Policy and plans. The confirmation vote is expected at 11 a. M. Eastern. Lawmakers will also work on a judicial nomination. The president pro tempore the senate will come to order. The chaplain, dr. Black, will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Eternal god, hear us when we cry to you. You have been our help in ages past, and our hope for the years to come. You dont keep a record of our transgressions but shower us daily with mercy and forgiveness. Great is your faithfulness. As our senators wait for the unfolding of your powerful providence, give them your peace. May they cling to your promise, knowing that you will lead them to a desired destination. Give them the wisdom to trust your unconditional love and your willingness to save those who call on your name. We pray in your mighty 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 america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Grassley i ask to speak for one minute as if in morning business. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Grassley november is National Adoption month. This year we have very good ne news. In 2018 over 63,000 young people were adopted from foster care. Thats an increase of 4,000 from the previous year. However, the number of children waiting for adoption also increased. That number rose to 125,000. Unfortunately, teenagers, sibling groups, and those with medical challenges often wait much longer to be adopted. Every child deserves a safe, permanent, loving home. So i want to commend all those who have chosen to adopt children in foster care. If you wonder where i get the opinion that its unfortunate that people want a permanent, safe, and loving home, all you have to do is listen to the kids in the foster care system and youll always get this response. What id like to have is a mom and dad and id like to have a home. In other words, they get tired of being shuffled around from one foster home to another foster home to another foster home. Thats where i come from in recognizing november as National Adoption month. Thank you. I yield the floor. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell after we confirm chad wolf to serve in a senior position at the department of Homeland Security, the senate will turn to President Trumps nominee to serve on the Second Circuit court of appeals. Steven menashis nomination continues, an already distinguished career studying, teaching, and practicing law. After earning degrees from dart moth and stanford, he clerked for Douglas Ginsburg on the d. C. Court of appeals and Justice Alito on the Supreme Court. Mr. Menashi has held a Research Fellowship at the New York University school of law and taught at George Mason UniversitysAntonin Scalia law school. Even the american bar associations Standing Committee on the federal judiciary which is lately, lately made headlines for treating President Trumps nominees in a less than evenhanded way has rated this nominee well qualified. Obviously, a majority of our colleagues on the Judiciary Committee concurred and now the entire senate will have the opportunity to confirm yet another outstanding jurist to the federal bench. I would urge each of my colleagues to join me in supporting Steven Menashis nomination this week. Now, on another matter, today President Trump will host the leader of turkey at the white house, although expressed concerns about granting president erdogan such an honor in light of his recent actions. I hope the meeting produces better behavior from this important nato ally. We recognize turkeys legitimate National Security concerns about the destabilizing conflict in syria. Indeed, no nato ally has suffered more terrorist attacks or host more refugees than turkey. Nevertheless, we have legitimate National Security concerns of our own. And i know the vast majority of my colleagues share my concerns about turkeys recent behavior. Its important for the region and the fight against isis that turkeys encourage into syria not further jeopardize the antiterrorism campaign against the syrian forces. Its important for turkeys 80 Million People that turkeys government moves to restore its democratic traditions, freedom of the press, religious freedom, respect for secularism, and ethnic minorities in a robust space for civil society. Despite the optimism from the Obama Administration and others that turkey under president erdogan would be a model democracy, in practice these important values have suffered under his tenure. As the turkish peoples concern continues growing, its troubling that the political space for them to express those concerns has seemed to shrink further. But at the same time, mr. President , the United States must recognize that the path to addressing our concerns involves working with, with this important nato ally and aligning its interests with ours. Turning a Cold Shoulder all together would be a major strategic misstep and would jeopardize our National Security and our interest. We do not need turkey to fall further into moscows orbit. I know my colleagues are looking to see whether a deal can be reached on the s400 air defense system. So i share my colleagues uneasiness that seeing president erdogan honored down at the white house, but i would urge this body to remain cleareyed about our nations vital interest in the middle east and the fact that advancing them will mean strengthening our relationship with this nato ally, not weakening it further. Now, on one final matter, today almost three years into House Democrats quest to impeach the president , and seven weeks into the inquiry that Speaker Pelosi proclaimed in a press conference, House Democrats will hold their first public hearing on impeachment. This hearing was mandated by the strange resolution that House Democrats passed a couple of weeks ago. That resolution did not provide President Trump with important rights which the house afforded to president s of both parties during past impeachment inquiries. It didnt even afford their own House Republican colleagues the same rights that House Republicans gave democrats during the clinton inquiry. No, House Democrats resolution just codified their unfair approach. No due process now. Maybe some later. But only if we feel like it. Thats what it establishes. The American People know that many washington democrats have had their minds made up on impeachment for years. It was clear on election day 2016 and it became undeniable by inauguration day. Thats when the Washington Post ran this headline, this headline, mr. President. The campaign to impeach President Trump has begun, before he was sworn in. The whole country saw a prominent House Democrat state publicly in april of 2017, im going to fight every day until hes impeached. Thats the chairwoman of one of the committees the speaker has given responsibility for this inquiry promising impeachment three months into his presidency. So its hardly sure pricing that this partisan journey is not yielding a neutral process. Unfortunately its also crowding out important legislation for the American People. In the house Speaker Pelosi is more interested in taking away President Trumps job than creating 176,000 new jobs for American Workers by passing the usmca. Shes blocking this landmark trade agreement. In the senate our democratic colleagues have filibustered the funding of our armed forces despite promising to forego poison pills a few months back. Democratic leadership has run the appropriations process aground so they can fight over immigration policy with the white house. And speaking of our armed forces, House Democrats are also slow walking the National Defense authorization act. Thats an essential bill that congress has passed every year, every year since 1961. Like clockwork every year on a bipartisan basis for almost six decades. But this year House Democrats broke with the president and passed their own partisan version and are now stalling the conference committee. These are the priorities that are languishing as impeachment marches on. Now, mr. President , i understand theres a bill at the desk due a second reading. The presiding officer reporting the title of the bill. The clerk s. 2840 a bill to authorize appropriations for military activities of the department of defense for military construction and for Defense Activities of the department of energy and for other purposes. Mr. Mcconnell in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule 14, i would object to further proceedings. The presiding officer objection having been heard, it will be placed on the calendar. 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 Homeland Security, chad f. Wolf of virginia to be under secretary for strategy, policy, and plans. Mr. Durbin mr. President . The presiding officer the democratic whip. Mr. Durbin mr. President , if members of the American Public came to the Senate Chamber this week to witness legislative activity, such as a piece of legislation on the floor, amendments, debate, votes, deliberation, compromise, theyre out of luck. We dont do that . T senate anymore. Were not going to do it this week. We didnt do it last week and we didnt do it the week before. Now, the republican leader just said the problem is impeachment. The problem is not impeachment. The problem is a senate that is not a senate anymore. All we do in the senate, all we do in the senate is a serial list of judicial nominations, one after the other after the other after the other. Thats it. We dont take up legislation. Yesterday there was right across the street from this Capitol Building in front of the Supreme Court, thousands of people there because of a hearing in the Supreme Court on the issue of daca, a program created by president obama where 780,000 undocumented young people had a chance to stay in this country, abolished by President Trump. Hundreds of thousands of them came out yesterday. They wanted to hear or at least try to hear the Supreme Court deliberations on their future and what would happen to them. Its quite possible that the court will rule in the president s favor. I hope not but its possible. The future of these young people will be deportation. You can imagine how they feel about this issue. If they look back over here to the capitol and wondered what are they doing in the United StatesCapitol Building to deal with an issue of take grave importance for that grave importance for a large people of the United States, heres what were doing. Nothing. Nothing. The house of representatives passed the dream and promise act in the month of june and sent it to the United States senate, and senator mcconnell wont let us bring it to the floor. Is he going to blame the impeachment proceedings for the fact that we have waited four months now with this critical bill, having passed the house, not even being considered in the United States senate . Is that the reason we havent been able to take up serious legislation for weeks here in the United States senate . Of course not. Its not about impeachment. Its about a design strategy by the Senate Republican leader not to entertain substantive legislation, just to take up the issues of nominations. And the nominations, of course, are an issue themselves. I mentioned the judicial nominations. Well, last week in the senate Judiciary Committee, we had the ninth Trump Nominee for the federal bench who had been found unqualified by the american bar association. Thats nine so far. You say to yourself, well, that must happen from time to time. It never happened one time under president obama. Not one nominee was judged unqualified. Nine of them under President Trump. Why . Because this administration, with the cooperation of senator mcconnell, are hellbent to fill these vacancies regardless of the competency of the individual who is being nominated. On the calendar today is another nomination. Today the senates going to vote on the nomination of chad wolf. This is technically a vote for mr. Wolf to be the department of Homeland Securitys under secretary for policy. Lets be clear. This is actually a vote on whether mr. Wolf should run the entire department of Homeland Security. He would be the sixth, sixth secretary in charge of this critical agency, department of Homeland Security, the sixth one since President Trump was elected. Talk about a fastmoving revolving exit door. You can hardly get your desk put together and a few pens and computers on top of it, then youre out the door with President Trump if youre secretary of the department of Homeland Security. Well, next up, chad wolf. The president has indicated he is going to appoint him, not as the secretary of Homeland Security. No, the acting secretary of Homeland Security. But he first has to be confirmed as an under secretary. The Trump Administration has shown in their immigration policy an approach to this issue that we havent seen for decades in washington or the United States. The president has been especially harsh when it comes to families and children. President trumps ineffective policies have made our southern border much less secure than when he took office. The situation has even been worsened by this gaping leadership vacuum at the department of Homeland Security. In less than three years, four heads in the department and wolf will be the fifth i said sixth earlier. Im sorry. Fifth person to run it and the third acting secretary. Every position at the department of Homeland Security with responsibility for immigration is now held by a temporary appointee ready to be fired at a moments notice, and the white house has not even submitted nominations for those petitions. This is a conscious choice by the Trump White House to increase their power and to undermine the role of the United States senate and the republican majority thinks its just fine. The president has posted about all of his acting secretaries. He even has an acting chief of staff. Heres what he said. I like acting, donald trump said. It gives you great, great flexibility. It sure does. You can just fire a person, next up in a moment in a matter of days. Steve lattick, a leading expert on the senates confirmation process, notes that the president s approach is, quote, depriving the senate of its constitutional role, and in the process of opportunities to vet his nominees to reject those who are unqualified and to conduct meaningful oversight of the executive branch. So what do the Senate Institutions like the senator from kentucky think about diminishing the role of the senate . Just fine, mr. President. Whatever you want. Today the senate will actually have a chance to vote on this individual, chad wolf, up to become an under secretary on his quick path to become an acting secretary on his even quicker path to be, in some way, retired or fired. So as chad so is chad wolf the right person to run the department of Homeland Security, one of the most important L