Certainly not to keep people in the business of sex trafficking. That injustice is why we introduced our legislation. Its called stop enabling sex traffickers act or sesta. I introduced it with senators blumenthal, mccain, mccaskill, cornyn, heitkamp and others. Senators thune and nelson took this bill through the Commerce Committee late last year. By the way, we had a spirited debate in that committee and ended up coming out of the committee with a unanimous vote. Why . Because after hearing from the victims, after hearing from the experts on both sides, senators said, whoa, this doesnt make any sense, and its our responsibility as senators to change this law. It provides justice for victims of online sex trafficking because theyll have the opportunity to sue. Hold these websites accountable, that knowingly facilitate crimes. It also helps in terms of prosecutions because the state prosecutor is now the a. G. s, the local prosecutors at the state level will be able to have access now to the courts to be able to take on these websites and again rolled them accountable hold them accountable. The prosecutions again have been thwarted because of this immunity. These are very narrow changes. They dont affect the freedom of the internet at all. In fact, i would argue it helps to ensure a Free Internet to take care of these bad actors. And by holding these folks accountable, its going to provide the justice that the victims deserve. Its a fair commonsense approach and again thats why it has support not just of the members i mentioned but actually now 66 or 67 members of the United States senate. Again, thats out of a hundred members. Thats a rare thing to have that kind of support. It has the majority of the republicans on board. It has the majority of the democrats on board. Its again a fair commonsense approach thats going to make a real difference in the lives of the people we represent and be effective at curbing this increase in trafficking we see online. Every day we dont act, there are more women and more children who are being trafficked unnecessarily. It also has the support of an extraordinary coalition of Law Enforcement, organizations and trafficking advocate, survivors, faithbased groups, civil rights community, major businesses, even some members of the Tech Community that initially pushed back against this legislation. Looking at it i think many of them realize this is not a defensible position to say that we shouldnt amend this federal law thats providing this immunity to these bad actors. These members of the United States senate who have cosponsored, including colleagues of mine who are in the Senate Chamber this afternoon are saying i want to be part of the solution. Theyre showing some courage. I appreciate that. But the people who are really showing courage are these survivors and these children and these women who have been trafficked and they need our help. We need 60 votes to pass most things around here, and in this case, we will have some objections apparently and so having 66 or 67 supporters of this legislation is a key number. It enables us to ensure that we can get this on to the floor and passed on the floor. So why are we waiting . We shouldnt wait. We should move this month during Human Trafficking awareness month, Human Trafficking prevention month. We should move because its the right thing to do for these victims, those who might be victims between now and when we act. Its the right thing to do because it will create a safer and a better and a more just society and elected officials like us are elected to do just that. Again, there are hundreds of sex trafficking survivors on capitol hill last week and i met with them. And the stories will break your heart. Some were the parents. Some were trafficking victims themselves. They have shown great courage by sharing their stories, bringing their tragedy public, and now we owe them the opportunity to get this legislation passed to ensure we can protect some of the most vulnerable among us. Thank you, mr. President. I yield back my time. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from indiana. Mr. Young mr. President , i rise today to talk about an issue thats very important to hoosiers, protecting our unborn children. Right now hoosiers from across the state of indiana are traveling to washington, d. C. To take part in tomorrows march for life. This annual event brings together the Unsung Heroes of the life movement, those whove dedicated their lives to saving innocent children. Now, despite whats often portrayed in the media, lifeaffirming principles are supported by a majority of americans, uphold by politico and the Harvard School for Public Health show that 58 of americans, almost three in five americans oppose allowing medicaid funding to be used for abortion. According to the Quinnipiac University polling, 60 of americans, including 46 of democrats, support federal legislation limiting abortion after 20 weeks. Im proud to cosponsor the pain capable unborn Child Protection act. This act would protect unborn children at 20 weeks post fertilization, the point at which Scientific Evidence proves that abortion inflicts pain. Now, its estimated that this common sens legislation will commonsense legislation will save roughly 12,000 to 18,000 babies annually and it will not apply, incidentally, to cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at risk. Now, before being elected to the United States senate, i sat on the board of directors of hanna house. This is in bloomington, indiana, where i live and it offers women loving support during pregnancy. I further spent two years as a small town attorney in pay oll ollie, indiana and i offered Free Legal Services to parents who wanted to adopt. So you can see why im very passionate about helping children find loving homes and helping caring adults become parents. Ive seen firsthand through my own experiences the importance of advocating for those who cannot advocate for themselves. The United States is one of only seven countries in the world, one of seven countries that allows abortions after 20 weeks. This list includes human rights violators like china and north korea. This isnt company that we want to keep. During this time when theres principalled disagreement on so many issues, republicans disagreeing with democrats, conservatives disagreeing with progressives, surely we can come together and take action that a significant majority of americans want. So i am hopeful that this critical legislation will receive a vote on the floor very, very soon. Thank you, mr. President. I yield back my time. And i would note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk shall call the roll. Quorum call a senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from New Hampshire. Mrs. Shaheen mr. President , i ask the quorum call be lifted. The presiding officer without objection. Mrs. Shaheen thank you, mr. President. The senate and the house right now are struggling to pass yet another shortterm continuing resolution to avoid a federal shutdown at midnight on friday. For nine consecutive years now, since ive gotten to the senate, we have begun the fiscal year without regular Appropriations Bills being enacted into law. If we pass another continuing resolution this week, it will be the fourth continuing resolution for fiscal year 2018. There were three c. R. s or continuing resolutions for fiscal year 2017. This government by c. R. Is chaotic and its disruptive. Its inflicting real damage on our armed forces and also on critical domestic programs that benefit people across this country. Now, i live in a very small town in New Hampshire called madberry. If our board of selectme selectn madberry committed this kind of budgetary malpractice, we would get rid of them. The fact is that the frantic scramble to pass a new c. R. By midnight on friday is yet another manufactured crisis here in washington. Its a crisis that is completely unnecessary. The Appropriations Committees in both houses of congress have completed their work in a thoughtful, timely manner, and this congress, the house passed all 12 of its Appropriations Bills out of committee and the senate, the Appropriations Committee passed eight of our 12 bills. And we did that with overwhelming bipartisan support. And the only reason we didnt report the other four bills out of committee is because the majority leadership directed us to stop. So lets be very clear, this is not about appropriators not being able to get our work done and not being able to agree on what we want to do. This is about the leadership in congress, the republican majority, which has refused to allow us to go forward with a regular order budget process. The house, the senate, and the white house are all controlled by republicans, and if they wanted to complete the appropriations process in a timely manner, we could have done so. And we could have done it with bipartisan support. Now i am especially concerned about the damage that government by c. R. Is inflicting on our armed forces and national security. Those of us who serve on the Armed Services committee were disturbed by testimony from the chief of naval operations, admiral John Richardson in september of 2016. He said, and i quote, our ability to achieve true effectiveness and efficiency has been undermined by budget instability, workforce limitations, and eight, now likely nine and it was nine straight years of budget uncertainty and continuing resolutions. I remember when he came and spoke thats the end of that quote. I remember when admiral richardson came and spoke to the navy caucus, and we were asking him what his concerns were. And he said, well, you know, my biggest concern is budget certainty. And what we tell everybody in the navy now to figure on, is to figure that they cant do anything in the First Quarter of a fiscal year because theyre going to be op ratings under a operating under a continuing resolution. As he pointed out, this compromises our mission and drives inefficiency and waste into all that we do. End quote. In a similar vein, the army chief of staff, general mark milley, has repeatedly warned us of the damaging impacts that budget uncertainty has on combat readiness. Training cycles are disrupted and sometimes they are discontinued. All nonmission critical maintenance is postponed for the length of a c. R. Now, i share the views of many in this congress that we need to increase support for our military. We live in an uncertain world where were facing security threats from isis to russia, north korea. We could go down a long list. And we must be prepared to respond. But we cant increase military spending at the expense of funding our domestic needs. And when it comes to funding domestic needs, no challenge is more urgent and frightening than the nationwide opioid epidemic. In my state of New Hampshire, nearly everyone has a heartbreaking story of a family member, a friend, or a colleague whose life has been destroyed by opioids. And you can just look at these headlines and see what the challenge is. August 16, 2017, from our state news paper, the Concord Monitor in the capital. New hampshire Drug Overdose deaths, most little fentanyl, continue at a high rate. The c. D. C. Recently said that New Hampshire has the highest overdose death rate from fentanyl, the thirdhighest in the country. And nationwide in 2016, more than 63,000 americans died from overdoses. More than 63,000 people. If we were losing that Many Americans to a disease outbreak, to a war in the middle east or elsewhere, there would be an outcry in congress and we would pass legislation to address the crisis in a matter of days. Well, this current Funding Crisis is an opportunity for us to address the opioid epidemic. In recent weeks, along with my colleague from New Hampshire, senator hassan, ive urged the senate to make an immediate emergency 25 billion federal investment in treatment and prevention, a down payment on a sustained reliable funding stream to support efforts by states and communities. At long last we could provide a response that is commensurate with the magnitude of this Public Health crisis. There is bipartisan support in this body and throughout congress to address the opioid epidemic. President trump promised when he was campaigning and since he became president that he was going to work to end this epidemic. And yet, were still waiting to see the resources that states and communities need. Now last week many of us watched with great anticipation when President Trump invited in bipartisan representatives from both the house and senate and the Television Cameras at to talk about how were going to address the funding situation that were in and how were going to address daca. That was young people who were brought to this country through no fault of their own and are now in a situation where they dont have citizenship and they dont have a way forward. Well, senators graham and durbin spent four months negotiating and excellent bipartisan agreement to strengthen Border Security and give dreamers a path to citizenship that they deserve. The president in that meeting that we all watched said bring me a solution, and ill sign it. Well, they reached an agreement that would likely pass in the senate with at least 60 votes. Last week President Trump applauded the deal. He invited senators graham and durbin to the white house to finalize it. And when they got there, they were shocked to find that the president had completely reversed himself. This morning senator graham was stating the obvious when he said we do not have a reliable partner in the white house. Well, we do have reliable partners in this body. Give us that bill, let us vote on it, let us send it to the president , and let the president veto it if he doesnt like it. Yesterday majority leader mcconnell said, and i quote, as soon as the president figures out what hes for, then i will be convinced that were not just spinning our wheels but actually dealing with a bill that can become law. Well, again, weve got a bipartisan deal on daca. Let us vote on it. There are very real consequences to the constant chaos, turmoil, and policy reversals that have become the new normal under this president. We must commit ourselves on a bipartisan basis to restoring order to the appropriations process. It is time to fulfill our constitutional responsibility, to pass full year Appropriations Bills that address the needs of the American People. And as we work to resolve this current fiscal impasse, any agreement should include a number of basic provisions. We should Fund Government for the remainder of this year. No more shortterm continuing resolutions. Enough. It is enough. We need to stop that. The majority of members in this chamber and throughout congress understand that we cant keep doing this. Any deal should increase support for our military and it should provide parity for our domestic needs. To address the opioid epidemic, for our veterans, for the Childrens HealthInsurance Program and Community Health centers, for those medicaid payments that are so critical to our rural hospitals, for Disaster Relief in florida and texas and california and puerto rico and the virgin islands. For pension relief where we have people who have worked their whole lives who are facing old age without the pensions that they paid into. We can get this done. There are enough people of goodwill on both sides of the aisle in this body and in the other body that we can do this if we are allowed to Work Together. So democrats and republicans, lets get this done. Lets keep the government funded. And lets show the American People that we can Work Together in the interest of this country. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Grassley thank you, mr. President. Should the Childrens HealthInsurance Program i should be more specific, the Childrens HealthInsurance Program be reauthorized . Of course it should be reauthorized. It has a long history of strong bipartisan support. This is a major issue in reaching the point of whether or not we need to get something passed, and we do need to get something passed, so government doesnt shut down. In regard to the Childrens HealthInsurance Program as being part of that, this started very early last fall when the Senate Finance committee overwhelmingly passed a fiveyear extension from that committee once again stating the strong bipartisan support that the Childrens HealthInsurance Program has. No