Them with wisdom, courage and strength for the living of these days. Give them grace to understand the world we cannot see or touch , comprehending that eternal issues are at stake. As you care for their physical needs, provide also for their soul needs. Help us all to remember that you are the source of our strength. We pray in your great name. Amen. The president pro tempore please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our 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 we will soon begin consideration of Bipartisan Legislation that can support american jobs, improve Airline Safety and help passengers, all without raising taxes or fees on travelers. The f. A. A. Reauthorization act before us is the result of a Collaborative Committee process. It shows whats possible with a senate thats back to work and back to regular order. In this case, the Commerce Committee held a series of seven hearings to guide and inform its deliberations throughout this process. Republicans on the Commerce Committee had their say, democrats on the Commerce Committee offered their input, and at the end of the day, members of both parties were able to agree on Bipartisan Legislation that passed committee on a voice vote. We know that the bipartisan f. A. A. Reauthorization act will promote american manufacturing, preserve rural access in states like kentucky and advance new Consumer Protections for the flying public. We also know that it will help improve safety and security both in the skies and in our airports. Here are a few ways this bipartisan bill can help. By allowing us to better prepare for the outbreak of Communicable Diseases like ebola. By improving the quality of f. A. A. s safety work force. By encouraging the f. A. A. To harmonize International Safety standards. By bringing the government and stakeholders together in the development of Safety Standards for unmanned aerial vehicles. And by taking aim at human trafficking. This legislation is the product of a lot of hard work and reaching across the aisle. Id like to recognize senator thune for leading this effort. He knows whats possible in the senate thats back to work for the American People. He worked hard with the top democrat on his committee, senator nelson, to get us to this point today. But these two senators certainly didnt do it all by themselves. Senator ayotte was one of the key players in this bipartisan effort as chair of the subcommittee on aviation, senator ayotte held numerous briefings and hearings on the issue with her colleague senator cantwell. While many in this chamber are focusing on the issue of now, the bill before us is the product of many months of work by members of the Commerce Committee and their staffs. Lets continue working together in a similar spirit now while the Commerce Committee has produced a product that merits this chambers consideration, im sure they would acknowledge they dont have a monopoly on good ideas. I hope we can have an efficient amendment process where members bring their best ideas to the floor. Lets pass another significant piece of legislation for the American People. Now, on another matter, a few years ago, president obama gave a speech in miami where he said the following about immigration immigration i know that some wish that i could just bypass congress and change the law by myself, but thats not how democracy works. That was the president in miami a couple of years ago. Hes right. Thats not how it works. It wasnt enough to keep him from overreach of ignoring the law and unwise and unfair. Didnt keep him from doing that anyway. Maybe he didnt anticipate that a Federal District court would issue a preliminary injunction to prevent him from moving forward. Maybe he didnt expect that a federal Appeals Court would uphold that ruling. But now, now the Supreme Court will hear arguments in this case later this month on core constitutional principles like the separation of powers and the duty to take care that the laws are faithfully executed. Thats why i led a group of 43 republican senators yesterday in filing an amicus brief in support of the challenge to this overreach, a challenge brought by a majority of americas governors and attorneys general from across our country. As we highlighted in the brief, the administrations executive action stands in stark contravention to federal law and to the constitutional principle of the separation of powers. Its also an explicit effort to circumvent the legislative process. So look, whether republicans or democrats, this kind of partisan overreach should worry all of us, no matter who is in the white house, because not only is the president s blatant refusal to follow the law an extraordinary power grab, its a direct challenge to Congress Constitutional authority and a direct attack on our constitutional order. Now, on one final matter, earlier this year, i noted that the next commander in chief will assume office confronting a complex and varied array of threats. I observed that after seven years of the Obama Administration delaying action in the war on terror, the next administration would need to return to the fight and restore our role in the world. Among many other things, that means we must return to capturing, interrogating and targeting the enemy in a way that allows us to defeat terrorist networks. Because lets remember, in his first week in office, the president issued a series of executive orders that collectively undermined the capability of our Intelligence Community and military to combat terrorism. Yesterday, the Defense Department confirmed that two of al qaedas former explosives experts were transferred from the secure detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to senegal. Both detainees had long records of supporting al qaeda. According to records that have been made public, one of those detainees, a former associate of osama bin laden, is likely to reengage in hostilities. The other detainee was previously assessed as likely to return to the fight. This comes at a time when al qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula has exploited the war within yemen to secure a safe haven, and the nusra front within syria is exploiting the civil war there to carry on al qaedas mission. This is precisely the wrong time to send experienced, hardened fighters back into the conflict. We should use, we must use the remaining months of the Obama Administration as a year of transition to a better posture to better posture our military to meet the threats that we face. Not make it more challenging for the next president , regardless of political party. And actually, there have been some encouraging changes within the administration recently, like programs presented in the budget request by the secretary of defense to address chinese and russian aggression, a public recognition by the chairman of the joint chiefs of the threat posed by isil and libya, more focus on the need to rebuild a nuclear triad, general campbells statement that a larger force must be left in afghanistan and the deployment of the Expeditionary Targeting force to iraq. This is the wrong time, mr. President , the wrong time for the administration to release terrorists who are likely to return to the fight. Mr. Reid mr. President . The presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Reid we also hope on this side that we can move through the f. A. A. Bill, which is important to get done. We just have to make sure we do it right. There is lots of things we need to do. I think that the bill coming from the Committee Led by senators thune and nelson is a good basic outline for us to proceed on this matter. Mr. President , just on a couple of other things. My friend, the republican leader, commented on. He mentioned immigration. In the last congress, we worked very hard together in a bipartisan fashion to form form a good, comprehensive Immigration Reform bill. We passed it. But due to the power of the tea party or as Speaker Boehner referred to them the crazies, we didnt have a vote in the house. If he allowed a vote, it would have passed overwhelmingly. Democrats would have voted for it and enough republicans would have voted for it. It would have been a big vote coming out of there. It didnt happen. The president had to do something with immigration. The president laid the groundwork. He spoke at the state of the union address, saying, you know, youre not passing any legislation, im going to have to use my executive power to get things done. So he prioritized what he wanted to do. He issued the the order was so important to boys and girls. Its called a deferred action, the dreamers were allowed to stay in the country, and that was the right thing to do. He also has prioritized deportations, going after criminals, not families, and enforcing the law, so hes done a very good job. And i think its also very important, mr. President , that these administrative actions the president has taken is nothing unique. We can go back to the days of theodore roosevelt, a good republican president who did a lot of stuff administratively. And on his talk about getting involved in the fight again im paraphrasing what he said, but we have to get back to interrogation that we did before. Mr. President , we know that the torture was eliminateed quickly, led by a lot of people, not the least of which was someone who has been tortured, a member of the United States senate, john mccain. He has spoken out very admirably and as only he can do about how bad torture is. And the facts indicate that torture doesnt get new information anyway, there are other ways of getting that information. Mr. President , the senior senator from iowa came to the floor yesterday to divert an in an attempt to divert attention from the failure of the committee, the Judiciary Committee, and directly as to what he has not done doing his job, the chairman of that committee. He hoped to do that by focusing on me for objecting to a bill that would expand the subpoena powers of certain government appointees called inspectors general. But his efforts failed. People werent looking at me. They were looking at the work not done by the Judiciary Committee. I objected to that bill because that legislation was really a legislative overreach, just as my friend, the senior senator from iowa continues to overreach by turning the Senate Judiciary committee into a for example, into a benghazi committee, narrowly partisan committee masquerading as an independent body. The same theory that had secretary clinton spent 11 or 12 hours before a committee in one day, which was a flop, that hearing, because of her assertiveness, her direct answering of questions and her physical and emotional strength, standing and sitting for the time that she did. One of secretary clintons staffers. Another political stunt was blocking the qirnlings of state Department Legal advisor brian egan. Another political stunt was blocking the promotion list of Career Foreign Service officers. And his latest political stunt is preventing the senate from doing its constitutional duty in considering president obamas Supreme Court nominee, a man by the name of Merrick Garland. So even though the senior senator from iowa hopes to divert attention away from this disappointment that is his as the republican Judiciary Committee is, people arent easily fooled. Another scathing editorial regarding senator grassleys unprecedented obstruction of a Supreme Court nominee. The editorial highlights the fact that because the Supreme Courts vacancy, the highest court in the land is now stuck in a rut of 44 decisions, a stalemate. This is what the Des Moines Register editorial said, and i quote americans might need to get used to deadlocks, thanks to senator chuck grassley. The head of the Senate Judiciary committee seems just fine with that stalemate. Close quote. Now, the senior senator from iowa may be content with gridlock in the Supreme Court, but the American People simply arent. Theyre not content with the way the chairman continues to use one of the senates most prestigious, independent and powerful committees to carry out political warfare. So maybe he should spend less time complaining about me and more time simply doing his job. Every day, more and more senators are meeting with president obamas Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, as well they should. According to the senior senator from utah, i quote fulfilling that role of advice and consent requires us to evaluate a nominees qualifications for the particular position for which he has she has been nominated close quote. We know that that was when they were looking at sotomayor and kegan who are now on the court. Thats why every senator, using the same logic of my friend from utah, the republican democrat, should meet with judge garland this week has a full state of meetings scheduled with senate democrats. Senator ayotte, boozman, cassidy, cochran, collins, flake, grassley, inhofe, johnson, kirk, lankford, murkowski, portman, risch, rounds and toomey. These are all republican senators who have said publicly theyre going to meet with him. I think thats a step in the right direction. And i think it speaks really volumes. Take, for example, senators inhofe and senator lankford. Im sure they ha he led the charge. No one questions his terrific, outstanding prosecution of that man who killed those many, many people in oklahoma with that bomb, which, of course, eventually he was given the death penalty. Mr. President , this is a good man. Judge garland is a good man. Everywhere he goes, democrats and republicans speak highly of him. Chief Justice Roberts, among others. So i was disappointed last week when some republican senators, senators murkowski and moran, have abandoned their previous support for agreeing to consider judge garlands nomination. Senator moran is backtracking is especially important because it appears to be the result of a multimilliondollar campaign urging the senator to reverse his support for a hearing for judge garland. As has been reported by the topeka capital journal, senator morans aboutface came in response to backlash from the Koch Brothers and others. I quote directly from the article on march 21, moran told a small crowd i have my job to do and i think the process should go forward. Although he made it clear that garland likely wouldnt be worthy of his oath, the comments indicated hearings should be held for the judge. Close quote. The Judicial Crisis Network announced it was putting the finishing content on bashing moran and the Citizens Fund said it was considering backing a primary challenge. U. S. Representative mike pompei owe, a federal republican from kansas, publicly called on moran to reconsider, a rare criticism of iran from a fellow member of the kansas congressional delegation. The criticisms eventually reached bizarre heights when the Traditional Values Coalition compared moran to jude a. C. C. Is care yacht. The chief announcinged durnl a. M. Cork the chief counsel of the judicial crisis net work said friday she was pleased to see moran had changed his mind. Well, i guess you could say changed his mind. Moran was meeting with garland and Holding Confirmation hearings until the Judicial Crisis Network and the Tea Party Patriots and the Koch Brothers threatened him. I was surprised that no one but the Koch Brothers and their dark money fund these radical organizations more than anybody else in the world. The kochs are notorious for bothering anyone who stands in their way. Without question, there are new oligarchs in the land. The first ones ive known in america are the Koch Brothers. If theyre successful in their splurging of their vast wealth and accomplishing what they set out to do in this campaign, i feel very, very bad for our country. They will be talking about us like they talk about russia, the oligarchy that is there. Were going to have one of the same. Now, we must not forget how the Koch Brothers minions tried to intimidate journalist jane mayer because she dared to expose the kochs attempting to buy our democracy. Her book called dark money is on the New York Times bestseller list and all over the country people are buying those book