In grateful praise to you, use us for your glory. Touch our senators. Lift them from valleys of pessimism as you fill them with your abiding hope. Prepare them to receive your best gifts, helping them to remember that you are able to do more than they can ask or imagine. Thank you that you are the beginner of our yesterdays, the mystery of our today, and the hope for our tomorrows. We pray in your sovereign name. Amen. The president pro tempore 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. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell when washington democrats passed obamacare over the objections of the American People, they were confident americans would soon warm up to this new law, but more than five years later the American People continue to oppose this unprecedented democrat attack on their health care. Is it any wonder . When americans think obamacare, they think increased costs, runaway premiums, surging deductibles, tax hikes on the middle class. When americans think obamacare, they think decreased choice, fewer doctors, faraway hospitals, a frightening scarcity of options for too many when they get sick. When americans think obamacare, they think broken promises and endless failure. Imploding statebased exchanges, collapsing coops, insurers eyeing the exit door, fewer jobs, and the lie of the year if you like your Health Care Plan, you can keep it. Its not like obamacares structural failures are just going to go away. They are baked right into the law, and they only seem to get worse as time moves along. Just as weve seen costs rise, choices narrow, and failures mount, weve seen Congressional Democrats block attempts to start over with Real Health Care reform. This week we finally have a chance to end obamacares cycle of broken promises and failures with just 51 votes. This week well take up the restoring Americas Health care freedom reconciliation act of 2015 that already passed the house of representatives. Its a bill that would take the first steps necessary to build a bridge away from obamacare. By building upon the houses good work, this bill would also save billions in spending and eliminate more than 1 trillion tax burden on the American People. And by employing the same tactics democrats used to help get obamacare across the finish line, this bill will not be subject to a filibuster. In other words, it cant be blocked by defenders of obamacares failed status quo. In other words, the president cant be shielded from the weighty decision hell finally have to make when this measure lands right on his desk. When the president picks up his pen, hell have a real choice to make. He may decide to stick to his rhetoric that the law is working better than even he intended and veto the bill, but he should instead decide to finally stand with the middle class that suffered enough from this failed law and actually sign it. Well see. Its a choice the president has never faced before. Its a choice hes going to face after Senate Action this week. Now on another matter, mr. President , the new Republican Senate has been working hard to get congress back to work over the past year. Weve obviously had a lot of success. As i noted yesterday, the new Republican Senate will soon pass two really significant bipartisan bills for a second and final time. The bipartisan multiyear highway bill and the bipartisan replacement for no child left behind. And well send them to the president for his signature. These are the latest examples of a new congress thats back to work, and on behalf of the American People. They are hardly the only examples well be talking about. Take another important issue that languished for too long that passed the new senate cybersecurity. We ended years of inaction on this year by passing important bipartisan cybersecurity bill that even the white house endorsed. That bill was the product of a lot of hard work by the Top Republican and top democrat on the intelligence committee. Im glad that the new more open and more inclusive Republican Senate made their cooperation possible. Because even though the old forces of gridlock tried to trip that bill up several times along the way, we kept moving forward and we always knew that we were doing the right thing for the American People. So my hope is that we can ultimately get this bill into conference and send it to the president closer to its current form. Because the challenges posed by Cyber Attacks are real and theyre growing. Because a cyber attack can be a deeply invasive attack on personal privacy, and the voluntary information sharing provisions in the bill we passed are key to defeating Cyber Attacks and protecting the personal information of the people we represent. Mr. Reid mr. President . The presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Reid my friend the republican leader talks about the old forces of gridlock when he talked about cybersecurity. Those old forces of gridlock were him and his caucus. We tried for five years to pass a cybersecurity bill. It was filibustered every time. And the bills, quite frankly, that were filibustered were very strong, good, indepth bills. We passed a cybersecurity bill better than nothing, but thats about it. It was not a really resoundingly good effort to go after the problem were having with cybersecurity. But we got it done finally because the problems on the republican side disappeared. Mr. President , my friend, the republican leader, has an obsession with the Affordable Care act, obamacare. He cant give up on this obsession. Americans without insurance are at the lowest point in history, and one need look no further than renowned republican republican columnist, the New York Times david brooks. Heres what he wrote im sorry to take so much time in reading something that was written by this man who is a republican columnist. I repeat, for the New York Times. Heres what he said regardless of what the republican leader may claim, the Affordable Care act continues to work. It is increasingly it is increasing Quality Health coverage, improving care, and theres no question about that. Now, brooks noted Health Care Costs are rising at their lowest rate in years. He said and i quote the good news is that recently Health Care Inflation has been at historic lows. As the chairman of the president s council of economic advisors put it in a speech, the hamilton project last month, Health Care Prices have grown at an annual rate of 1. 6 since the Affordable Care act was enacted in march 2010, the slowest rate for such a period in five decades. 50 years. And those prices have grown at an even slower 1. 1 rate over the 12 months ending august 2015. Continuing the quote, as a result of the slow down in Health Care Inflation, the Congressional Budget Office keeps reducing its projections of the future cost of federal Health Programs like medicare. As of october, projections for federal Health Care Spending in the year 2010 were 175 billion lower than projections made in august 2010. That would be a huge budget improvement. Historic lows and hundreds of billions of dollars saved by the federal government tells me that obamacare is working. Mr. President , enough of this haranguing about obamacare from my republican friend. One needs only to go home and people come up to you and say, you know, obamacare is so good, my daughter who could never get Health Insurance because she was a diabetic, now she can get it. No one with a preexisting disability can be denied insurance. Young men and women struggling to finish their College Education and stay on their parents Health Insurance until age 26, that is important. That is part of obamacare. Community Health Centers around this country are booming. Why . Because in the Affordable Care act we put 11 billion in there to provide for these essential community Health Centers. So, mr. President , ill have more to say about this because im sure hes going to come and talk about what a great victory it was on this reconciliation, which is a, an anomaly that we face every year, passing some things just to satisfy the haranguing about obamacare that Means Nothing substantively. And it will pass and go to the president , and hell veto it in about ten seconds. And of course, the veto will certainly be sustained. So, mr. President , the even in kentucky, even in kentucky heres what one article said in kentucky quote in a state of 4. 4 Million People, 500,000 people gained coverage because of their, the obamacare in that state. Four in five through medicaid. Continuing to quote, the effects were particularly dramatic in one appalachian county where m coal jobs vanished and the employment rate was 23 . From 2013 to 2014 the proportion of residents lacking Health Coverage plummeted by half from 13 to 6 . Half a million kentuckians are using the Affordable Care act. Thats more than 10 of the states population. So, mr. President , there are all kinds of personal accounts of how this has saved peoples lives literally. One uninsured mother and daughter said amid the coalfields of kentucky from a news article a small clinic part of the Big Sandy Health Care network furnishing daily proof of the states Affordable Care act. It is here minimum did i Mindy Fleming handed tissues to a woman who had a daughter with a 150 degree fever. It will be all right and it was. An hour later she had a Health Care Card and found four lyearold alexis had an issue problem. Another, dennis had a liver disease, pulling his 6foot frame with an abnormal heart rhythm, struck by lightning ten years ago in his tin roof farmhouse. He was making payments for an m. R. I. And went to the only hospital in a 150mile radius. Fleming helped him sign up for managed care medicaid plans available in kentucky. So, mr. President , the facts never seem to get in the way of my republican friend when it comes to obamacare. Anything he can do to denigrate this system that is helping 17 Million People. Mr. President , one need only watch the news to see how our nation is facing threats abroad. Were doing the best we can. But as the world grows more dangerous, Senate Republicans continue to block and obstruct the president S National Security nominees. Theyre blocking the very people that could help us respond to these threats. Take, for instance, for week after week after week, a man by the name of azita raji has been nominated to be our ambassador to sweden. This nation is the second largest country of origin per capita for foreign fighters in europe. The swedish government is on heightened alert for an attack, yet the United States doesnt have a senateconfirmed ambassador to represent us in stock home. Like sweden, norway is also dealing with the growing threat of terror, and some of their citizens have joined the radical ranks of foreign fighters. But due to republican obstruction, our nation does have does not have a confirmed ambassador in norway. Sam heinz, a Minnesota Attorney nominated by president obama, has been pending on the floor since july. Were now in december. So i personally applaud the presiding officer today for finally removing the holes on these holds on these two good people. I appreciate it very much. He and others have held up these nominees, and its unfortunate. Its gone. Im glad. In the wake of the paris attacks, the threats across the continent, it is imperative that we have ambassadors with european governments at the highest levels. Perhaps most egregious example of republican obstruction is the nodges of adam zubin. This man would lead if he were approved here a team within the department of state that disrupts terrorist financing networks, cutting off money for terrorists so they cannot finance their attacks. Hand in hand, they work with the treasury department. You would think that such an important nominee would be quickly confirmed. Mr. Zubins nomination has been pending for more than 200 days. Remember what he does. Remember what he would like to do, i should say. He would lead a team that disrupts terrorist financing networks, cutting off money for terrorists, but they so they cant finance their own evil deeds. The chairman of the banking committee, the senior senator from alabama, has previously called this position quote a vital position in the effort to combat terrorism financing, close quote. But in spite of this, the committee of banking continues to block zubin despite his qualifications. Im sorely disappointed that so Many Republican senators have decided that scoring political points is more important than confirming these National Security nominations. Two weeks ago, i asked the senior senator from iowa to put an end to his partisan investigation of secretary clinton. For months, this senior senator blocked more than 20 Foreign Service promotions. In fact, for a day there were some 200 nominations im sorry, 600 nominations. People who were just simply in the Foreign Service who were entitled by law to a promotion. Well, he blocked these people for a long, long time. Talking about he wanted more documents from the state department. I told the senior senator that i thought it was a mistake to target career promotions, so i was surprised happily so when he appeared to change course and allow these good Public Servants to get the promotions they earned and deserved. Unfortunately, though, just as he took one step forward, he immediately took another step back. Although he allowed the list of 20 Foreign Service promotions to proceed, he doubled down on his obstruction by placing a hold on tom shannon, president obamas nominee to serve as undersecretary of state for political affairs, an extremely important position thats not filled now. Ambassador shannon is a career member of the Foreign Service with more than 30 years of experience. He served as our nations ambassador to brazil, hes worked in the National Security council, in the last bush administration. His experience will help the state Department Strategy in combating isis. He cant do that because were not able to approve him because of the holds. And like and the senator from iowa continues to block other important nominees like David Robinson to be secretary of state and the bureau of conflict and stabilization. He is a 30year veteran of the Foreign Service. This is a man who has served in the nation of afghanistan, bosnia and many other places around the world. Brian egan has been nominated to be the state departments legal advisor, their lawyer. He has been a Senior Member of the legal team in the state department treasury, National Security council of the white house, but he has been held up since june without a vote, all because of republican obstruction. Remember, it would be nice if the state department had a lawyer. But as the senior senator from iowa will tell you, he has nothing against tom shannon, David Robinson or brian egan. Senator grassley has expressed no substantive objections to these nominees or questions about their capabilities. Senator grassley is blocking these important nominations for the sake of his committees political crusade against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who as we all know is running for president. This good woman scares republicans because she will likely win. This is all part of the disturbing trend of the Judicial Committee to politicize the oversight process. It appears that the constitution duties of the senate are taking a back seat to a political hit job on a democratic candidate for president. Just look at what he and his committee that is, the chairman and his committee are doing. Theyre requesting transcribed interviews from the bill clinton staff. They have asked for time sheets. The Committee Investigation has gone so far as to ask for the ma Maternity Leave records of one of secretary clintons closest aides, huma abedin. It appears he is going to co