, without spot or blemish. As we pursue your peace on earth, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. We pray in your holy name, amen. The president pro tempore please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our 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. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell the Republican National is continuing its important work on behalf of the American People. Were moving forward on legislative priorities that will benefit hardwork being families throughout the country. Were also continuing to confirm President Trumps nominees throughout the federal government. Last week we continued our momentum with the confirmation of wellqualified and talented individuals to serve in the federal judiciary. This week the senate is considering multiple nominations to important agencies. Yesterday we confirmed officials to the department of defense and to the department of justice. Soon theyll get to work for the American People. Next the senate will vote to confirm peter robb as the general counsel of the national Labor Relations board. As i said yesterday, mr. Robbs experience in Employment Law will help return the nlrb to its role as an impartial arbiter of labor disputes instead of a political cudgel for leftwing special interests as it was under the Obama Administration. Then we will turn to another qualified individual who will help undo some of the damage of the Obama Administration, william wehrum, President Trumps nominee to be the assistant administrator for e. P. A. s office of air and radiation, who will put his experience to good use for our nation. The office of air and radiation is one of the most important parts of the e. P. A. Unfortunately, under the previous administration, it was also one of the offices with the most significant overreach. This one office was responsible for 95 of the annual regulatory burdens that the e. P. A. Forced onto our economy, according to one report, reportedly costing the economy at least 41 billion this one agency. So this is an office in desperate need of new leadership from an individual who understands thousand implement policies in a balanced way rather than with extreme regulatory overreach. Mr. Wehrum is the right person for the job, with more than three decades of experience in environmental policy. He understands the issues before the e. P. A. And how to address them. Hes even worked in this particular office before, serving as acting administrator from 2005 to 2007. Mr. Wehrum has earned support from many different corners. His former boss at the e. P. A. , jeff hole many stead said there is no jeff holmsted said there is no better person to fill this position. Marcus peacock said wehrums understanding of the Clean Air Act is second to none. Even the Natural Resources defense counsel, not exactly a rightwing organization, had this to say about this nominees previous experience at the e. P. A. , noting that he achieved important air pollution reductions. Wehrum, holmsted and the e. P. A. Deserve credit for these substantial Public Health and air quality achievements. Nominees like mr. Wehrum will continue to work with this e. P. A. To undo the damage that the Obama Administrations overreach in a reasonable manner. For instance, obamas obamas s office of air and radiation was responsible for the regulatory scheme which threatened to push to punish coal families and ship middleclass jobs overseas. When administrator scott pruitt came to kentucky last month, he announced the official withdrawal of that rule. Unlike the previous leadership of the e. P. A. , administrator pruitt actually cared enough to come to my home state and hear directly from the men and women impacted by the agencys regulations. He is someone who will work with us to protect our environment and save kentucky families from harmful regulations. Mr. Wehrum will work with administrator pruitt to help continue this trend at the e. P. A. I look forward to the Senate Advancing his nomination. Now on another matter, members of the senate are continuing to work hard to deliver muchneeded tax reform for families and Small Businesses. Yesterday senators, members of the administration, and tax reform advocates met here in the capitol to discuss a mutual vision for relief. They shared the goals of simplicity, fairness, and economic growth. These are the same goals that i have. They are the same goals the house wrote into its legislation. They are the same goals the president asked us to consider. And, most importantly, they are the goals shared by Many Americans across the political spectrum. So were working together to get this done. That is onceinaGeneration Opportunity, and it will help us create jobs and boost the economy while closing special interest loopholes at the same time. We can do all of this through tax reform. Today the house ways and Means Committee will continue to mark up its legislative proposal. Id like to once again commend chairman brady for the good work on the house plan. The hearings this week are Building Momentum to accomplish our goals for the American People. Soon the Senate Finance committee, under the leadership of senator hatch, will release its own plan for tax reform, workinworking through an open committee process. It will soon bring legislation to the floor. I am exceedingly grateful to chairman hatch for his continued leadership of the finance committee. As we continue to advance tax reform, i would urge our democratic colleagues to join us. In recent years many prominent democrats have expressed support for tax reform. Since then, the need for tax reform hasnt changed at all. The American People havent stopped hurting, either. The only thing that changed was the president. So i hope our colleagues will put partisanship aside and work with us in a serious way to help us deliver real relief to families. I hope theyll help us take more money out of washingtons pockets and put more money i in the pockets of the middle class. Thats the aim of this effort. Were going to keep working until we accomplish it. The presiding officer under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. Morning business is closed. Under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the robb nomination, which the clerk will report. The clerk nomination, national Labor Relations board, peter e. Robb of vermont to be general counsel. Mr. Flake mr. President . The presiding officer the senator arizona. Mr. Flake mr. President , the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had a very important hearing last week regarding the 2001 authorization for use of military force, a law that served as the legal underpinning for the war against al qaeda and the taliban. Im grateful for our witnesses, secretaries mattis and tillerson, for making themselves available to members of the committee and for the straightforward and honest answers that they provided for us. Now, as we get as weve gotten further and further away from the 2011 attacks that resulted in the panel of the 2001aumf, ive urged congress to take a fresh look that the authorization. When four soldiers died recently in niger, i think most americans, and even some members of congress, were shocked to learn that we even had troops in that country. Our troops were not there under the auspices of the 2001 aumf, but considering that they were reportedly ambushed and killed at the hands of an Islamic State affiliate, questions have been raised about where our forces are and when they are at war with terrorists versus when they are simply conducting trainandequip or other missions of that sort. It was encouraging that nearly every member of the Foreign Relations committee was in attendance where the witnesses testified that the administration believes that it has ample authority to prosecute the war on terrorism and does not need a new aumf. I cant say that i was surprised to hear this testimony. No administration, republican or democrat, will ever willingly concede or cede the Broad Authority given to the executive branch three days after the september 11 attack, if they were to say that we need new authorization, they would concede that they hadnt been acting with authorization all this time, so theyre never going to say we need a new aumf. What has surprised me is that there are members of this body, the senate, who are content to let this 16yearold authorization remain in place. Some have even suggested that any updates to the aumf can be made using the appropriations process. Are we really going to start using policy riders on annual spending bills to approve of sending troops into harms way . We rarely even vote on individual spending bills anymore. Let alone controversial policy riders to those spending bills. Are we truly willing to leave it to the members of the Appropriations Committee to update a law that has put our Service Members into harms way, particularly those of us on the authorizing committee, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee . I hope that we more jealously hard our prerogatives than that. Our inaction on updating the 2001 law has already relegated the role of the senate in authorizing force to that of a cog in feedback loop. I would hope that we in the senate ought to aspire to be more than that. For 16 Years Congress has been all too willing to let successive administrations use those broad authorities to address new threats and to deploy u. S. Troops in new plac places. Beyond afghanistan our troops have deployed all over the world, to places like yemen, the philippines, somalia, and libya to fight al qaeda and its affiliates. Weve also sent forces to syria and back to iraq to defeat isis, a group that didnt even exist in 2001. Now, we need to fight terrorism overseas, and im not suggesting that the u. S. Should shy away from these battles. To the contrary, i believe congress should do its duty in supporting these missions by voting to authorize them. In the 16 years since the passage of the 2001 aumf, approximately 300 members of the house who voted on it are no longer in that chamber. In the senate, only 23 senators remain in their seats today, those senators that voted on the original aumf. That leaves approximately 70 of the entire congress that has never cast a vote to authorize military force abroad, and yet over the years, deployments have continued to new places, combating new foes. The u. S. Is strongest when we speak with one voice. Therefore, Congress Must have some buyin on these missions. Our allies and our adversaries need to know that the war on terrorism has the support of congress. More importantly, our troops need to know that congress is behind them. I know the concept of passing a new updated aumf is a tricky one. This is not a conventional war against a sovereign nation in which victory is easily defined. Instead, were fighting an ideological enemy that has no sovereignty, and which over the years has moved all over the world, resulting in many splinter factions that can change their name at any time with ease. This new kind of war requires a new kind of authorization, one that allows congress continued buyin and increases its oversight. Right now, we have neither of these. Now, after working on this issue for several years, senator tim kaine and i have introduced legislation that we think gets us in the right place. Our bill would authorize the use of military force against al qaeda and the taliban and isis. It authorizes force against affiliates to those groups and requires the president to report to congress when he initiates force against a new group he designates as being associated with al qaeda, the taliban, or isis. Military operations can begin as soon as the president has notified congress. There is no timelapse required. If congress doesnt agree with the president s designation, our bill allows a 60daytime frame during which any member can bring a resolution of disapproval to the floor under expediteed procedures, and adoption of such measure by both houses would result in the end of military operations against that group. Our bill adopts the same process with regard to geography, to allow congress to disapprove of military operations in a particular country. Now, i recognize that traditional declarations of war and other authorizations of military force havent referred to a particular Geographic Area in which operations can take place, but all of our previous military engagements were against sovereign nations with armed forces, not terrorist groups that can pop up in any country at any time. If congress is going to authorize the use of force, we ought to know which countries the u. S. Troops are operating in. Now, requiring the president to notify congress when he begins operations against one of these terrorist groups to a new country is an important check on the executive branch to ensure there is no overreach, and the bar for disapproving the president s decision is high, appropriately so. It would require twothirds of the house and the senate to disagree with the president on his decisions with regard to new associated forces or new countries. Right now, congress has very little to say over who or where our military fights. The only option available is to cut off appropriations, and history has demonstrated that simply is not realistic or appropriate. The most recent example of this, as some of my colleagues will recall, was in 2011 when the Obama Administration joined the nato operation to help rebels in libya topple moammar qadhafi. The Administration Never made the case to congress as to what u. S. Interests were served by u. S. Involvement, and as a result, many members on both sides of the aisle publicly opposed our intervention in libya. And yet when the clock ran out on the time constraints set forth in the war powers resolution, congress did not turn off appropriations, because you cant just pull the plug when you have underneath Service Members when theyre in harms way overseas. The, quote, turning off appropriations, unquote, simply hasnt worked in the past, and its not likely to work in the future. We need real congressional buyin and oversight over a conflict that has morphed considerably since 2001, and which we are now being told is morphing onto a new continent. S. J. Res. 43 gives us just that. I should note the bill also includes a fiveyear sunset. A sunset is not intended to serve as a notice that the war on terrorism will end in five years. Its there to require a new congress to put its skin in the game by voting on authorizing force. The administration has signaled its objection to this provision. They think that the war on terrorism could be undermined if terrorists think that they just have to wait us out. I worry more that the lack of congressional buyin undermines the war right here at home. 70 of congress has no skin in the game at all. Were free to criticize the president , whether the president is republican or democrat. Thats not right. We ought to have responsibility here. Were the article 1 branch. Were the branch tasked with declaring war and authorizing the use of force. We shouldnt shirk our responsibility. We cant let history repeat itself and go for another 16 years without voting for the use of force against terrorists. Thats why i support a sunset on any new or updated aumf. Now, perhaps the best feature of the flakekaine measure is that it is bipartisan. That is an essential feature. I think we can all agree that passing an updated aumf along party lines is perhaps the only worse thing than letting the status quo remain. Mr. President , i commend the chairman of the Foreign Relations committee, chairman corker, for signaling that we will move ahead with the markup of a new aumf. I think that flakekaine is a great start, but im under no illusion that in the process of putting a bill together that can garner widespread bipartisan support, i dont think that will be an easy one. But the longer we wait, the higher the risk becomes that we will render ourselves irrelevant when it comes to authorizing force. That is a risk with the senate that congress should not take. With that, mr. President , i yield back. The presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Schumer well, over the past decade, mr. President , the American Economy has generated enormous wealth for wealthholders, but painfully less work and less pay, fewer goodpaying jobs for workers. Average f

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