Nomination of Barbara Barrett to be the next air force secretary, with a final vote on her scheduled for 4 15 eastern. And now to live coverage of the u. S. Senate here on cspan2. The presiding officer the senate will come to order. Todays opening prayer will be offered by Giani Sukhvinder Singh of milbourne, pennsylvania. The guest chaplain good morning. Let us pray. One universal creator god, by the grace of the true guru. Almighty god, we call you by many names but you are one. Keep your divine hand over the members of this senate as they help steer the future of our great nation. Keep truth on our tongues, love in our hearts, and sound judgment in our minds. Remind us of our purpose to love and serve one another and create a more peaceful world. We ask for blessings unto all leaders as they work for the common good. Give all who govern this land humility and courage, integrity and compassion. Release each one of us from ego so that we may serve selflessly. Help us remember that we belong to one family. Recognize the entire human race as one. We ask of the almighty to also keep watch over our nations protectors who work tirelessly day and night to ensure our safety and our freedom. You are everywhere. All are yours. Whatever is seen, o god, is your form. My lord, you are but one. We ask you to bless this great nation and its people. In the name of nanak, find everlasting optimism. With your will almighty god, may there be welfare of all of humanity. [ speaking Foreign Language ] 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. , october 16, 2019. To the senate under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable patrick j. Toomey, a senator from the commonwealth of pennsylvania to perform the duties of the chair signed chuck grassley, president pro tempore. Mr. Toomey mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from pennsylvania. Mr. Toomey mr. President , i rise today to mark a very special day for the sikh religion and the Sikh Community across america and especially in pennsylvania. Specifically the birthday of the founder of sikhism, guru nanak. Guru nanak was born into a hindu household in 1469 in what is modern day pakistan. Guru nanak shown a keen interest in religion early on in his life. He had real life in his youth for philosophizing and writing poetry. He married, had children and became an accountant like his father but yet always believed in the importance of living a Spiritual Life and eventually he underwent a profound personal transformation to become the religious figure and leader that he is recognized as today. Guru nanaks most famous teachings include that there is only one god, that people need to need not go through an intermediary such as a priest to access the one god, and that all people were created equal. He preached that his followers should meditate and remember god, that she should rn they should earn an honest living and share with those less fortunate themselves. Guru nanak started teaching the faith around the year 1500 and with around for million adherence, the sikh faith is the sixth largest religion in the world. Approximately 700,000 sikhs have chosen to make their home in the United States. There are several sikh places of worship in and around the philadelphia area, pittsburgh, allentown, erie and across america. Next month on november 12, there will be celebrations at gurdwaras across the globe to mark the 550th birthday of guru nanak. In addition, sikh leaders have come to the capitol today to commel rate the birth detail of guru nanak. A few minutes ago a giani or sikh religious official gave the prayer as the senate opened for business. Im proud he hails from my state of pennsylvania. And this evening leaders from the Sikh Community will intervene an interfaith event to promote the peaceful values that all of the worlds major religions share. So, mr. President , this morning i just wanted to ad my add my voice to wish the Sikh Community great luck and great joy with this event and wish guru nanak a happy 550th birthday this year. I yield the floor. 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 to resume consideration of the following nomination which the clerk will report. The clerk nomination, department of defense, Barbara Mcconnell barrett of arizona to be secretary of the air force. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell are question in a quorum call . The presiding officer we are not. Mr. Mcconnell i mentioned yesterday the contrast between our work here in the senate and whats transpiring over in the house. On this side of the capitol, were focused on working for the American People. Were overcoming democrats historic delay tactics and ob strix to confirm more of the president s impressive nominees for the executive branch as well as the judiciary. Later today, well confirm a new secretary of the air force and then turn to several impressive nominees to District Court vacancies to continue our renewal of the federal judiciary. Well also keep working on the appropriations process in providing the funding our armed forces certainly need and were discussing ways to discourage the withdrawal of u. S. Forces from the middle east and ensure the United States continues to provide the essential Global Leadership that has cornered isis and other radical islamist terrorists and kept our nation safe. So whats going on over in the house . Theyre doubling down on their threeyearold obsession with finding ways to nullify the decision the American People made back in 2016. Speaker pelosis democrats are blocking the usmca, the landmark trade deal that would create 176,000 new jobs for American Workers. Theyre dragging their heels on funding the government, keeping our military commanders in lim limbo. All their energy is going into this allconsuming impeecht par impeachment parade that has been rolling on for three years now searching, ever searching for rationale. Remember, mr. President , it was literally Inauguration Day january 2017 when the Washington Post ran this headline. The campaign to impeach President Trump has begun. Inauguration day 2017. Well, they got it right. Before President Trump even took office, one prominent House Democrat had already declared he would not be a legitimate president. Just a few months later another was already promising she would not rest until she impeached him. From the very beginning of this presidency, washington democrats have lived in a state of denial. They seem positive that some inside the beltway maneuver would save them of the consequences of secretary clintons defeat. They hoped special mul letters report would value date their theory about conspeary between the Trump Campaign and russians. They used their minority powers in the senate to nullify his presidency by obstruction even completely uncontroversial nominees to all posts simply because this president was the one who nominated them. Three years of this now. Now, finally, Speaker Pelosis efforts to hold back her leftwing caucus have officially crumbled and the house has thrown itself into impeachment. Given the lip service that House Democrats paid to defending the norms and institutions of american government, you might think they would at least run the socalled impeachment inquiry by the book. You might think that the people trying to overrule American Voters and cancel out an election from washington would conduct their process with the very high standards of fairness and due process. If you thought that, youd be wrong. Our democratic colleague vs had their minds made up colleagues have had their minds made up long before this began. The chairwoman of one of the committees Speaker Pelosi put in the process said in april 2017, quote, im going to fight every day until hes impeached. Every day until hes impeached. That was back in 2017. So this is not about seriously discharging constitutional responsibilities. Its about the end result theyve had in mind since day one. Remember when the campaign to block Justice Kavanaugh began with protest signs with a big empty blank for the name. It was a fill in the blank protest before they even knew who the nominee was. And now, mr. President , we have the sequel with this fill in the blank quest for impeachment. The democrats process already speaks for itself. For the first time ever, Speaker Pelosi has simply ordered the house to conduct an inquiry into impeaching a president without a full vote of the house. Just yesterday, the speaker doubled down on this unprecedented and undemocratic process by once again refusing to hold a vote on an impeachment inquiry. Democrats have refused to give republicans the same rights and fair treatment that republicans afforded democrats during the clinton impeachment. Things like equal subpoena power for the Ranking Members. Likewise, democrats have refused to give President Trumps counsel the same opportunities that republicans gave to president clinton, rights such as attending all hearings, depositions, offering evidence, and crossexamining witnesses. We have already seen chairman schiff in public say his committee had not been in touch with the whistleblower when they actually had been. We have seen chairman schiff bizarrely and brazenly fabricate what the president actually said to the president of ukraine during an official hearing that he was chairing. Only to claim that his fabrications were a parody, a parody when republicans called him out for it. The same democrats who are running this circus turn around and claim with a straight face that they are solemnly following the facts and the constitution wherever it leads. Give me a break. Give me a break, mr. President. The entire country can see that thats not whats happening here. And heres what else the American People can see. The democrats would rather fight with the white house than work with republicans and the administration to pass legislation. We need Real Solutions like fullyear funding for our armed forces so our men and women in uniform can receive their pay raise and our commanders can engage in longterm planning. Real Solutions Like the usmca, a major victory for American Workers and american businesses which the Trump Administration negotiated with canada and mexico, but which Speaker Pelosi had blocked for months with 176,000 new american jobs hanging in the balance. Opportunities are right before us. Senate republicans have been ready and waiting for weeks and months to do our part and actually make law on these subjects for the benefit of american families. We just need our counterparts across the capitol to get serious about this. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Cornyn mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from texas. Mr. Cornyn i would ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Cornyn mr. President , just when you think things couldnt get any stranger here in washington, d. C. , a few weeks ago, Speaker Pelosi announced that the house was officially beginning proceedings to impeach the president of the United States. While the left has been dreaming of impeachment ever since the president was first elected in 2016, the timing of this was quite a surprise. In fact, last january, the speaker led the effort to table an impeachment resolution, and she and chairman nadler and chairman schiff and other house leaders had said they recognize that this would never be successful unless it is bipartisan. And i think they were right then, and theyre wrong now. We know that the announcement of the speakers came at a time when the only thing the public knew is about rumors on of a whistleblower complaint about a call over which virtually no one knew any details, but the facts didnt really matter. This was about grabbing a hold of something and using this as a vehicle to do what the left has wanted to do since the president was unanimous consent rated. Was inaugurated. Were the initial reports reason to look into the matter further . Absolutely. Thats what the select committee on intelligence which i have the privilege of serving on did. We had the acting director of National Intelligence come testify. We had the Inspector General come testify about his report. But thats not the approach that House Democrats have taken. They made no honest effort to investigate before deciding to impeach. Prior to the speakers press conference, in fact, we hadnt seen the complaint, we hadnt seen the transcript or heard from the leaders of the intelligence community, but regardless of the lack of any evidence at the time, they jumped into impeachment feet first. Its almost as if they were waiting for anything, any excuse, any reason at all to do what they have wanted to do since day one in opposing President Trump. This confirms to me that this is really not about the facts so much as it is a search and destroy mission. Removing a president from office is no small matter. In fact, the senate has never done so in american history. You would think that with so much at stake, our House Democrat friends would make every effort to lay out a careful, logical factbased case to the American People. In fact, they said they knew they couldnt be successful unless this was a bipartisan effort, but they made zero effort to make it bipartisan by laying out the facts, by making it transparent, by letting the American People see exactly what was going on. Ordinarily, you would expect hearings on every major network, witnesses presenting their testimony subject to questioning by both republicans and democrats and detailed reports of investigations. Thats what you would expect, but thats not what we got. Instead, we got secret hearings, secret witnesses, secret interviews, and secret meetings. But you know what goes along with that kind of secrecy . Leaks and more leaks. Chairman schiff and his cohorts in the house have drawn the cloak of secrecy around this entire proceeding and then proceeded to drip, drip, drip a narrative to the press through leaks that would seem to justify their arguments. But thats not fair. Thats not fair to the president. Thats not fair to the American People who elected the 65 Million People who voted for President Trump to try to negate an election through this sort of inappropriate process justifies logic and sense. We have some idea of who they are meeting with, but we have no idea of the details they are talking about. Thats because of instead through the Judiciary Committee which would have been an open proceeding ordinarily, Speaker Pelosi has grabbed this topic from chairman nadler and given it to chairman schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee so as to have some sort of justification, as thin as it may seem, for doing things lined closed doors and in secret. You know, as i have said, im on the senate against committee. I understand if there is classified information that cant be made public. Thats a reason to have closeddoor hearings. But there should be some effort to separate the classified information, if there is any, from the nonclassified information and have a public hearing on that part of the information the committees giving, not just closing the door, locking it, and throwing away the key and keeping it all secret. This is really unjustified. Well, we know that there have been they have been busy, chairman schiff has been busy. We know he has particularly been busy on the tv talk shows and giving interviews to the media all day long, every day, and we know that there are bits of information being strategically leaked to the media which conveniently align with their overall plan, and that is impeachment. There have been no real and incredible details about whats happened behind those closeddoor meetings, and i would suggest, mr. President , that every american should be concerned. This is entirely contrary to our basic concepts of fairness and due process to have secret witnesses, secret interviews, secret hearings, and then use that information then to take one of the most dramatic actions that the constitution provides for, and that is the removal of a president. This is contrary to any concept of fair play and due process as guaranteed by the bill of rights and our constitution. You know, you could be charged with a tragic offense and get more transparency and more due process than what the Hou