About 2 gallons working this afternoon on an executive nomination. Expected to vote on limiting debate on the next defense secretary. The chaplain of the house of representatives, father patrick conroy, will open the senate with prayer. The guest chaplain let us pray. Righteous god, deliver your people from evil. Set our lawmakers on safe paths, protecting them from dangers. Preserve them and their loved ones, keeping them from stumbling. Provide our senators with counsel, even in the night sessions, that they may prevail against the evil that seeks to destroy our nation and world. As they trust your loving kindness, may their hearts rejoice in your salvation. Lord, deal bountifully with them and the members of their staffs. We pray in your marvelous name. Amen. The president pro tempore please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of americ, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Grassley mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Grassley first, i have a duty to perform for the leader. I understand that there are two bills at the desk due to second reading due for second reading en bloc. The presiding officer the clerk will read titles of the bills for the second time. The clerk h. R. 582, an act to provide for increases in the federal minimum wage and for other purposes. H. R. 748, an act to amend the Internal Revenue code of 1986 to repeal the excise tax on highcost employersponsored Health Coverage. Mr. Grassley in order to place the bills on the calendar under the provisions of rule 14, i would object to further proceeding en bloc. The presiding officer the objection having been heard, the bills will be placed on the calendar. Mr. Grassley mr. President , i ask to speak in morning business for one minute. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Grassley passing the United Statesmexicocanadian agreement means more Market Access for our farmers and businesses and more protection for our workers. This agreement includes new commitments in critical areas such as customs, digital trade, services environment, and labor that are crucial to bringing higher wages and more jobs to the american workers. Of course, enforcement is key to a strong and durable trade agreement that will deliver all the benefits that i just listed. We need enforcement measures that work for all aspects of this agreement. Its time to bring nafta into the 21st century, and thats what the u. S. Mexicocanadian agreement will do. The time for usmca is now. I yield the floor. And i suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call quorum call quorum call quorum call quorum call mr. Mcconnell madam president. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell so the senates first order of business this week will be confirming a thoroughly well prepared nominee to a post of Vital National importance. Later today well vote to advance the nomination of dr. Mark esper to serve as secretary of defense. Tomorrow well vote on his confirmation. When dr. Esper was nominated in july of 2017 to serve as secretary of the army he possessed an impressive record that spanned Public Service, the private sector, and of course distinguished service in uniform. As a student he excelled at west point. He served honorably in combat during the gulf war with kentuckys 101st airborne, the screaming eagles. Later he obtained a masters degree from the Kennedy School and a ph. D. From George Washington university. In the years since dr. Esper has continued to serve his country compiling an outstanding record in Public Service. He served as Deputy Assistant secretary at the pentagon, as a senateappointed member of the u. S. China economic and security review commission, and of course as a trusted staff expert right here in the capitol. As a result, many of our colleagues have been familiar with this nominee for more than a decade. Members on both sides remember mark esper from his time on staff with our former colleague chuck hagel. Some knew him during his tenure with the Foreign Relations committee or with what was then the Governmental Affairs committee. And many of us inevitably crossed path with the smart and levelheaded National Security advisory for majority leader bill frist. When President Trump nominated mr. Esper to be secretary of the army two years ago my colleagues and i were well acquainted with his expertise, his patriotism. Its no wonder that this body confirmed that post by an overwhelming bipartisan margin and since then secretary esper has continued to impress. He continued to earn the praise of experts and colleagues from every corner of the National Security landscape. Quote, hes highly regarded inside the army. Soldiers like him, end quote. Hes, quote, someone who can work across the aisle, somebody who can work with congress. Additionally, somebody superbly well l qualified by experience and temperament for the position. Another quote, the nation would be lucky to have mark serve in any capacity. Hes particularly well suited to step into one of the most important jobs in the world. High praise from former pentagon officials of the obama years from widely recognized National Security professionals and just last week our colleagues on the Armed Services committee offered a ringing endorsement of their own by voting by voice to favorably report his nomination to the floor. So, madam president , it would be hard to draw up a more compelling case than the one in front of us for confirming dr. Mark esper. And its hard to imagine a more persuasive argument for doing it right away. No further delay than the front pages of newspapers all around the world every day. The world is full of serious threats to america, to our allies and to our interests. Not least among them obviously is irans insistence on continuing to ratchet up tensions in the middle east, having a senateconfirmed secretary of defense, especially one of this quality, could not come a moment too soon. So, in closing, madam president , when secretary esper took his last job, he wrote Army Personnel a letter that laid out three priorities readiness, modernization, and reform. Since then hes played an active role in this administrations effort to restore the primacy and lethality of Americas Fighting forces and the success of defense authorizations and Ongoing Operations abroad bear his fingerprints. Every day we are reminded that his work continues and were reminded why. So today my colleagues should be proud to join me in voting to advance the esper nomination and put the right man on the job. Mr. Cornyn madam president. The presiding officer the senator from texas. Mr. Cornyn madam president , over a week ago i traveled to the texasmexico border with the Vice President as well as the presiding officer and other republicans on the Senate Judiciary committee. We visited mcallen located in the heart of the Rio Grande Valley, which is a beautiful region with a thriving economy. Folks in the region continue to struggle to manage the growing humanitarian crisis caused by the massive influx of migrants arriving at our southern border. The Rio Grande Valley has been disproportionately impacted by this migrant crisis, with 46 of all apprehensions last month occurring in that sector. Its taken a toll, as you might expect, on the Border Patrol, the department of health and human services, local communities, and the nongovernmental organizations working to provide care for these migrants. Our trip provided the opportunity for the Vice President and members of the Judiciary Committee to meet with the men and women who are on the front lines of this crisis and hear about the challenges that they face every day. We also discussed what Congress Needs to do to help them address this crisis. Chairman Lindsey Graham invited all the members of the Judiciary Committee, both republicans and democrats, to go on the trip, but unfortunately none of our democratic colleagues accepted that invitation. Instead of going on a bipartisan basis, Senate Democrats chose to wait a week and go on what was a clearly partisan messaging mission. The minority leader said the purpose of the trip was to, quote, investigate, inspect, and evaluate conditions for migrants at facilities on the border, close quote. They traveled to mcallen, exactly where we were one week before, and they had a very similar itinerary, but they had a very different mission. Our mission was to find out what Congress Needed to do to help fix the problem. Theirs was to shine a light in a bipartisan fashion on conditions of migrants which were largely of congresss own making as a result of congressional inaction on dealing with the underlying causes. We both met with chief patrol agent rudy kar ish and had the chance to speak to the migrants themselves. But our takeaways from these nearly identical trips was quite different. This was like ships passing in the night. I left that trip feeling immense gratitude for our professional Border Patrol agents working to complete their duties with professionalism and compassion. As this crisis has grown, theyve been asked to do more and more with less and less. They go to work each morning not knowing exactly what the day will bring. Will they encounter a group of hundreds of migrants . Will they find abandoned children left for dead by smugglers . Will they rescue a drowning family from the rio ground or rio grande or worse find those who succumbed to the dangerous journey . This is not the fault of our Border Patrol agents and its not a side effect of the 2016 president ial election either. This migrant crisis has been bubbling up for years. We got a glimpse of how bad it could be in 2014 when thenpresident obama announced there was a humanitarian and security crisis, his words, on the southern border. In may of 2014, the height of apprehensions that year, nearly 69,000 people were detained at the southern border. In may of this year, that number has more than doubled to 144,000 in one month alone. So president obama called it a humanitarian and security crisis in 2014 and the problem has roughly doubled since that time. If theres one thing i hope our colleagues found on their trip, as the minority leader said to investigate, inspect, and evaluate, i hope its this, i hope their investigation confirmed what they have reflectively denied for months on end, that there is, in fact, a crisis at the border. I hope their inspection revealed that the problem isnt with the administrations policies or with the actions of our Border Patrol, its our broken immigration system. I hope they evaluated that without some type of action, real action by congress, the situation along the border will only continue to get worse. As this senseless bipartisanship over Border Security carries on, People Living and working along the border are also hurting. When i when we were in mcallen a week and a half ago, we heard from one Border Patrol agent who talked about the role Border Patrol plays at the centralized Processing Centers. He said we wear different hats. Sometimes were fathers, sometimes were mothers, brothers, sisters, play pals, and even counselors. We do this because we care. We do this because there is a real need. And, madam president , there is certainly a need. Last month we passed Bipartisan Legislation to send muchneeded humanitarian relief which will provide some temporary help. That bill also included funding for the departments and agencies that have depleted their resources trying to manage this crisis the best they can, and it made 30 million available for communities. In other words, they had to pay out of their own pockets for something thats the federal governments responsibility, and im glad we at least provided 30 million for reimbursement. This was a long overdue and important step to support those who have been working day in and day out hour by hour, minute by minute to manage this crisis. But as the folks we talked to in mcallen reiterated, the underlying problem still exists. In other words, you can treat the symptoms or you can treat the cause, but we shouldnt be confused. We have been maybe addressing some of the symptoms but we have done nothing to address the underlying cause. These officers and agents work incredibly hard to enforce our laws and provide Compassionate Care for those in their custody, but without meaningful action from congress, we are sending them into a losing battle. Without fixing the loopholes and repairing the broken system that facilitated this humanitarian crisis in the first place, well be finding ourselves experiencing deja vu every month. If you think 4. 5 million was needed for this emergency just a couple of weeks ago, wait six more months when there will be another 4. 5 billion required and there after and there after and there after. Well, what is the answer to the underlying root cause . What does Congress Need to do in order to fix it and to staunch this flow of humanity across our border . Well, theres only one bill out there with bipartisan support, with support both in the house of representatives and the United States senate that would provide relief along the border, and thats the humane act. Its an honest, nonpartisan attempt to fix the problem. No poison pills, no radical proposals, just reasonable policy designed to solve the problem. This bill would close whats become known as the flores loophole. This is an effective way to extend the flow of those trying to game the system without hindering trade or travel. In addition, the humane act would improve the way we process individuals entering into our country. We got the recommendation for our legislation from the bipartisan Homeland Security advisory committee. It would, for example, establish reasonable Processing Centers which would have personnel on hand to assist, including medical personnel and asylum officers at the border in regional Processing Centers. Finally, it would improve standards of care for individuals in our custody, something we all want to see happen. It would require the department of Homeland Security to keep Families Together during Court Proceedings and ensure that migrants had timely access to medical assistance as well as Recreational Activities, Educational Services and even legal counsel. The humane act requires additional training for customs and Border Protection and i. C. E. Officers, immigration and customs enforcement, for everyone who deals where children. The humane act is the only bipartisan bill currently proposed, and i would urge all of our colleagues to give it serious consideration. I can only hope that this trip that our democratic colleagues took convinced them it was time to quit playing games and get serious about finding a solution to the humanitarian crisis on our southern border. Madam president , i yield the floor, and i would note the 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 following nomination, which the clerk will report. The clerk nomination, department of defense, mark t. Esper, of virginia, to be secretary. Mr. Cornyn madam president , i would note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call a senator madam president . The presiding officer the senator from maryland. A senator madam president , i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Van hollen and i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Van hollen madam president , i rise today to recognize and thank an extraordinary public servant, one who has contributed greatly to the United States senate. Next week my constituent Judy Schneider will retire after a long and very distinguished career serving the United States senate, the United States house of representatives, and the Congressional Research service. Where she has earned a reputation as one of the nations top experts on the workings of the United States congress. She has joined us in