Us, for we need you every hour. May our lawmakers remember that their success comes from you. Give them the wisdom to seek justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with you. Lord, free them from any entanglements that dishonor you. Protect them from dangers seen and unseen, as they strive to return good. When they feel overwhelmed, remind them that in everything you are work being for the good of those who love you. Help us all to strive to dploarfy you gluerfy you in to glorify you in every action, both large and small. We pray in your strong name. Amen. The president pro tempore pleae join me in reciting the pledge f 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 id like to bring a little perspective to todays vote on the clean c. R. Zika package. Remember, this is a 10week funding bill. Its contents command broad support. It contains zero controversial riders from either party. Can it really be that Democratic Leaders have embraced dysfunction so thoroughly, that they tack a noncontroversial 10week funding bill over what exactly . Now remember, mr. President , the reason were in this position is because our friends on the other side didnt want to have a regular appropriations process. Does anybody know what the issue is . Do they even know . The rationale seems to change by the hour. What we do know is it has almost nothing to do with whats actually in the bill. Theyve agreed to its spending levels, so it isnt that. Theyve agreed to its compromise zika package, so it cant be that. Theyve agreed with us to help veterans and those hurt by floods and the heroin and prescription opioid crisis, too, so it cant be that either. We also know that the senate has already voted to pass assistance for families affected by lead poisoning in flint in its proper vehicle, the Water ResourcesDevelopment Act with chairman inhofe pledging to continue to pursue resources forbe flint for flint once the bill goes to conference. So flint really cant be an issue either. And the white house said yesterday that the wrda bill is an appropriate vehicle for the flint funding. Its almost as if a few Democratic Leaders decided long ago to that bringing our country to the brink would make for good electionyear politics. And then theyve just made up the rationale as they go along. But that couldnt really be true, could it . Could it be true . That would mean democrats have been playing politics with the lives of expectant mothers and babies suffering from zika, after a few months ago demanding immediate action. That would mean democrats have been playing politics with the lives of those struggling from the heroin and prescription opioid crisis, after promising theyd help. That would mean democrats have been playing politics with the lives of flood victims, after saying they cared. Now i know our democratic friends wouldnt want the American People to think that. I hope every one of our democratic friends will show us today that theyre actually serious about supporting veterans and tackling zika and flood relief and the heroin appeared prescription opioid and prescription opioid crisis, and we all know the dwie that and we haul know the way to do that by supporting the legislation before us that thrill does those things. This 10week funding bill need not be some titanic struggle for the ages. Its just a 10week funding bill, mr. President. Its hard to believe democrats would really be willing to hold up this commonsense package and its Critical Resources to address zika, the heroin and prescription Opioid Epidemic, and floods. The clean c. R. Zika package before us is fair. It is the result of literally weeks of bipartisan negotiations. It does the very things members of both parties and more importantly, our constituents have been calling for. We cannot afford to delay any longer. Passing this clean c. R. Zika package should be one of the easiest votes we cast. Mr. President , i ask unanimous consent the Senate Recess from 3 00 p. M. Until 4 00 p. M. Today for an allsenators briefing. Further, that the time from 10 45 until 11 30 a. M. Be under the control of the majority and 4 00 until 5 00 p. M. Under the control of the democrats. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection. Mr. Reid mr. President . The presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Reid the republican leader just said that, what are the democrats trying to do, have builtin dysfunction . Mr. President , during the eight years i was majority leader, we had overcome 644 filibusters led by the republicans 644. In a comparable time, lyndon johnson, who was a majority leader for six years, had to overcome one and arguably two filibusters. Two compared to 644. So dont lecture us on building disfinancial. Theyve in dysfunction. Theyve invented it in the modern senate. This afternoon the senate will vote on cloture on the c. R. Proposed by the republicans, and i appreciate the good work done by appropriators ours led by senator mikulski. Theyve done good work, and tremendous progress has been made. The republican proposal will likely fail to get cloture this afternoon, for good reason. The republican legislation misses the mark. It seeks to keep in place the status quo in regard to undisclosed, unaccountable dark money thats flooding our political system. And the way to work this morning, i just learned that the National Rifle association has just placed another 1 million of tv ads in nevada. Now, we all know that the national riesm association was real the National Rifle association was really good at directmail. They raised that money from their members. Most of the n. R. A. Money comes from the trump brothers im sorry, strike that from the record. The koch brothers. Were fortunate theres not two trump brothers. The koch brothers. Thats the dark money were talking about. Those ads will say n. R. A. , but its not n. R. A. Money. The ads will say chamber of commerce money. But its not chamber of commerce money. And the provision that my frerntiondz the republican leader, has to have in this bill, this resolution, is this that the securities and Exchange Commission will be powerless to tell corporations that they have to disclose their Campaign Contributions. They have to disclose Everything Else to their shareholders. But not that. Oh, no, that would be tairchlt any oh, no, that would be terrible. Any type of disclosure we want to keep all this secret. All these phony names they advertise is just so unfair. The republican bill includes a rider that prevents shareholders from knowing how their money is being used in political campaigns. Again, the republican leader is trying to shut the door on disclosure. Now, mr. President , the republican continuing resolution also ignores a two and a half year crisis in flint, michigan. Lead has poisoned all 100,000 people, almost 10,000 children, some of whom are babies. Lead is a killer for children. After a short period of time, a month, a few weeks, a child who ingests lead in any way whether eating paint off the floor but certainly Drinking Water will affect them the rest of their lives. They wont be as smart as they could be, they wont be as agile as they could be. It really hurts them. And its not good for adults. So after two and a half years, dont those people deserve something . The republican leader said, well, theres a water resource Development Act bill. And i acknowledge that, and i think good work was done to get that passed here. Ive said yesterday, i will say again today, i appreciate the work of senator inhofe. Hes worked with 0 one of the most liberal members of the senate, barbara boxer. He is one of the most conservative. They did good work. I appreciate it very much. But would it be asking too much for the speaker of the house, the leader of the senate, the republican leader of the senate, to stand and say, were going to get that thing done, were going to pass it, were going to make sure that the bill that passed overwhelmingly in the senate is going to become law . But they ignore that. They ignore the people of flint. Now, we are happy to help with the disaster that took place in louisiana. Since the republican leader is here, we have been happy to help with all the problems that the emergencies that theyve had in texas. Weve stepped up to the plate and we took care of that. Were happy to do that in louisiana and that and this wont be the reason that i would not support this legislation. But i think louisiana deserves more than whats in this bill. 2. 8 billion, and in this bill, theres 500 million most of that, some will go to West Virginia and some, a little bit, even less, will go to maryland. It will be divided on a proportionate basis. But couldnt they help flint . The junior senator from louisiana, here was his response thats someone elses grief. Thats what he said. Thats someone elses grief. Louisiana wasnt someone elses grief. When the hurricane struck. It was our grief. The junior senator from louisiana should understand that he is a United States senator, not a state senator from louisiana. Its not someone elses grief. It is our grief. The republicans are essentially saying the disasters in our states are more important than the disasters in your state. It is unfair and it is wrong. This morning my Leadership Team sent a letter to the republican leader. Durbin, schumer, and murray. They sent a letter to the republican leader and speaker ryan encourage the republicans to come back and give us a solution for the people of flint. After the vote on the republican c. R. Fails this afternoon, i encourage my republican colleagues to help us have some degree of certainty that the people of flint will be helped. Its not its not deficit spending, even though its an emergency and i believe it should be taken care of just like were taking care of louisiana. Its paid for. And in fact, i commend senator stabenow and senator peters. They took money from a program they have in michigan and it pays for this. Its not deficit spending, so why cant they do that . The reasons are apparent, and thats too bad. This doesnt need to be a manufactured crisis. We know the republicans know how to close the senate. They did it for 17 days. And theyve done it another time. We dont need to have a manufactured crisis. We want to make sure that flint has some degree of certainty after two and a half years theyre going to get some help. We need to Work Together to keep our government properly funded and the people of flint protected. Certainly we should be able to do that. Finally, mr. President , last night, the republican nominee for president failed to give any assurance of any kind or a coherent explanation as to why he refuses to release his tax returns. Well, because there is no coherent reason. Its a little hard to give one when there isnt one. He said he couldnt release his Tax Information because of an Internal Revenue service audit. Everyone debunks that. Everyone except donald trump. But even as trump tried to say nothing about his tax returns, he revealed his, at least one shocking truth. Donald trump thinks that paying taxes is a fools errand. People shouldnt pay taxes. He said it was reported at least five times in three decades trump paid nothing in federal income taxes. When secretary clinton alluded to the fact in last nights debate, Donald Trumps response that makes me smart. So what does that make the rest of us . Suckers, unintelligent, dumb . Hes smart, does that make us dumb because we pay our taxes . He knows that refusing to pay his taxes makes him, as weve come to learn, a scam artist. Hes good at that. Every day donald trump refuses to release his tax returns is another is slap in the face to the American People. Im sorry, i shouldnt say president. People running for office for scores of decades have released their income tax. That may be a little exaggeration. Lets say from the last 70 years, have released their income tax returns. So why wont he release his . Why wont he do this . Its because his tax returns would show he isnt the rich guy he thinks he is. Tax returns would show that hes a spoiled, rich brat who inherited his daddys money and hasnt done so well with it. With 14 million, he hasnt done that well. Thats how much his dad gave him. Trumps tax returns would show he isnt as generous as he claims to be and uses trash tis as a personal uses charities as a personal slush fund. This morning there was news, he appeared on a tv show, they owed him money, they paid that into his charity so he can say i gave this away. Trumps tax returns would show that in spite of getting nearly 1 billion of assistance from new york, in new york city alone, donald trump is a failed business man buried under a mountain of debt and they would show he refuses to pay his federal income taxes. So, mr. President , i would hope that donald trump would release those tax returns. Hillary clinton has released 40 years of hers and her husbands. Mr. President , i would ask that the chair announce what were going to do the rest of the day. The presiding officer under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. Under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of h. R. 5325, which the clerk will report. The clerk calendar number 516, h. R. 5325, an act making appropriations for the legislative branch for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2017, and for other purposes. The presiding officer the assistant majority leader. Mr. Cornyn mr. President , i came to the floor to talk about the pending business, but i have to just comment based on what the democratic leader has said, apparently he has so little confidence in his partys nominee for president , he insists on coming to the floor every day that were in session and trying to assist her in making arguments either she cannot make or that she has not made. We do have pending business thats very important, which i know he would agree is important, and that is to keep the government running past the end of this fiscal year, which ends on friday. And that actually is the subject of my that i came here to talk about. We are continuing to work on a continuing resolution to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year, and the fact of the matter is we would not find ourselves in this distasteful position were it not for the filibusters of our democratic colleagues who tried to use the leverage in fact, pretty effectively have used the leverage to shut down the normal functioning of the appropriations process in order to gain some leverage to spend more money, not withstanding the fact that were over 19 trillion in debt. And theyve simply shifted from excuse to excuse to excuse in order to refuse to do their job, which is actually to work in a bipartisan way through the appropriations process to fund the functioning of the government at agreedto spending levels. So were now staring at a friday deadline to keep the government open, and of course this was their design all along, to drag their feet and delay and turn from one excuse to another in order to keep from actually working in a bipartisan way to appropriate the money to fund the government so the government would continue to function. We could have finished this job a long time ago, but our democratic colleagues simply made clear they wont lose any sleep even as we get closer and closer to the funding deadline. This is actually the narrative they hoped for all along. They want to talk about shutdowns or potential shutdowns that they in fact could cause. Not because of anything weve done on this side of the aisle. The Appropriations Committees, chaired by the the Appropriation Committee chaired by senator cochran and the appropriation subcommittees now voted out on a bipartisan basis all 12 Appropriations Bills, and theyve done their work. Many of them have passed unanimously. Most of them have passed overwhelmingly with bipartisan support, which is very encouraging. So our democratic colleagues have had a lot of participation and a lot of influence, as i know they would want, in the priorities of the federal government as reflected in the appropriations bill. But of course that wasnt good enough, and that didnt meet their underlying need, which is to try to gain any advantage they possibly could when it comes to spending levels or in the upcoming november 8 election, which very much appears to be on the Democratic Leaders mind as he continues to come to the floor and talk about the president ial race rather than the pending business. But of course we know were running out of time, so basically the majority leader, senator mcconnell, has now proposed to call their bluff. They said they wanted a clean continuing resolution. As a matter of fact, the democratic leader said last week that if a clean continuing resolution were brought to a vote, we could quote leave in ten minutes. Thats what the democratic leader said last week. But as of yesterday, we know he changed his tune. He said a clean c. R. Wasnt near enough. He said we want more. Well, well soon have a chance to vote on that clean continuing resolution after lunch. This continuing resolution that the democratic leader said we could pass and leave in ten minutes, this continuing resolution funds the government at levels this chamber has already agreed to. There are no riders or anything that the democrats could claim as controversial. Its a simple continuation of funding at current lesms under the same current levels under the same terms that the president has already signed into law last december. It also receives, includes resources for bipartisan priorities like veterans programs, flood control, fighting the Opioid Epidemic thats devastating communities across our country, and dealing with prevention of the zika virus, something the democrats said they wanted money for since last may. Well, this is it. This is the 1. 1 billion agreed to on a bipartisan basis. But now thats when they shift their argument to something else. We remembered during the summer our de