Best for us, we submit today to your loving providence. Continue to be our refuge and strength, a very present help in the time of trouble. May we never forget that nothing in all creation can separate us from your love. Bless our lawmakers. Fill their hearts with such love for you that no difficulty or hardship will prevent them from obeying your precepts. Help them to remember that those who walk in integrity travel securely. Lord, strengthen their resolve to serve you as they should and in doing so may they become more aware of your continuous presence. We pray in your great 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. The presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Reid thank you, mr. President. The republican nominee for president of our great country continues to attack a federal judge because of his mexican heritage. This is not only wrong, its racist and unamerican. Its also a fundamental attack on the american judiciary system. When issues like this arise the nation should look where . To the senate for leadership. In particular throughout our history, the Senate Judiciary committee has been a bastion of independence and bipartisanship. When federal judges are under assault we should expect the chairman of the Judiciary Committee to rise above politics and condemn racism. But not this judiciary chairman that is now the chairman here in the United States senate. Not the senior United States senator from iowa. Instead of a bold feat of bipartisanship were left with yet another example of how he has become the most partisan judiciary chairman in the history of america. Instead of rising above bipartisanship and condemning trumps racist attack, grassley defended him. His rationale is boggling. Senator grassley said trump must respect the judiciary because over the course of hundreds of lawsuits and years of litigation trump has actually won some cases. Cant make up stuff like this. For example, to quote from a newspaper article quote grassley also suggested trumps propensity for filing lawsuits showed some level of respect for the judicial branch. He must respect the judiciary, grassley said. Ive seen statistics that he won over 400 cases and only lost 30. Close quote. How about that . I find it curious that the chairman doesnt have time to read Merrick Garlands questionnaire or give him a hearing but has time to study donald trump tofs Donald Trumps success rate in the courtroom. He is says a lot a lot and whufm is what senator grassley priorities are. According to an iowa newspaper senator grassley told constituents on friday quote inflammatory rhetoric coming from the Trump Campaign. Im a little disappointed but not surprised. I believe no member of the senate has done more for trump than the chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee. In january many republicans were still trying to distance themselves from donald trump. Senator grassley introduced trump at an Iowa Campaign event. Since then despite pressure from his constituents, senator grassley has done everything in his power to hold open the Supreme Court seat for trump to fill but im surprised grassley has yet to acknowledge these racist attacks on judge curiel because these attacks are beyond the pale. Instead senator grassley chose to further establish himself as a trump cheerleader like the republican leader has done. Last week senator grassley told his constituents, again i quote, hes Building Confidence with me talking about trump. Ive already said im going to vote for him. Id campaign with him. Close quote. But this is not the beginning of senator grassleys campaign for donald trump. Senator grassleys entire chairmanship the past six months has been one big Campaign Push for trump. His committee has become an extension of the Trump Campaign. The republican Judiciary Committee has done everything to focus on boosting trump but has neglected to do its job in the process. Under chairman grassley the committee is reporting out almost no bills, fewer judicial nominations than any time in recent history. Because of this inaction, the senate of the Judiciary Committee, the senate has conducted confirmed fewer judges than decades. We heard how the federal system in our country is in disrepair. Why . Because the Judiciary Committee is not confirming the nominations president obama made. What has the Judiciary Committee done instead . It spent its time carrying out a political hit job on secretary clinton. Secretary grassley wasted countless dollars conducting Opposition Research that he hopes can be used to help trumps candidacy against secretary clinton. It hasnt helped but helped shorten the pocketbook of the American People. Senator grassley has been so desperate to drag secretary clintons name through the mud that he encouraged the f. B. I. To leak an independent review of secretary clintons use of email. At every turn the senior senator from iowa used his committee for partisan purposes that benefit only one person donald trump. There is no better example than the current vacancy on the Supreme Court. Rather than doing his constitutional duty and processing Merrick Garlands nomination, senator grassley took marching orders from donald trump and trump said delay, delay, delay. And thats exactly what the senator from iowa has done. Delay, delay, delay. Chairman grassleys hoping to run out the clock. Hes hoping President Trump gets to nominate the next Supreme Court justice. Thats why last month senator grassley said of trump and i quote i think i would expect a lifetime of people to be nominated by trump to the Supreme Court. Having Donald Trumps latest attack on the judiciary, does he, senator grassley, really believe that trump is the right man to pick nominees to the Supreme Court, or any court . Donald trump said a federal judge should be disqualified from presiding over a case because of his mexican heritage. He said the same would apply if a judge were muslim, even though with the situation dealing with the socalled mexican judge he was born in indiana. Does senator grassley believe that trumps comments were racist . The republican junior senator from nebraska agrees it was racist. This is what he tweeted yesterday and i quote Public Service announcement. Saying someone cant do a specific job because of his or her race is the literally definition of racism. The junior senator from south carolina, also a republican, called trumps remarks quote racially toxic. What does the senior senator from iowa say . Zero. Nothing. Does the chairman of the Judiciary Committee agree with donald trump . Does senator grassley also believe judges should face a religious test . The senior senator from iowa said he trusts Donald Trumps judgment. He said, and i repeat, this is a quote hes Building Confidence with me. Close quote. After everything weve heard from donald trump, all of his vile, unhinged rants, does senator grassley honestly have confidence that donald trump should pick the next Supreme Court justice . I dont trust trump to make that decision. The people of iowa dont and america doesnt. Senator grassley must stop using his committee to do trumps bidding. He must stop using the once proud Judiciary Committee as an extension of the trump political campaign. Instead of continuous delay, delay, delay, senator grassley should give Merrick Garland a hearing and a vote but do it now. Waiting for donald trump to choose the ninth member of the Supreme Court is not the answer. I yield the floor. The presiding officer independence, under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. The clerk will report. The clerk calendar 469, s. 2943, a bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2017 for military activities of the department of defense and so forth and for other purposes. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from maine. Mr. King mr. President , at 3 30 in the afternoon on december 23 of last year, about a halfhour before sunset, the lights started to go out in western ukraine. The power started to go out. The operator in one of the ukrainian power plants noticed to his horror that he no longer controlled the kur sore on his computer the cursor on his kpaourpt computer screen. The operator tried frantically to get back into the computer only tpo find he was locked out and the password had been changed. At the same time the call center of this utility in the ukraine was blocked by thousands of fake calls, so the utility itself could not know what was happening in the countryside. The backup generators around western ukraine also went down. Malware was installed on the operating computers and a system called kill disk was installed which wiped the disks and rendered the computers useless. As a final insult, the power in the power control system itself went off and the operators were literally left in the dark. This was the first major cyber attack of a public utility anywhere in the world. It was sophisticated. It was wellplanned. And it was devastating. Within a few minutes, 230,000 people in the country of ukraine were without power. That attack could have occurred in kansas city, in san jose, in new york, or here in washington. Ever since i have served in this body as a member of the Armed Services and intelligence committee, i have heard repeated warnings from every public official involved with intelligence and National Security that an attack on our Critical Infrastructure is not possible. It is likely. How many shots across our bow, how many warning shots do we have to endure . Sony, the o. P. M. , insurance companies, and now the nightmare scenario of an electric grid attack. We can learn something from what happened in the ukraine, and there is a piece of good news and a lesson for us. The attack which left 230,000 people without power only persisted for about six hours. The interesting part of this scenario of this development was that one of the reasons they were able to get the power back on so fast was because the ukrainian grid was not up to modern i hesitate to say standards, but practices in terms of its interconnectedness and its dithtyization. Digitization. There were oldfashioned analogue switches and the most oldfashioned anno log switch of all, a human being that could actually throw breakers and get the system back online. Here in this country, however, were not so lucky and i use that in a sort of backwards way because we have the most advanced grid structure in the world. Were more digital. Were more automated. Were more interconnected. But that makes us more vulnerable. That makes us more vulnerable. We are acy metrical a simplemetry asymmetrical. A lot is being done to work on protecting this country from a devastating cyber attack. But i know of no one who would assert that enough is being done and that we are ahead of this threat. I introduced a bill yesterday along with three cosponsors, all of whom, along with myself, are members of the intelligence committee, where we hear about these threats practically week lymp weekly. Senator risch, hin hin reich, te bill is straightforward. It tasks our Great National labs with working with the utilities over a twoyear period to determine not new Software Patches and new complexity but if we can protect our grid by returning to at least at critical points in the grid, the oldfashionedanalogue switches. It may be that going to the going back to the future, if you will, going back to the past and simplifying some of these critical connection points may be the best protection that we can have. The idea is for the labs to put their best people on this and for the utilities to do the same on a voluntary basis, i might add nothing mandatory about this bill. But to work on finding some solutions that are implementable in the shortrun to protect us from this grave threat. Then therell be a report back and hopefully implementation across the country. Mr. President , im tired of hearing warnings. Its really time for us to act. And this is a pretty straightforward bill that i hope can move through this body at the speed of a cyber attack so that we can then have the defense that we have to have. An attack on our crit icle infrastructure, particularly the electric infrastructure across this country, would in fact be devastating and would involve undoubtedly loss of lives. I do not want to be here on a darkening winter afternoon and see the lights going off across america, the power to hospitals, the power to our transportation system, the power that makes our lives what it is today. This is not an abstract threat. We know from the ukraine that the capability exists to do exactly this and take down the grid. We must act expeditiously and directly to counteract that threat. If we do not do so, we are failing our responsibility to the people of america, to our constituents, and to the United States. So i urge rapid consideration of this bill, and i look forward to its consideration at the energy bill. Three of the four sponsors are also members of the Energy Committee as well as the intelligence committee, and i am a hoping that we can move this rapidly so that we can begin the process of countering what is not an being a tract threat abstract threat but a direct, clear, and present danger to the future of this country. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from New Hampshire. Mrs. Shaheen mr. President , im here this morning to urge my colleagues to support an amendment that i have offered to the National Defense authorization act to extend the Afghanistan Special immigrant visa program. Also known as the s. I. V. Program. The Program Allows afghans who supported the United States mission in afghanistan and who now face grave threats because of their willingness to help our servicemen and women on on the ground in afghanistan, it would make them eligible to come to the United States. To be eligible, new applicants must demonstrate at least two years of faithful and valuable service. To receive a visa, they must also clear a rigorous screening process that includes an independent verification of their service and then an intensive interagency security review. Now, people may ask, who are these afghans . Let me give you just a few examples of the Extraordinary Service that theyve provided. The first person i want to talk about and i cant use his name for privacy and security reasons but he worked as an interpreter for socom from 2005 to 2016, so is 1 years. He originally applied for a special immigrant visa in 2012 are and continued to work for socom diewrk that during that interim. One of the applicants direct supervisors stated that the applicants brother was murdered by extremists probably taliban due to the applicants wok for the u. S. Government work for the u. S. Government and the applicant himself has been wounded several times while serving. A second individual worked as the head interpreter for a provincial Production Team for years. Because of his service, his children cant go to school and the lives of his family members are in danger. The applicants p. R. T. Commander was one of multiple direct Defense Department super viers to supervisors to submit letters of recommendation on his behalf toafg his loyal and valued service. A third interpreter served the Defense Department from 2008 to 2015. He left work in december following an i. E. D. Attack which robbed him of one eye and his vision in the other. He applied for his special immigrant visa after being wounded and is in the beginning stages of the extensive interagency vetting process. Now clearly the service of these individuals has been critical to our successes in afghanistan and in at least a handful of other cases, s. I. V. Recipients commitment to the u. S. Mission was so strong that they found ways to contribute even after they arrived in the United States. One promptly enlisted in the armed forces and later worked as a cultural advisor to the u. S. Military. Another graduated from Indiana University in georgetown and has worked as an instructor at the defense language institute. A third, who worked as a Senior Advisor in the u. S. Embassy, now serves on the board of a nonprofit working to promote a safe and stable afghanistan. These contributions in afghanistan and beyond help explain why senior u. S. Military officers and diplomats are so supportive of the afghan s. I. V. Program. Here what is the current commander of u. S. Forces in afghanistan, general michel son wrote about the need reauthorize the program. These men and women