Finding help during lifes challenging seasons. It is at your throne that we obtain mercy to sustain us through lifes hardships. Lord, we build these moments of silent anticipations into our day, aware of our need of you. Be for our lawmakers their shelter in the time of storm. Prepare them to meet whatever difficulties that may lurk in lifes shadows, as they seek to cultivate an experiential relationship with you. Give them the wisdom to persevere through tough times and never give up. We pray in your great 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. , november 29, 2017. To the senate under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable joni ernst, a senator from the state of iowa, to perform the duties of the chair. Signed orrin g. Hatch, president pro tempore. Mr. Mcconnell madam president. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell i move to proceed to calendar number 165, s. 1519. The presiding officer the clerk will report. the clerk motion to proceed to the consideration of s. 1519, a bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2018 for military activities of the department of defense, and so forth and for other purposes. Mr. Mcconnell madam president , during the last decade, hardworking American Families have tried to get ahead, but they too often faced insurmountable barriers. The economy was sluggish, paychecks were stagnant, jobs and opportunities seemed literally out of reach. The people we represent deserve a whole lot better than that, and its time for us to deliver. Its time to take our foot off the brake and get our economy going again and growing again. We can go that through tax reform. Every american who has ever interacted with the i. R. S. Already knows that our tax code is broken. Rates are too high. The deductions and loopholes are too complex to understand, and its too easy for wellconnected elites to take advantage. Passing tax reform is the single most important thing we can do right now to shift the economy into high gear and deliver muchneeded relief to American Families. The Senate Finance committee has developed a bill that is the result of literally years of work, dozens of hearings, and a full committee markup. I want to commend chairman hatch once again for his leadership of this committee and thank him for producing legislation to unleash the potential of our economy to create jobs and to keep them right here in america. Throughout this process, we have kept middleclass families at the center of our efforts. We want to make our taxes lower, simpler, and fairer. Thats why our plan will give the typical family of four with a Median Income a tax cut of close to 2,200 a year. A single parent raising his or her child on a modest income could also see a tax cut of nearly 1,400. These are real savings that can help families plan for their future and actually get ahead. The finance committees tax reform proposal also provides substantial relief to Small Businesses. We want to make it easier for them to grow, to invest, and of course to hire. The bill will also remove incentives for corporations to shift jobs and investments overseas. Finally our tax reform proposal delivers relief to low and middleclass americans by repealing obamacares individual mandate tax. For too long, families have suffered under an unpopular tax from an unworkable law. Repealing this Obamacare Tax will help those that need it most. Yesterday, the Senate Budget committee under chairman mike enzis leadership reported out a bill, including our proposal to reform the tax code. So i want to thank chairman enzi and the members of the Budget Committee for their outstanding work to get us to this important moment. They have been strong advocates for tax reform, and i appreciate their efforts. The committees report also included chairman murkowskis plan to further develop alaskas oil and gas potential in an environmentally responsible way. Her legislation, which has the support of her alaska colleague, senator sullivan, was designed to create good jobs, provide new sources of energy and strengthen our National Security. Now they will both advance to the senate floor. Today the senate will take the next important step toward fixing the tax code and helping middleclass families keep more of their hardearned money. Members will vote to begin debate on this once in a Generation Opportunity to reform our tax code so it works for the middle class. I encourage any member who thinks we need to fix the problems of our outdated tax code to proceed to proceed to this legislation. Anyone who thinks that rates are too high or loopholes are too prominent should vote to begin debate. And to members who have ideas about how to make the bill better, i would urge them to vote for the motion to proceed and offer their amendments. I believe my mandate from the people of kentucky is to vote yes, and i certainly intend to do so. The bottom line is this we must vote to begin debate, because once we do, we will be one step closer to taking more money out of washingtons pocket and putting more money into the pockets of the hardworking men and women we represent. This is our chance. This is our chance to deliver relief for the people who have sent us here, and the way we can do that is by voting to proceed to the bill. Every member will have the opportunity later today to answer the calls of American Families by voting to begin debate. I will vote yes on the motion to proceed, and i would urge all of my colleagues to do the same. Now, on another matter, our colleague, senator grassley, has done an outstanding job of processing the president s judicial nominees, beginning with the president s selection of judge neil gorsuch to serve on the Supreme Court. Chairman grassley and members of the Judiciary Committee continue their important work today as the committee holds a hearing for three more of the president s judicial nominees, including two wellqualified nominees to our circuit courts, Justice David strauss and mr. Stuart kyle duncan. The committees hearing today is particularly important because it means that one member of this body, in this case, the junior senator from minnesota, cannot singlehandedly block the committee from considering an extraordinarily wellqualified nominee to serve on our circuit courts. That nominee is minnesotas Supreme CourtJustice David strauss. Justice strauss is an extremely qualified, widely admired member of minnesotas highest court. He was raised by a single mother. He is the grandson of a survivor of the nazi death camp at auschwitz. Justice strauss graduated first in his class at the university of kansas law school. He has clerked on the court of appeals and the United StatesSupreme Court. He worked for several years in private practice until he joined the faculty of the university of minnesota law school. He was appointed to the minnesota Supreme Court in 2010, and in 2012, minnesota voters elected him to a full term on their highest court. His reputation in the minnesota Legal Community is impeccable. Its no wonder the american bar association, hardly a rightwing organization, gave him its highest rating unanimously, well qualified. Nevertheless, the junior senator from minnesota does not support Justice Strauss receiving so much as a hearing. That approach is untenable, in light of recent actions of our democratic colleagues. Little more than four years ago, they eliminated the supermajority requirement for ending debate on lower court nominees. They did so, they said, because they believed that a minority of the senate should not be able to prevent the confirmation of a nominee who enjoyed the support of a majority of this body. Perhaps our democratic colleagues now feel buyers remorse over the change in the senate rules they jammed through this body, but they should not be allowed to use the committees blue slip courtesy which is neither a Committee Rule nor a senate rule as another way to block the consideration of nominees with majority support. As chairman grassley has pointed out, that approach is not the way the blue slip courtesy was first used nor is it the way the vast majority of the Judiciary Committee chairmen have used it. And after Senate Democrats have changed the senates rules to prevent 41 senators from stopping a nominee, our democratic colleagues can now surely not think its tenable to give just one senator absolute power to do so. They decided 41 senators ought not to be able to stop a nominee. How can they now argue that one senator should be able to in effect blackball a nominee . In this case, the junior senator from minnesota acknowledges that it is undeniably true that Justice Strauss is a committed Public Servant whose tenure as a professor at the university of minnesota underscores just how much he cares about the law. Yet our colleague objects to the Committee Even considering his nomination. Why does he want to block a widely respected and accomplished state Supreme Court justice from his own state whom his constituents actually support . Because our colleague doesnt agree with the United StatesSupreme Court justices whom the nominee admires, one of whom the nominee happened to clerk for. So i applaud chairman grassley for not allowing the blue slip courtesy to be abused in this fashion, and i look forward to learning more about Justice Strauss views from todays hearing. Mr. Schumer madam president. The presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Schumer now, first, before i get to my main issue of taxes, i just heard the majority leader talk about taking away the blue slip. Now, we hear from the other side professing they want to work in a bipartisan way, but every step they take takes away bipartisanship. Reconciliation takes away bipartisanship. Getting rid of the blue slip takes away bipartisanship. Unfortunately, the majority leader has taken so many steps this year to remove any hint of bipartisanship, most notably reconciliation on this major, major tax bill. This is the first time were doing tax reform in 36 years, but then it was done in a bipartisan way, and the product lasted and people in retrospect were proud of it, because this bill is being done in such a partisan and narrow way. And the idea and i even heard my friend from utah say this, join us. You dont join us after you put together a bill in the dark of night just with republicans and then say come join us. That is not how tax reform was done in 1986. That is not how the major bipartisan efforts in this body have ever been done. Its a group from both parties sitting down and coming up with a plan. And to offer amendments and then have them all defeated or ruled out of order, and then say that is regular order. Who are we kidding . Who are we kidding . This has been a very partisan bill. Thats why its not a great product. Thats why the other side is rushing it through. This is not a proud day for this chamber, and history will show that. History will show that. Now, id like to talk about the specific plan, although were still not sure what the plan will be. Another example, according to reports, republicans are right now furiously debating changes in the bill, and who knows when theyll put the bill on the floor . And a bill like this deserves weeks of debate on the floor. At most, well get 20 hours of debate, and maybe not then, depending when the leader puts the new substitute bill on the floor. That is so wrong. That is so, so against the better angels of this chamber and the history weve had for centuries. Its against the best practices that my dear friend from utah, the chairman of the finance committee, has exhibited throughout his career. I hope we can, even at this late moment, change that. But we are only one day away, unfortunately, from a final vote on the bill to rewrite the entire u. S. Tax code and significant parts of the republican bill are still up in the air. But by the time we vote, no one will have a definitive analysis of how the bill will impact the economy. No one. No one will know how the lastminute provisions republicans add will affect american taxpayers and businesses. If this bill should pass, and i sure hope it doesnt for the sake of america, for the sake of the middle class, my republican friends will regret rushing it through in such a brazen way. There will be unintended consequences. The rush to get something, anything done, will haunt my republican colleagues in years to come, and i dare say, in november of 2018. Id understand the rush if the republicans were sure he had had a great tax bill, but they are not sure. I know so many of my colleagues, and theyve expressed real misgivings about this bill. They say its better than nothing, but thats not the alternative. Its not either this bill or nothing because we democrats are ready to sit down and work on a bipartisan bill it will take a couple of months and come up with a much better plan that will get 70 or 80 votes in this chamber that we will all be proud of. Every independent analysis has shown that millions of middleclass people will get an increase in taxes. The Tax Policy Center estimates that 60 of middleclass families will see a tax increase by the end of the day while folks making over 1 million will get an average cut of 40,000. Do millionaires need a tax cut at all . Are they doing so poorly . Is there any study that shows this kind of tax cut will make them work harder or create more jobs . No. No. None. So the individual side here, which reduces the top rate by 1 , if thats still in the bill they are going to put before us, is misguided. Corporation will get permanent breaks while individuals will expire after only a few years. Estates right now the only estates that pay any tax are worth over 11 million, and theyll get a tax break while 13 million americans, middle income, low income, will get Health Insurance. Why rush to pass a bill like that . Its no wonder the bill is so unpopular with the American People. In every survey i have seen in every state survey i have seen, the numbers who dislike the bill exceed, in most cases, by a lot, just like health care. Corporate profits are at an alltime high. Companies are flush with cash. The richest 1 of americans receive 20 of the overall income. The richest 20 get the richest 1 get 20 of the income. God bless them. I dont like that percentage. That percentage hasnt been matched in nearly a century since the roaring 20s. But do they need a tax breaks. Corporations and the wealthy are doing great right now. God bless them. They dont need a tax cut to lavish them with a huge tax break and asking others to take on the costs. That shnot anything that is not something anyone can want to agree to. The main argument that my republican colleagues use to counter their damming facts is that a massive Corporate Tax cut would grow the economy and make it easier for companies to invest in their workers. The argument that a massive Corporate Tax cut leads to more jobs and higher wages is a flimsy house of cards that falls down under the slightest scrutiny. Yesterday just yesterday bloomberg published an article citing the c. E. O. s of major companies, sysco, cocacola who said, according to the report, quote, they will turn over most of the gains of the proposed Corporate Tax cuts to their shareholders, completely undercutting the president s promise that the plan will create jobs and raise wages for the middle class. Weve seen similar quotes by Major Corporate earnings on earning calls over the past several months. They admit it. This big Corporate Tax break will go, in large part, to stock buybacks, dividends which we all know go to the wealthiest people in america. The addition the per pondance go to the wealthiest. This will not go to new investments or higher wages, but c. E. O. Bonuses, stock buybacks, dividends. Prepare the most compelling testimony was given by gary cohen himself who spoke at the wall street journals c. E. O. Council. The gallery was asked to raise their hands if they planned to invest the money they got into Corporate Tax cuts. Gary cohen had to ask, why arent more hands up . And, again, they say, they were afraid to say so. They dont want to reveal their plans. Well, they are revealing their plans in earnings calls and when reporters ask them. And so many of them say, im not going to invest this in jobs, im going to invest it in dividends, stock buybacks, send it back to the shareholders. The harsh fact of the matter is that tax cuts dont result in the kind of Economic Growth and job growth my republican friends predict. It didnt happen after the bush tax cuts, it didnt happen in kansas where there were so many promises. If we cut taxes in kansas, there will be huge growth and more jobs. It was a dramatic not, what happened in kansas, that republicans are repeating. Kansas job growth last year was much lower than the National Average despite all the big tubts they gave. Tax cuts they gave. Im afraid my republican colleagues and friends are willing to paper over their serious reservations with this bill in order to say they got something done. They are willin