The presiding officer any senator wish to vote or change their vote . The yeas are 88. Nays are 4. The nomination is confirmed. Under the previous order, the motions to reconsider are considered made and laid upon the table and the president will be immediately notified of the senates action. A senator madam president . The presiding officer the senator from wyoming. Mr. Barrasso thank you, madam president. First i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to a legislative session and be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Barrasso thank you, madam president. Madam president , i come to the floor today having just spent thanksgiving day with our troops serving in afghanistan. It was an incredible honor to join President Trump in a surprise visit to the soldiers stationed at Bagram Air Force base. We served thanksgiving dinner to our dedicated Service Members, those are individuals who serve us every day. You know, our troops were absolutely thrilled to receive the thanks of our grateful nation directly delivered from the commander in chief. They know that President Trump has their back. The photo shows a number of members of the wyoming National Guard, the cowboy calvary, my fatherinlaw bob brown from wyoming was a member of this group when he served in korea. Madam president , it was such a privilege to introduce the president to some of my home states wyoming National Guard members. We actually had two of them up on the stage with him. Theyre doing a tremendous job on behalf of wyomings largest deployment overseas right now in about a decade. We told all of our Service Members how grateful the nation is for their service and their sacrifice and their dedication, but meanwhile here back in washington, madam president , democrats continue to block the bills that we need to have passed to keep our nation secure. Incredibly, theyre blocking both the Defense Authorization and the defense funding bills. Well, defense funding bills, the whole funding of our National Defense expires in two weeks. But still the democrats continue to waste time, precious time, legislative time on their partisan obsessive approach to impeachment. Their Holiday Season impeachment is hurting the American People and especially it is hurting our military. The defense funding measure includes a well earned and well deserved pay raise for the troops. The president told the troops about that on thanksgiving evening after serving dinner and after eating with them. It makes you wonder, madam president , why on earth democrats would block the pay raise right before christmas. It is amazing. They seem to be blocking all of the things that need to be done for our country to move ahead. The truth is theyre so focused on gift wrapping an impeachment process from the far left that they have left the rest of us in this country out in the cold. Besides theyre slow walking so many of the proworker, profarmer usmca trade deals that are so critical for our nation. It means certainly a lot for the breadbasket of america. Means for so means so much for us in the Rocky Mountain west. Theyre preventing us from lowering drug costs. Above all people expect us to support our troops. But one thing after another after another the democrats continue to obstruct. The republicans are fighting to fully fund the military. Democrats are in the process of waging war against the commander in chief. Remember both parties came to the table and they completed a bipartisan budget deal this past summer. The democrats went back on their word. And in doing so, they broke faith with the troops and with all americans. Democrats, they filibuster, they impeach, they neglect the troops. Really theyre hurting the American People, not the president. The president is busy doing his job. This week hes attended natos 70th anniversary summit. Also meeting with the u. N. Security council members. U. S. Forces meanwhile are facing heightened threats with last years funding levels. While necessary the stopgap spending resolution that we have right now is taking a toll on the military. And heres why. The shortterm funding means that a 22 billion cut has occurred from the summers bipartisan budget deal. Its harming military readiness. Its harming the training of our troops. It has delayed and suspended Weapons Systems and programs. Now, that hasnt stopped House Democrats and the Senate Democrats from blocking the fullyear defense measures they continue to obstruct. Republicans need democrats support to pass these bills. These need to be bipartisan bills. The national Defense Authorization act has a long history of strong bipartisan support. Yet House Democrats continue to delay the final passage. Lets not forget our troops in harms way are far away from home this Holiday Season. Theyre on the front lines. Theyre defending our freedoms. They sacrifice 365 days a year. They do it to protect our nation. U. S. Service members never complain, never quit, and republicans wont quit supporting them. Yet democrats remain too obsessed with impeachment to finish important business. The question is why are democrats fasttracking impeecht and fill bust impeachment and filibustering defense legislation . Their impeachment production is choreographed down to the final curtain call. It is simply a costly, chaotic waste of time. I believe most americans know it. Thats certainly what i hear in wyoming. Democrats turn out to be the party of no, no positive ideas, no positive vision, no positive agenda for america. All they want to do is focus on impeachment. Some ran on it. Others didnt. Whether they ran on it or not, thats what theyre doing and theyre neglecting the American People and the wishes and desires of American Families for jobs, for strong and healthy economy, a growing economy, for infrastructure, roads and bridges, all of the things that are important, for lowering the cost of medical care, lowering the cost of drugs. They are ignoring it all. And certainly theyre ignoring national security. So, madam president , its time for the democrats to stop stonewalling. Its time to pass the defense bills. Its time to give our troops the rise that they have earned and they deserve. Lets send the right message to our troops as well as to our adversaries. Its time to pass these defense bills now. Madam president , i also come to the floor today to talk about another issue, and that is that there is a Climate Conference meeting right now in europe. The United NationsClimate Conference and earlier this week House Speaker pelosi and 14 other democrats traveled to europe for the conference. To me they went there to undermine the president and to push their radical green new deal. They told the International Group that the United States is committed to the paris climate deal. Madam president , thats just not true. As secretary of state pompeo said, the paris climate deal posed an unfair economic burden on american workers, on american businesses, and on american taxpayers. President trump began formally withdrawing from the paris climate deal last month. Now, it may appeal democrats liberal lead to talk about climate in europe. Republican, however, are goarg to stay focus are going to stay focused on the work ahead of us at home. We have a packed yearend agenda here in congress. Americans expect us to continue the progress that weve made on jobs, on the economy, incredible success, madam president. This means passing better trade deals, funding the government, improving our road, the things we were elected to do. The speaker is nowhere to be found, certainly not on this continent. Rather than pass american priorities, the speaker is sidelined in spain. Republican progrowth policies have led to a worker boom. Wages are up. Unemployment is down. Unemployment is down to a 50year low. Think of that, madam president. Its a result of republican tax cuts, regulatory relief and unleashing american energy. Right now today we have the lowest African American unemployment in history. People have more takehome pay, more money in their pockets and costs are low because of the regulatory relief. And weve seen this with the shopping over the thanksgiving weekend, in terms of people feel that confidence in the economy and in their futures. Democrats regulation message which is more regulation, higher costs lead to fewer jobs, its not going to work at home, madam president. Its certainly not going to work in wiep. Maybe they think it in wyoming. Maybe they think it will work in europe. But just to clear up any confusion, President Trump has gotten us out of the paris agreement. Republicans progrowth agenda has us producing and exporting more energy at home, and were seeing millions of new jobs. Republicans are going to stay cleareyed and focused on the economy. Were going to continue to deliver real results, tangible results, results that people can understand and see and hold on to. We need to do that for the people that elerkted us, elected us, and we will continue to do it, madam president. Thank you, madam president , and i yield the floor. A senator madam president . The presiding officer the senator from maine. A senator madam president , theres a wonderful guy who lives in maine named david mallot. He has a keen year and an eye for the rural parts of our country. One of his most famous songs starts out like this. Inch by inch, row by row, going to make this garden grow. All it takes is a rake and a hoe and a piece of fertile ground. The problem is what we have now is we have rakes, hoes and a piece of fertile ground. Mr. King we have seeds, we have crops, but we have an administration that ties the hands of our farmers at every turn, particularly the blueberry farmers in maine. Now, blueberries have been exported from maine since the 1840s. And the people who are in this farming business are tough, theyre resilient, they dont want bailouts. They want to be able to sell their product on the market. And its a wonderful product, by the way. If you ever have an opportunity to choose between blueberries and wild blueberries, choose wild blueberries. Theyre better for you and they taste better. But in recent years, the market for blueberries has been very difficult because of imports from canada and additional cultivated blueberries from around the country. So our farmers being entrepreneurial and doing what we have been telling them to do for years have gone big time into the export market. Where is a great place to export . China. I used to say as governor if we could get the chinese hooked on blueberry muffins, just one a day, all of our problems would be over. And the maine wild blueberries were getting to that point. Two years ago two and a half 2. 5 million a year of blueberries were going to china and half of the budget of the export commission, wild blueberry export commission was going to develop the chinese market, hours and hours, days dollars, a lot of effort went to develop this chinese market. And then all of a sudden came the Trump Administration tariffs. Now surprisingly it seemed surprising to the administration but not surprising to anybody thats paid attention to 500 years of trade the Immediate Response to those tariffs was retaliatory tariffs by the chinese and one of the first ones was an 80 tariff on wild blueberries. We were doing pretty well. In 2014 to 2017, exports to china quadrupled 2. 5 million this year, 61,000. So, we have the trade war. We have tariffs. Its well known that we have tariffs that are replying to all kinds applying to all kinds of agricultural products. So whats been the response of the administration . A massive bailout, a bail justice which has now reached Something Like three times the dollar value of the bailout of the Automobile Industry back at the beginning of the Obama Administration when we almost lost that entire industry. Were now heading toward three times the amount, and a lot of the bailout to the Automobile Industry was paid back. This is not a bailout thats going to be paid back. Its continued to be just paid out to various farmers across the country. Now, farmers and im sure the farmers in the midwest just as the farmers in maine, dont want bailouts. They want sales. They want to sell their product in the market, which they have been doing. But whats happened is weve got this bailout, and i call it the farm bailout lottery. I dont have a spinner on here, but its a lottery because we dont know and we dont understand and nobody can tell us why certain crops are in and certain crops are out. Round and round she goes. Where she stops, nobody knows. And thats the problem. Whats in . Well, lets see. Cranberries are in. Blueberries are now. Zip, zero, nothing. Soybeans are in. Wheats in. Apples are in. Heres what else is in . Tell me if this makes any sense. Dairy, hogs, almonds, cranberries, ginseng, grapes, cherries. These are getting the bailout money. Some farms over 500,000. Hazelnuts, by cans, pistachios and walnuts but not blueberries and for some reason, not apples. So weve got a double whammy here on this proud industry from maine. First, the chinese tariff war, which of which were Collateral Damage and, by the way, the same problem is going on with lobsters. They were one of the first products to be retaliated against by the chinese. Weve lost that export market. And now the same thing is happening in these agricultural products. So its a double whammy. We got hit by the retaliatory tariffs. And number two, were not in on the funds that are being distributed. Nobody can he will it us what the rationale is. Is it who has the biggest, most powerful lobby in washington . If youre from a that voted for the president in 2016 . Whats the rationale . We cant tell what that is. The president just said yesterday this trade war with china may go on for another year. That means another crop, that means people we have third and fourthgeneration blueberry farmers in maine leaving the land. Its heartbreaking. These arent big enterprise. These arent big operations. These are people with 100acre farms. Now, the Administration Knows about this because i, my colleagues from maine wrote them in july and asked this question wild blueberries should be included in whats called the market facilityation program. Didnt happen. And we still dont really know what the criteria is. Just to put a fine point on it, if youre a wild blueberry harvester with a 100acre farm, you get zip, zero, nada, zilch. If youre a cranberry farmer with a 100acre barron, you get dollars. Ive written today to the department of agriculture asking them, a, why we arent in, and, b, how she is distinctions are made. I dont think thats an unreasonable question when youre talking about peoples livelihoods going back generations. These are tough people. These are resilient people. These are hardworking people. These are people that have given their lives to the land, and they deserve to be supported by their government, not undermined, not challenged, not undercut by their government. Row by row, inch i inch, going to make this garden grow. All it takes is a rake and a hoe and a piece of fertile ground. And a government that supports your right to make a living at your chosen profession. Thank you, madam president. I yield the floor. Mr. Cornyn madam president . The presiding officer the senator from texas. Mr. Cornyn madam president , i appreciate the senator from maine speaking about the virtues of wild maine blueberries. Happen to be one of my favorite favorite foods, and obviously the lobsters as well. I agree with him that there appears to be an arbitrary distinction between where these support payments that are supposed to compensate farmers for the trade war with china, which i think unfortunately is necessary to get china to conform to a rulesbased system when it comes to international trade, but certainly in the interest of preserving the wild maine blueberry, im happy to offer any services i might be able to provide to support our colleagues from maine. Madam president , over the weekend, we marked one year since the leaders of the United States, mexico, and canada signed the u. S. Mexicocanada trade agreement. This modern trade agreement will replace the national excuse me, the north American Free trade agreement, or nafta, which has been the Guiding Force for north american trade for the past quarter of a industry. Quarter of a century. When nafta was created, its goal was to remove barriers and provide economic benefits to all three countries. By any measure, nafta has been an overwhelming success, but a lot has changed in 25 years since nafta went into effect. And its time to bring north american trade into the 21st century. Thats precisely what the United Statesmexicocanada agreement agreement, usmca, will do. It preserves the hallmark provisions of nafta, like dutyfree access to mexican and canadian markets, and adds measures to modernize the agreement. The usmca provides strong protections for intellectual property, which is critical to protecting the incredible innovation that americans do right here at home. It also cuts red tape that is preventing countless Small Businesses from tapping into foreign markets and it accounts for ecommerce and digital products, something unheard of 25 years ago, at a time when governments around the world are proposing all kinds of new taxes on ecommerce, its actually the first