Vote the presiding officer are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote . If not, the yeas are 51, the nays are 41. The nomination is confirmed. Under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the president be immediately notified of the senates actions. A. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell i move to proceed to legislative session. Special the presiding officer question is on the motion. All those in favor, say aye. Those opposed, say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. Mr. Mcconnell i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 487. The presiding officer question is on the motion. All those in favor, say aye. Those opposed, say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. The clerk will report the nomination. The clerk nomination, robert the judiciary, robert j. Luck of florida to be United States circuit judge for the 11th circuit. Mr. Mcconnell i send a cloture motion to the desk. The presiding officer the clerk will report the cloture motion. The clerk cloture motion we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of robert j. Luck of florida to be United States circuit judge for the 11th l circuit, signed by 17 senators as follows mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent the reading of the names be waived. Officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i move to proceed to legislative session. The presiding officer question is on the motion. All those in favor, say aye. Those opposed, say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. Mr. Mcconnell i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 488. The presiding officer question is on the motion. All those in favor, say aye. Those opposed, say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. The clerk will report the nomination. The clerk nomination, the judiciary. Barbara lagoa of florida to be United States circuit judge for the 11th circuit. Mr. Mcconnell i send a cloture motion to the desk. The presiding officer the clerk will report the cloture motion. The clerk cloture motion we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of Barbara Lagoa of florida to be United States circuit judge for the 11th circuit, signed by 17 senators as follows the presiding officer i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i move to proceed to legislative session. The presiding officer question is on the motion. All those in favor, say aye. Those opposed, say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. Mr. Mcconnell i move to consider calendar number 454. The presiding officer question is on the motion. All those in favor, say aye. Those opposed, say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. The clerk will report the nomination. Thethe clerk nomination, robert j. Zuckerberg to be ambassador. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk cloture motion we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of adrian disukerberg of new jersey to be ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the United States of america to romania, signed by 17 senatorsals follows mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent that the the clerk will reading of the names be waived. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell ask unanimous consent that mandatory quorum calls be waived. Officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i have six request for committees to meet during todays session of the senate. They have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. The presiding officer duly noted. Mr. Mcconnell i suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call quorum call mrs. Blackburn mr. President. Are we in a quorum call . The presiding officer we are. Mrs. Blackburn i ask that the quorum call be suspended. Mrs. Blackburn thank you, mr. President. This past weekend i was the first senator in a really long time to fly into somalias Dangerous Capital city. It looks like things in that things have gotten back to normal. After you fly in and get on the ground, you see that it is really quite a different story. There is a reason why our recollection of somalia history focuses on black hawk down issue and president bill clintons decision to remove troops from the horn of africa. Somalias legacy is rooted in years of violence that overwhelmed elite forces, president to that economy and left the people very much alone at least until 9 11 when western powers were forced to focus on multiple fronts on the war on terror. I was fortunate enough last weekend to visit our djiboutibased troops. They have expanded to support africas mission there in the horn of africa. I will tell you, their leadership is committed to not repeating the mistakes of the past. Theyve developed the best unmanned Airline System unmanned aerial system force in the world. It is amazing what they are doing with these u. A. B. s. Between that program and our impressive surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, the military has stepped up their ability to keep our troops safer in the worlds most volatile theater. And i will tell you i was pleased to know that the 101st airborne out of fort campbell, which is located in montgomery county, tennessee, and also there on the kentucky border, that they are supporting the vital post benghazi east africa post Response Force and the 108th air wing unit of the Tennessee AirNational Guard plays a vital role in Regional Security operations. I will tell you, mr. President. It brought home to me the point of why we have to get the ndaa finished, why we have to get these resources to our men and women in uniform who are fighting every day and need 21st century warfare in order to keep us safe. And the work that they are doing there and, of course, i cant say exactly what it is that they are doing but it should make us all really humbled and grateful for those that choose to serve. Our mission in africa is changing. Things are shifting a little bit, and as we urge our local partners there in africa to take ownership over their own security, the chattering class is at it again and what we will hear from people is, well, i think weve done enough for africa. Dont you think weve given enough . And my response this week to those who have made that statement has been, no, we have not done enough. Weve invested more than a decades worth of time, money, and manpower, weve lost men, lost ground, regained that ground, expanded our abilities and really have achieved moderate regional stability. But most importantly, we have confirmed that the horn of africa is still a geopolitical powder keg, the same forces that swept the horn into anarchy in the 1990s and allowed terrorism to metastasize are now triggering instability across the couldnt nefnlt for a long time somalia managed to limp along as a failed state because a traditional government has never acted as their main arbiter. Powerful plans decided for themselves who would control territories and resources and the clans are still very evident in that country. The victims in turn weaponized access to clean water, food, health care in order to keep citizens in line. Violent extremist organizations like isis and factions of al qaeda have been watching and now they are employing the same tactics to destabilize existing governments in and beyond the horn in northeast nigeria and in sahal and the lake chad region, those areas of west africa. We may have eradicated the physical caliphate but mom and pop terror shops are thriving, whats more, the digital caliphate is alive and well and it will take more than Ground Forces to wipe it out. Many of my colleagues may think that this has lowered africas stock in the eyes of global power, but we shouldnt be fooled about that in this error of era of Great Power Competition. Its going to sound mighty familiar to all of us, but china, and to is a and to a lesser extent russia, are doing all they can to actually buy their way into strategic dominance. For example, this is some of what we heard and what we learned this week. China has made end roads by agreeing to hold 80 of the government of djiboutis debt. Think about that. China has gone to this country and they have said, look, we will hold this debt for you 80 of it. In turn, djibouti has accomodated chinas First Overseas Military outpost and granted them access to crucial shipping lanes. They also bought into chinas smart cities programs, those all seeing cameras that i encountered in every intersection in djibouti city. In other words, the chinese must feel like they have struck gold. They have a huge part going in. They are helping turn this into a an inner motal Transit System with a port, with a railway, and, by the way, we will put these cameras up to help keep your community safe. What is china doing . They are collecting all of that data. They are screening all of these faces, they are watching everything that is coming into all of these ports, and are monitoring everything that goes on the rails. China is doing this not only with djibouti, but with other countries in africa. They are trying to secure this coastline in africa for themselves to expand their reach. For 12 years, the u. S. And our partners have worked together to bring stability to the horn of africa. The state department and usaid have laid the groundwork for education, for health development, institution building, and permanent democratic transition, and yet, the region remains vulnerable. Our role is going to change because, yes, we look at it, Great Power Competition through the military. We also look at the way that china and russia are pushing into their economic sectors. Great power competition is not just playing out in the indopacific or in eastern europe. It is playing out right now on the african continent, and instead of playing defense as we do in other theaters, we have the opportunity to be on offense when it comes to africa. If we decide that now weve had enough, these threats, both from the military, that sector, and from the economic sector, they will degrade american influence and will threaten the homeland and will imperil the delicate and completely reversible balance that we have fought so hard to gain. Our nations security cannot afford to give ground to, to cede ground on the continent of africa. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call mr. Carper mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from delaware. Mr. Carper id ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Carper thank you, mr. President. Mr. President , i rise today to talk about something thats really important, not i think to our nation and our planet but to me personally. And to my family. Cochair and cofounder along with senator john boozman of arkansas of the Senate Recycling Caucus, im proud to stand side by side and with all the members of our caucus on the matter of recycling and its importance. Today senator boozman and i have introduced a resolution to commemorate tomorrow, november 15, as america recycles day. Id like to say that every day should be america recycles day. For a lot of families, thats what it is. I dont have any idea how many millions or tens of millions of families recycle every day but its a lot of people. We need even more. For more than two decades, communities across our country have come together on november 15 and they do so to observe america recycles day and to celebrate their commitment to recycling. First i want to thank all those who worked hard to make america recycles day a success for all these years. Ive been a huge advocate of recycling for the past 50 years. First recycled i think when he was a lieutenant j. G. In the navy, stationed in california, moffitt field in california, close to palo alto and took the recyclables to a warehouse in palo alto and never stopped. I dont go to the one in palo alto anymore but we recycle all over delaware and when i go around the country. Somewhere around baltimore coming down from wilmington this morning. I really welcome the opportunity to collaborate i want to say about a decade, more than a decade ago with the senator Olympia Snowe of maine. Together we helped create the Senate Recycling Caucus in 2006. And since retirement of senator snowe six years ago ive been fortunate to have as my running mate, cochair senator boozman of arkansas. And this year alone, our caucus has held four briefings to learn more about the current state of recycling in this country and to discuss ways in which the federal government might play an even more Important Role in encouraging additional recycling in the years to come. The state and local governments are heavily involved in recycling. Theres a huge i say this as former governor, huge and Important Role for state and local governments to be involved in this. But theres also opportunities for the federal government to play a constructive role. Were doing that and hopefully well be able to do that even better in the days to come. My sister and i were born in a coal mining town in west virginia. We grew up later on in virginia where i was a boy scout in the Civil Air Patrol cadet. In scouting we were taught to leave no trace. My dad used to say, a big hunterman, fisherman, he would say when hunting and fishing basically leave no trace behind so no one would actually know that we were there. And i think that admonition is one that stuck with me throughout my life. I believe we have a moral obligation to be devoted stewards of our environment and our planet and to leave our planet in even better shape than we found it. Lately ive been thinking about another quote. This one i really like from Martin Luther king that a lot of people have heard. It goes Something Like this. Anyone, everyone can be great because anyone can serve. And this call to service reminds me of recycling because almost anyone can help protect our environment by reducing the waste that we produce and we can do that in part by recycling. Ive got a chart here that caipts just some of the things indicates just some of the things i recycled of late. Its not a green ford explorer. We used my wife she bought it years and years ago, probably 15 years ago. We call it the ford exploder. It never exploded. It was a great car. She used it for a year or so, passed it down. Our son christopher used it for a couple of years and passed it down to ben who used it for three years and finally gave up the ghost. And i took it one day to a place where they recycle cars and drove in, put it on this huge machine that actually weighs it. I think you get on a scale to weigh ourselves. This is like scales for vehicles, including our ford explorer. And they wrote out a check literally before i left to actually pay i think 900 for recycling the explorer. And people do that every day in delaware and other places as well. We had we have delaware has the Waste Authority in our state. One of the things they oversee is recycling. They hold about every month from spring to the fall recycling events. A lot of times were in schools, parking lots, maybe High School Parking lots and they do them on saturdays. And this on saturday id call ahead and say, do you recycle cal recycle dehumidifiers that had been in our basement forever. Yeah, we do that which is great. We checked on paint thinners, oil base paints. They said were doing hazardous material, recycling. So i took several cans of paint thinner. We had all these outdoor lights from our house over the years that kind of died out on us. I didnt know what to do with them. Sure enough, they took these household lites as well. They took all kinds of cords and everything. And paints and stuff. And then we had every monday in my neighborhood we have a big we have big canisters outside and can recycle all kinds of things. Have Water Bottles in there and other kinds of cans and so forth, newspapers, you name it. We actually compost too. If you actually add up when we put in our big recycling bin every monday for pickup and you look at what we put in our compost in our backyard and then you compare that to the actual amount of trash that is picked up at our house on thursdays, many times more recyclables and compostables than is actually trashed. And we like to do that where i live and hopefully well learn from other communities and states and hopefully theyll learn from us. One of the reasons i love recycling so much, my belief that all of us can do our part to preserve limited resources and reduce landfill while at the same time helping our environment and creating jobs. Mine is a little state. I tell people even today were the 49th largest state which means only rhode island is smaller than us. But were about a hundred miles long, 50 miles wide and recycling is particularly important. We just dont have a lot of space for landfills. We have about a Million People and its just a matter of having enough space. But thats that space limitation is actually what prompted delaware to pass the universal recycling law in 2010. It requires that all waste haulers who provide Residential Trash collection also have to provide for the collection of recyclables. Think about that. And that was a law we passed about nine years ago i think under the leadership of either governor markel or we started a little bit of recycling, got serious about it when i was governor and ramped it up in the last decade which is wonderful. Since the law was pas