Through the karl rove front group. What does the chamber do with all this money . It lobbies, it litigates, and it runs political attack ads on television, radio, and the internet. Lets start with the lobbying. The chamber exendz far more than anyone else lobbying the federal government. It spent more than 80 million last year aloan, far more than any individual company. Over the last 20 years, the chamber has spent more than 1. 4 billion, 1. 4 billion. Thats billion with a b, and the nine zeros after it, lobbying the federal government. That is three times more than the next largest lobbying spender. A swamp monster indeed. Much of this lobbying is against environmental policies, with the chamber lobbying congress, the white house, e. P. A. , the department of energy, and the department of the interior on behalf of yes, you guessed i. The Chamber Champions the fossil fuel agenda, opposing limits on Carbon Emissions and supporting drilling and mining on public lands and in offshore waters. The Chamber Champions only the fossil fuel energy agenda, attacking Renewable Energy. Despite that industry, the renewable industry being responsible for more jobs than the fossil fuel industry. In 2016, for instance, the chamber lobbied the federal government on at least 14 separate issues in favor of the oil and gas industry and on at least seven issues in favor of the coal industry. On Renewable Energy, zero, not one. It was the chamber that paid for the debunked study claiming the Paris Agreement would kill jobs and weaken economic growth, which trump cited as justification for withdrawing from that agreement. The chamber also spends a lot of effort importuning the courts. In a recent threeyear period, the chamber was involved in roughly 500, 500 cases as either a plaintiff or an amicus curiae, an Interested Party deemed a friend of the court. Once again, the chamber fronted for the fossil fuel industry. In just three years, it sued e. P. A. 15 times and filed amicus briefs against e. P. A. In another 11 cases, making e. P. A. The chambers most frequent target in court. The chamber sued against the Clean Power Plan and it consistently opposed e. P. A. s authority to regulate Carbon Emissions under the clean air act. The chamber also wrote an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to strike down limits on election spending. It got its wish in the Citizens United decision. Citizens united allowed dark money groups, outside groups to spend unlimited sums corrupting our elections. The chamber and the fossil fuel industry have been the biggest beneficiaries, the biggest users of this horrible decision. Over the last ten years, the chamber has spent more than 150 million in dark money on federal elections, and we dont know how much it spent on state elections other than we know its contributed millions to other outside spending groups that are active at the state level. In 2016, the chamber was the largest dark money spender in congressional races, often running vicious attack ads in races across the country. Many of these ads supported the fossil fuel agenda. Here is one from the 2016 senate race in pennsylvania. The chamber was again the largest dark money spender on this race, spending over 6 million. It ran a series of attack ads against katie mcginty, slamming her for supporting legislation to reduce Carbon Emissions. Heres the ad. A couple of moms are watching their kids, the kids are playing in the playground, one is explaining that mcginty supports taxing energy from the fossil fuels, and the other mom remarks how much energy their kids have, to which the first replies that, whoa, if mcn ginty finds out about that, she will tax the kids. Right on cue, mcginty, an actor supposed to represent the candidate, arrives of course in a chauffeured black setaside sedan ready to tax the energetic kids. One mother yells at her son jimmy to run away. Thats what we get. The chamber as the enforcer for the fossil fuel industry. Support Climate Action or oppose fossil interests, and the chamber will come after you with everything it has. But its actually worse than that because there is one thing more insidious than spending millions of dollars on attack ads, and that is the threat of spending millions of dollars on attack ads. You see, once Citizens United allowed the chamber and other outside election spending groups to spend unlimited funds, the corollary was that they have threatened to spend those unlimited funds. All the chamber and other outside spending groups now have to do is threaten to fund a challenger in order to bring many candidates and elected officials to heel. This Citizens United sanction intimidation explains why we cant make good Climate Policy in washington, and the chamber is its leading proponent. Several Big American Companies have stopped funding the chamber over its anticlimate agenda. Apple, pg e, costco, hewlett packard, starbucks, mars and others have all left. Yet, plenty of other corporate climate champions still fund the chamber. Unbelievable but true. Heres an ad run last spring by several Big Companies urging trump to stay in the Paris Agreement. These companies, facebook, gap, incorporated, google, intel corporation, microsoft, Morgan Stanley and sales force, signed this fullpage ad supporting the Paris Agreement. At the same time, they were donors to the chamber which was out attacking the Paris Agreement. How do you publicly support the Paris Agreement while funding the swamp monster attacking the Paris Agreement . The Trump Administration is also seeking to cut funding for Renewable Energy research by 72 . Americas Business Leaders should want to maintain u. S. Technological leadership and create millions of highpaying Clean Energy Jobs in the future, but the Chambers Global energy institute, socalled, website is promoting keystone x. L. , the Dakota Access pipeline, and off shore drilling. I kid you not, offshore drilling. Facebook, gap, google, intel, microsoft, Morgan Stanley, sales force, offshore drilling . What do you bet those companies dont take out fullpage ads supporting offshore drilling . They do come to washington to lobby, but when facebook, google, intel, microsoft, and sales force came to Lobby Congress through their trade association technet, they didnt even mention climate change. They didnt even make clean energy a priority. Instead, they fund the biggest, baddest opponent of Climate Action and clean energy. Why do companies so committed to increasing their own use of Renewable Energy not Lobby Congress in favor of Renewable Energy . Its a battle here, folks. Where is the corporate calvary . As long as proclimate companies do nothing in congress and allow fossil fuel front groups like the chamber to be their voice here in washington, how do they expect to make progress . The chamber of commerce they fund throws around hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbying and elections to ensure that Congress Wont take the Climate Action they seek. What are facebook, gap, google, intel, microsoft, Morgan Stanley, and sales force waiting for . Do they expect some kind of immaculate political conception of a climate bill, Climate Action that suddenly bloats magically down from the floats magically down from the clouds . Its not like they dont lobby themselves. For petes sake, they know how the game is played. They just dont lobby for this. They just dont lobby for Climate Action. Look, good corporate policies on climate are important. Theyre very important. I get that, and i appreciate that. But we know well that good corporate policies wont reach those paris climate goals. To reach those goals, you have to pass a bill. Youve got to do something on climate here in congress. And when the fossil fuel industrys blockade stopping such a bill is right here in congress, this is the battlefield youve got to show up on. Its great to take out ads. It helps. But it would really help to be present here in congress and accounted for. Fighting for Climate Action in washington is indispensable to finally break the stranglehold of the chamber and its dark money allies, so please, corporate america, show up. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from alaska. Mr. Sullivan mr. President , i ask unanimous consent to engage in a colloquy with my colleagues, senator casey and senator wicker. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Sullivan mr. President , today i rise with my colleagues, senator wicker from mississippi, senator casey from the great state of pennsylvania, to talk about legislation thats of vital importance, i believe, to every state in the country. Certainly mine, the great state of alaska. But most importantly, mr. President , it is vitally important legislation to the men and women who serve in the United States coast guard. And im going to talk about them for a minute, but in addition to the legislation were talking about here, its also vitally important to our maritime and fishing communities as well. So very important legislation. Which legislation am i talking about . Senate bill 1129, the coast guard authorization act of 2017. It is legislation that has broad bipartisan support, including chairman thune of the commerce committee, the Ranking Member of the commerce committee, senator nelson of florida, my colleague from alaska, senator lisa murkowski, and many, many others, republicans and democrats. The Senate Commerce committee, which has jurisdiction over the coast guard, in our fishing fleets, in our fisheries, marked up this important legislation back in may of 2017. But, mr. President , unfortunately due to a lack of an agreement on one particular provision, although we have very strong support even for this particular provision, over 60 senators, the coast guard bill overall remains stuck. So we always talk about the army, air force, navy, marines. I love them to death. Sometimes we forget about our fifth branch of service. These men and women do incredible work every single day for our country. This bipartisan bill, the coast guard authorization act, will give the coast guard the resources it needs to protect our waterways and coastlines, block illegal drug traffickers and smugglers more efficiently procure future coast guard cutters. It will authorize the coast guard in terms of policy and funding through fiscal years 2018 and 2019. And most importantly, mr. President , it takes care of the men and women serving in our coast guard. Who come from every state, hail from every state in our great nation. They do so much. So were going to be debating here the continuing resolution that will have very, very significant funding for our military, but also for natural disasters. Well, think about the natural disasters that have occurred in the United States, in florida, in texas, in other places, louisiana, in the last several months. The coast guard undertook thousands, thousands of rescue operations. Men and women risking their lives, literally risking their lives to save their fellow americans. This bill focuses on them. And in constructing this legislation, we worked in a bipartisan manner for months, and however, mr. President , it appears that the coast guard authorization bill unfortunately remains stuck. Now, i serve as the committee or as the chairman of the subcommittee responsible for the coast guard. And in alaska, we know all about the men and women of the coast guard. Id like to say prior to 9 11, prior to 9 11, the coast guard was probably the only military service among all five branches that had men and women out there risking their lives every single day for americans. Now, unfortunately since 9 11, and the big challenges weve had from a National Security perspective, weve have men and women from all branches of services out there every single day risking their lives. But the coast guard does it at home and abroad. So whats happening with this bill . Well, this bill which is again very bipartisan, not only contains critical needs and authorizations and policies for our coast guard and the men and women who serve in it, it also contains provisions of vital importance to our maritime industry and fishing communiti communities, including in this legislation are important elements of another act, the vessel incident discharge act or what we call vida, to address an issue thats been around for years which pertains to the incidental discharges for those in our fishing fleets and maritime fleets. So what does it try to address . Well, mr. President , currently vessel owners and operators fishing in the maritime industry are forced to comply with a patchwork of burdensome federal and state regulations and laws for vessel ballast water and incidental discharges. Literally discharges of water that come off the deck of your fishing vessel, for example. And think about it. When you think about the constitution and the commerce clause, this is an issue where a fishing vessel, say, moves from different waters in the United States, state waters from one state to another or a maritime ship one state to another, and it has to comply with the watch work of different state laws and regulations as it moves through different waters controlled by different states. This creates inefficiencies, adds business costs, and particularly in the fishing fleet, inhibits Economic Prosperity for states and people in the industry, whether its in alaska or other places throughout the country. So it provides a provision which we all worked on and has very bipartisan support would provide the maritime fishing industry with a consistent, uniform, regulatory structure across the country restoring efficient and Cost Effective commerce while ensuring that Environmental Protection remains at the highest levels for our ports and our waterways and our harbors. So. Plx, we have mr. President , we have been trying weve been working for months and i really want to commend my friend from pennsylvania, senator casey as we try to accommodate the concerns of many, many other senators. So weve changed this part of the coast guard bill numerous times to try to address these. I think weve gotten almost every senator on board with the exception of just a few. But notably, notably, one of the things that again, we have strong bipartisan support for in this bill and would help a number of my constituents, thousands in the fishing industry, is that this provision that weve agreed on provides a permanent exemption on incidental vessel discharges for all Fishing Vessels and small commercial vessels. Right now, believe it or not, if you have a small commercial vessel and youre gutting fish that you ea caught on the ves youve caught on the vessel and you want to hose down the guts of those fish back into the water, you need a permit from the e. P. A. Think about that. Think about a regulation thats going to hurt small businesses. What were trying to do, mr. President , is encourage all of our colleagues to help us move forward, a, with the coast guard bill. We move the National Defense authorization act that covers the army, navy, air force, marines every year. We should be moving the coast guard bill every year as well. To make sure that we are taking care of the men and women in the coast guard, that were not forgetting the fifth branch of service in the military that does so much for our men and women, but we also need solutions to this issue of the vessel incidental discharge challenges and we need to get this provision of the coast guard bill unstuck. Again i want to thank my colleagues for being on the floor with me and, again, this is a very bipartisan issue, but we wanted to call out the importance of this issue to the to our colleagues in the senate to say its time to act. Its time to move on the coast guard bill. Its time to conclude this very important vida provision, and im hopeful that we can do that soon. Mr. President , im not going to yield my time to my friend to im now going to yield my time to my friend from pennsylvania, senator casey. Mr. Casey mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from pennsylvania. Mr. Casey thank you, mr. President. I want to start by commending the work of senator sullivan from alaska and for his words today to move this legislation forward and for his work and the work of his staff over many, many months now. I want to thank our staff as well and the staff senator wicker and so many other offices that i wont have an opportunity to name. Were especially grateful for that bipartisan effort which every once in a while works around here. And im grateful that he and his team, senator sullivan and his team have put in the kind of time they have. This legislation is part of the broader coast guard legislation, the commercial vessel incidental discharge act, socalled vida act, is critically important to get done this year. As senator sullivan mentioned, theres bipartisan support and we shoul