Raid, senators are expected to work on 2020 spending on several departments including agriculture, commerce, transportation and housing. Now the live coverage of the senate. Senators are expected work on 20 20 spending on several departments including agriculture, commerce, transportation and housing. While we wait for senators to return, look at remarks on the senate floor dealing with impeachment inquiry against President Trump on the whistleblower, alex the house of representatives continues its impeachment inquiry into whether the president jeopardize National Security by pressuring the york rain to interfere with our elections, the white house , their allies in congress and the media have resorted to despicable tactics to falsely discredit individuals who have provided the house testimony. Yesterday Lieutenant Colonel alexander. Men serving on a detail in thewhite house testified before congress. In ltc vindmans testimony was announced and especially in the past 24 hours hes been vilified by individuals in the media and elsewhere. Although he has served our country for more than 20 years, although he is a recipient of the purple heart n after being wounded serving in iraq he has been called derogatory terms and some have gone so far as to call him a spy and question his loyalty to the United States. These attacks are outrageous. They are unacceptable and they are not much unlike the attacks the president and his allies have levied against the whistleblower. We take you live to the senate floor. Every day. For example, were not making sure every american has access to affordable, Quality Health care. We need to lower costs and take on big pharma, and were not doing that. Were not passing commonsense gun safety legislation that 90 of the voters support, to stop shootings in the schools, on our streets, in our communities. If we cant pass bills that save childrens lives, our democracy is not working. Were not even taking on the most pressing issue facing our planet, Climate Change. Younger generations are urging us to act, but this body is running away from taking any action. The number of grave stones in the majority leaders legislative graveyard where urgent bills are stalled and buried steadily mounts. Bills keep going in to the majority leaders graveyard. And the congress will not and cannot do the peoples business when the bills to fix our democracy also rest in that graveyard. The house of representatives overwhelmingly passed the for the people act, h. R. 1. They passed that in march. At the same time i introduced the Senate Companion to the for the people act which has the support of all 47 democrats and independents in the senate. But leader mcconnell has buried the for the people act along with a pile of other good and necessary bills. The for the people act repairs our broken Campaign Finance system, opens up the ballot box to all americans, and lays waste to the corruption in washington. These are all reforms that the American People support. Why wont the Senate Majority leader let us vote on them . Madam president , theres hardly a day that goes by that we dont see evidence of why its so important that we pass the for the people act. Foreign influence in our elections is only growing. 2016 was just the start. Associates of the president s personal lawyer have been indicted for laundering foreign money into our elections. The president s lawyers under investigation for the same. Political ads from foreign sources are flooding social media. Our bill fights foreign tampering in our democracy. It prohibits Domestic Corporations with foreign control from spending money in u. S. Elections. It cracks down on Shell Companies used to launder foreign money into our elections. Our bill makes sure american elections were decided by American Voters without foreign interference. It protects our democratic institutions, increases oversight over election vendors, requires paper ballots, and supports security upgrades for states voting systems. This body should have gotten serious about Election Security immediately after the 2016 election. But under the majority leaders direction, we have not done that. And at a time of increased foreign interference, the president has invited foreign assistance in any way it might benefit him, personally, politically, or financially. Madam president , day in and day out we see this president taking full advantage of his position to benefit himself, his family, and his political prospects. The president never divested, he never formed a blind trust for his assets. So now every day we see foreign officials and foreign nationals currying favor with the president and padding his pocketbook, whining and dining at trump properties. Indeed, mr. Giuliani and his two Close Associates lunched at Trump International right here in washington just before these two individuals were picked up at Dulles International airport with their oneway tickets abroad. The same individuals have been charged with illegally funneling foreign money into our democracy. And the president only relented from hosting the next g7 summit at his dural resort in miami after republicans told them even they couldnt defend that, all the while the president calls the emollients clause intended to stop these very abuses phony. The for the people act requires the president to fully disclose his or her financial interests and disclose the last ten years of tax returns, something this president has never done. It requires the president to fully divest and transfer all assets to a blind trust. The American People deserve to know their president is acting in the national interests, not in his or her own selfinterests, or subject to leverage by foreign interests who seek to corrupt our electoral process. The Intelligence Community has been very clear with their disturbing warnings. Adverse foreign interests are actively trying to manipulate our democracy. They did so in 2016 as the Mueller Report and prosecution from that investigation confirmed and they are trying to do so again in 2020. We are watching it happen in real time before our eyes. These foreign interests are not red or blue, not democratic or republican. They will use whoever they can to pursue their interests, interests that are often opposed to ours or simply corrupt. So we must unite in defense of our electoral system and in defense of the sanctity of our democracy. Like the other bills democrats are seeking to pass this week, the for the people act would provide that protection. The house version, h. R. 1, would do so as well. We want to partner with republicans in these efforts. Were open to negotiation. But while the American People demand that we fix our outofcontrol campaign system, make sure elections are secure and root out the corruption in washington, bills to address these issues gather dust on the leaders desk. Madam president , i for one will not stop fighting for the comprehensive democratic reforms that we need, for bringing power back to the people where the founders intended it to be. Our democracy will always be worth the fight. And once again let me just say senator merkley has been a great partner to work with on the for the people act, and i yield to him. Mr. Merkley madam president . The presiding officer the senator from oregon. Mr. Merkley im honored to join my colleague who has led this battle for the vision of the for the people act that will restore our we the People Democratic republic. Here we are on the floor of the senate, an institution that once reverberated with great debates on the great issues our nation faced, issues of war and peace, issues of civil rights, issues of health care and housing and education and infrastructure and livingwage jobs, issues of equal opportunity, issues of environmental pollution, issues that affect the fundamental success of each family in america and our collective success as a nation. But if youre sitting today observing the senate from the benches up above, youd be hardpressed to see any of that because those debates are not happening in the u. S. Senate. This chamber is silent on the great issues facing america. Now, the majority leader promised before he was majority leader that things would be different under his leadership. He said, and i quote, i said it under my leadership would break sharply from the practices of the reed era in favor of a far more freewielding approach to problem solving. I would work to restore its traditional role as a place where good ideas are generated, debated, and voted upon. Now one of the fundamental principles is that every senator should be able to raise any issue and have the chance to defend it, to present it, to see it attacked, to respond to those attacks, and have the American People see where we stand. But today the senate is not operating in that manner. The reality is reflected by a different quote from the majority leader. From this past year. He said donald trump is still in the white house and as long as im majority leader of the senate, i get to set the agenda, and thats why i call myself the grim reaper. The majority leader is taking great pride in preventing this chamber from being the legislative body envisioned in the constitution where we examine the issues that citizens of our states are presenting to us with great concern asking us to resolve them and take this nation forward. But instead were deeply mired in the legislative graveyard that the majority leader has been so proud to create. How about the bipartisan background checks act . Its now engraved on a tombstone. The paycheck fairness act engraved on a tombstone. Violence against women on a tombstone. Or how about saving the internet or saving our planet, the Climate Action now act. How about health care . Across my state in rural areas in urban areas, everyone want the same fair price even if they have preexisting conditions. That is the fundamental nature of an effective insurance strategy for health care. But the protecting americans with preexisting conditions act has never been debated on this floor. The American Dream and promise act, the securing americans federal elections act, the raise the wage act. How about the equality act that grants every member of our society, lgbtq americans, the full opportunity to have the doors of opportunity open rather than slammed shut. Debated and passed just down the hall each and every one of these bills. But here they havent been debated. The senate is failing its constitutional responsibility. In fact, during the last two years, theres only been three priorities that have seemed to arisen in this chamber. One was the goal of stripping health care from 30 million americans. It failed by the slimmest of margins. A second is to pack the courts with judges who believe in a supercharged amendment to give power to the powerful rather than power to the people. The third, a 2 trillion tax cut to enrich the richest americans. In any chamber that truly represents the people, you dont see the goal of destroying health care for 30 million americans and giving 2 trillion to the richest americans. But thats what weve seen here while we fail to see the bills on health care, on housing, on education, on infrastructure, on living wage jobs, the fundamentals by which the American Families prosper. And why is it that this chamber is now a completelyowned subsidiary of the most powerful people in this country . Its because of the fundamental corruption of our constitutional system. Starting with gerrymandering. Many of us hear that phrase equal representation and understand that were talking about fundamental fairness of distributed power, but gerrymandering is the opposite of that. And the Supreme Court has given complete license to extreme partisan gerrymandering, instead of defending the constitutional vision of equal representation. Its a principle in a democracy and in a republic that the citizens choose their legislators, the legislators dont choose their citizens. But that legislation to address that, to create nonpartisan commissions, to prevent that gerrymandering hasnt been debated on the floor of this chamber. A second piece of corruption Voter Suppression. The Supreme Court opened the doors by gutting the Voting Rights act, again failing to defend the vision of the constitution. But have we remedied that here on this floor . Have we addressed that fundamental corruption in which all kinds of tactics are created to prevent people from voting across this country, all kinds of clever i. D. Laws to disempower communities that are minority communities or College Communities or poor communities or native american communities. We have not. And then theres perhaps the most vicious form of corruption the dark money flowing flew our campaign systems. Jefferson was very clear that if you have government by the powerful, you end up with laws for the paul. For the powerful. So you have to have distributed power so that the power of the people results in laws that reflect the will of the people. Thats the difference between the vision of our constitutional system here in the United States of america and the system of kingships that dominated europe. But, because of the corruption of dark money in our campaign system, its created the concentration of power, the exact opposite of what jefferson laid out and our founders laid out in our constitution. We start our constitution with those powerful first three words, we the people, because thats the vision of our constitution, not we the powerful, not we the privileged. So a bill has been crafted, h. R. 1, or for the people act. My colleague from new mexico has led this charge to address this fundamental corruption in order to restore the vision our nation was founded on, because if we restore that foundation, then we would be addressing health care on the floor of the senate, making it more affordable, stopping the pricegouging of americans, the challenges of access in communities across this country. Wed be addressing the shortage of housing that is driving a homeless epidemic in this country, partly because of the economics, the structure of our economy, and partly because of Mental Illness and drug addiction. Wed be addressing education, because education is the full participation. And yet today weve seen a shrinkage of the opportunities through apprenticeships for working people and through college, Affordable College for, if your dreams take new that direction, you werent previously burdened by debt the size of a home mortgage. Wed be addressing infrastructure and jobs. Wed be addressing the environmental challenges our planet faces, if we restore the vision of our constitution. This for the people act is the most important piece of legislation because Everything Else we care about offfff ameris is going to fail if we let this chamber be controlled by powerful special interests through this corrupted system. So lets take it on, lets take on the gerrymandering and the Voter Suppression and the dark money. Lets have the courage to debate it on this floor because thats what we were elected to do was to work on the big challenges facing our nation, and there is perhaps no bigger challenge than this. I yield back to my colleague from new mexico. Mr. Udall madam president . The presiding officer the senator from new mexico. Mr. Udall thank you, madam president. I ask unanimous consent for the finance committee to be discharged from further consideration of s. 949, the senate proceed to its immediate consideration, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. The presiding officer is there objection . Mr. Blunt madam president . The presiding officer the senator from missouri. Mr. Blunt reserving the right to object, id like to talk about this bill for a minute. In march the house passed a bill that would give the federal government unprecedented control over elections in this country, despite the fact that for more than 200 years weve had a history of staterun elections and that very diversity is part of the strength of our system. I objected to the request at that time to pass that bill. Senate bill 949 appears to me to be almost exactly the same bill. Apparently the powerful special interests that my friend, mr. Merkley, talked about are the state governments, because thats where were taking authority from here. Were taking authority from the state governments. The for the people act is really for the federal government act. It represents a onesizefitsall federal power grab that would take control of Election Administration away from the states at great expense to the American People. It requires all the states to fit into frankly what House Democrats saw as a narrow view of what elections should look like. And just as frankly what House Democrats for 20 years have had in mind that would in every case in their view give them an advantage in the election process. The security of our elections comes in a large part from the very diversity of the way theyre set up and the way theyre administered. This bill would really undermine that decentralized system. I spent 20 years as an election official. Part of it as the election official, the chief Election Authority in what was then the thirdlargest county in our state and the rest of it as the secretary of state, the chief election official. I know for a fact that people who conduct these elections are unbelievably focus