Start to improve transparency on solitary confinement. At the hearing we heard testimony from a wide range of stakeholders, including the head of the bureau of prisons and advocates. Hud i ofer testified that our nation has seen a dramatic increase in the use of reliance on solitaire confinement over the last couple of decades. I also introduced the mercy act, a bill that would prohibit the use of solitary confinement on youth adjudicated delinquent in the federal system unless it is a temporary response to a serious risk of harm. To the juvenile others. Our Justice System must ensure justice in the deepest, richest meaning of that word. Its what we swear an oath to, that we will be a nation of liberty and justice for all, not just some but for all, and it means that we need to begin to expose the practices that are happening in our prisons and understand the consequences to all of us increased financial expenditures, increased risk to our security and our safety, increased risks of recidivism. Our Justice System should not be engaged in practices that people across the spectrum in america politically, medical leaders, and others really do view as harmful and inefficient and ineffective. Im proud to sponsor the act. I urge my colleagues to advance this bill in the senate. I thank the leadership of senator coons. But this is a time where we need National Urgency on this issue. Theres something unfortunate about what happens in our prisons as being something that, hey, we as a public wash our hands, throw away the key. That kind of logic doesnt solve problems, it perpetuates them. It doesnt make us safe, it makes us less safe. It doesnt save us money, it costs us more. These kinds of practices undermine the foundations of common sense as well as moral rectitude. We stand for more than this as a country. We should set an example that ultimately as a nation we are not about retribution. Were not about disproportionate punishment. We are about restorative justice. Solitary confinement as a practice being done now is an assault on justice. It is an offense to our moral values as a nation. It calls for reform, and im proud to stand with my colleagues today to introduce legislation that begins us down that important road to justice. For all. Thank you. Mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from new jersey. Mr. Booker i suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call the presiding officer the senator from georgia. Purr purr mr. President , i mr. Perdue mr. President , i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Perdue i rise today and ask for unanimous consent to engage in a colloquy for my republican colleagues for the next hour. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Perdue mr. President , what were going to talk about over the next hour is one of the most important issues i think facing our government. Weve set here today and listened to a very valid pleas really for hope from the federal government. And the reality is, we dont have the money. There are four words that i have not heard in the United States senate or Congress Actually since ive been here over the last year and a half, and that is, we cannot afford it. The problem is right now we have a budget crisis. We have a debt crisis. Now, let me say this. Fixing the budget process will not solve the debt crisis. Lets be very clear about that. But we will not solve the debt crisis unless and until we address the dysfunction in our budget process. The problem is that in the last 42 years, since 1974, the budget act of 1974, the budget process here has only worked four times. This is a chart, mr. President , that charts this out. The yellow lines here and i hope the people at home can see; i hope my colleagues are focus on this. Only four times in the last 42 years has this budget process that was enacted in 1974 actually functioned at all to fund the federal government. Now, one of the major responsibilities of our jobs here in the senate and in the house is to fund the federal government, to take care of discretionary needs like weve heard today from flint, from louisiana, from west virginia, from maryland. These are valid needs. But, mr. President , every dime that we spend in our Discretionary Spending is borrowed, and ill talk about that a little later. Weve got some speakers today that are going to talk about the the result of not having a had budget process that works. And this chart explains that over the last 42 years, since 1974, four times have 13 times Appropriations Bills actually been passed and weve funded the government were supposed to. Now, the blue lines are the actual Appropriations Bills. Now, since 1998, somewhere in there, we went from 13 imils to 12 13 bills to 12 bills that actually fund these are aeption pros bills that fund the federal government. And they fund 1. 1 trillion of a 3. 9 trillion spend of the federal government. And this chart shows that over the life of this law, these are the laws, the Appropriations Bills that have been passed each year. And the average is the red line. It is very light, you probably cant see t but the average over this period of time is 2. 6 billion of the is 2. 6 of the 12 bills that have to be passed to fund the government. Weve used 107 continuing resolutions to get passed the fiscal year to make sure we fund the government on the fishes day of the new fiscal year on the first day of the new fiscal year next monday is the first day of the new fiscal year year, fy 2017. We sitting here are voting ogee the c. R. , the continuing resolution, show the government doesnt have to shut down next week, those dreaded words of irresponsibility and intransigence. Quite frankly, this is part of the problem because what happens is what happened last year. The dysfunction in the system is centered around this the budget is not a law. It is a resolution. That means that the majority, with 51 of the votes in in this body, can pass its political statement. Thats exactly what happened last year. Let me say this before we go any further. Everything you hear today is nonpartisan. This should be about a nonpartisan exercise that we have in funding the government. Yes, were going to have debates based on our partisanship and based on our beliefs and principles. But the basic process should be a politically neutral platform that allows us to argue our differences out in the budget process, get to a budget, move to the appropriations, and fund the government by the end of the fiscal year. And we have only done that four times in the last 42 years. The dysfunction is centered around this if you look at this chart, if every year we just dont have enough time it is not just time but it is the process. If the budget is based on it is a resolution and 51 can vote for t 4r569 year, as an example example the republican majority, by the way, voted for a bill that took . 5 trillion oust president s budget over the next ten years without one democratic vote. Then we got to the authorization process and the authorization process, oh, by the way is a law and they have to have 60 votes. So guess what . The people on the other side of the aisle, my friends, have stood up and said, well, you didnt ask our opinion in the budget process, why do you want our help now . So they dont let us get on appropriations. Weve got some 310 billion that were funding today that are not authorized. Over 2567 agencies and easer 256 agencies and programs. The minority request stop us by floating us get on the bills. We have a situation right now that the defense appropriations bill, whiched fund funds whih funds our military, was passed unanimously in committee, the way it was supposed to operate. Democrats and republicans came up with a bill that funded our military. Yet we tried six times to get it to the floor. There are political reasons why it hasnt gotten to the floor. It shows the dysfunction we have in this process. Mr. President , the time has come for us to address this process, and im so excited to have various members of the freshman class. We have the chairman of the Budget Committee coming down. We have some other senior members who have been working on this for years. But i notice my good friend from the state of North Carolina, senator thom tillis, is here. And im going to ask him to give us his perspective. They have a big military effort in their state and tom has been a soldier in this, not only in the senate but in his time as speaker of the house in North Carolina. Mr. Tillis mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from North Carolina. Mr. Tillis thank you, mr. President. I want to thank my colleague and friend from the great state of georgia, and taking a leadership position and really pointing to the dysfunction, the problems thats going on heemplet now, thats going on here. Now, senator perdue, youre actually a 2yearold politician, arent you . I shouldnt be talking mr. President , senator per dpiew is about two years old. He spent time in business where you didnt keep your job if you couldnt balance your budget. You didnt keep your job if you couldnt make the difficult decisions every year to year, make payroll, make strategic investments, do the kinds of things that Good Business leaders do. Thats all hes done all of his life. Now hes found himself in the u. S. Senate where thats almost the exact opposite of what we do. We just had to pass a continuing resolution today for a few weeks because we cant come to terms on longterm spending measures, over a dozen bills passed out of appropriations with strong bipartisan support within the constraints of the bipartisan budget. And now we cant get them passed. Why is that a problem . Because when you have the Worlds Largest and most complex entity thats ever existed, that cant figure out how much money its going to spend or commit on more than about a 12amongst cycle and sometimes over a few months, how on earth can you save money and make longterm investments . How on earth we were in a Committee Hearing ned where we heard right now it takes an average of 15 years from the concept of a new satellite to the time that were launching it in space. Well, how on earth can you make those longterm investments when you cant even be clear that youre going to spend the money but every 12 months . This is a threat to our national security. This is a threat to our Economic Security. This is a threat to the security of every man and woman in the United States because they cant rely hon a government that will provide businesses or individuals with any kind of certainty whatsoever. Its tough to make budget decisions. But they need to be made. I know a little bit about this because i became speaker of the house in North Carolina in 2011. We had a budget crisis. We had a 2. 5 trillion debt and six mofntses to solve it. Unlike the federal government where you can run up a deficit, you can run uma deficit en run up a deficit every year, most states with the exception of maybe one or two have a constitutional obligation to balance their budget. So we did. And what was the result of the providing that longterm certainty . Living within our meanings, actually having a transparent and decisive budget process. One of the greatest economic turnarounds of any state in the nation over the last five years. Being decisive, making the tough decisions accrues a benefit to the Business Community and every man or woman who lives in the United States. It actually settles the Global Economic conditions more than what most people will know. At the end of the day, lets start doing our job. Lets not just create a budget, like we did, a bipartisan budget, then passed several Appropriations Bills and kill them on the floor. Thats what h is going on here. I think my freshmen colleagues think its time there are a lot of people who want to put posterings up here do your job. But theyre failing to do their jobs by preventing us from doing one of the most important things we can do make the tough longterm fiscal decisions that are necessary for this great nation. So, senator perdue, thank you for allowing me to speak on this. I thank senator perdue. I shouldnt be conversing on the floor. Want to thank the senator to bringing up this subject. We need to stay in front of this and recognize doing our job is tackling this budget crisis, tackling the uncertainty that we by failing to do our jobs are placing on every hardworking american and business in this country. With that, mr. President , i yield the floor. Mr. Perdue mr. President. Senator tillis, i thank you for coming down around talking about this. With your experience in the state of North Carolina, 44 states have a balanced budget law. Guess which states dont have a financial problem . Thank you for coming down. I note that my colleague from oklahoma, senator lankford, is here. Hes been a warrior on this budget. He was in the house before and now in the senate for the last two years. And i welcome his comments to speak about this as well. Senator lankford. Mr. Lankford mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from oklahoma. Mr. Lankford mr. President , this is a longterm issue. This is not something new. Im amazed at the number of times that i run into people in oklahoma and say why cant we seem to get the budget done now . Whats happened . I say lets back up for a second. Since 1974, weve done a budget and done it correctly four times total. The budget act was created in 1974 right after watergate to try to create this more transparent process. What they created was a process so incredibly difficult to work that its worked four times since 1974. Weve only had two years since 1974 that we havent had a single c. R. Thats a continuing resolution. This body just passed another continuing resolution, meaning the appropriations process wont be done on time again this year, and that was settled today. The issues that we face with budget is not new. Its been 20 years since weve had no c. R. At all. This constant issue of putting the big budget issues off and trying to figure out how were going to navigate through the Senate Procedures and get the budget does has to stop. And at some point we have to have a determination to say we cant just keep saying next year this will improve, next year this will improve. Were not going to get a better product until we get a better process. And we have a very bad process right now and we need to admit its a bad process. What im proud of is that multiple members of this body from the leadership of the Budget Committee through freshmen that are here, brandnew senators, that are all focused on the same thing. Lets solve how we do budgeting and to actually get to a better product by improving the process. What do we have . Almost 20 trillion in debt and everyone argues about what were going to do on a few things to try to do management but no one is stalking about how we is talking about how we get us back to balance and pay off the debt. Its a common conversation i have with people in oklahoma. This conversation with people that say can we ever get this resolved . Is it too late . Americans believe on the whole nothing will get better in washington, d. C. Dealing with the budget, and their question is when and how does it get better . I wish i could give them a lot of hope on that. What i typically tell people, mr. President , is that lets just do a for instance. Right now lets say the budget, the balanced budget piece that we have, if we took the balanced budget piece that we put out earlier this year and actually took ten years, chipped away at the deficit and in ten years chipped away at it and got back to a balance where we had no deficit that year, it was balanced, then lets say the next year we actually had a 50 billion surplus. It would be a pretty good surplus. So we chip away in ten years, get to balance. The next year we have a 50 billion surplus. Mr. President , do you know how long it would take us to pay off our debt if we had a 50 billion surplus. If we had a 50 billion surplus every year for 460 years in a row, we would pay off our debt. 460 years in a row of 50 billion surpluses, and we can get on top of this. Everyone says thats unreasonable, and i would say its certainly unreasonable if we dont change the way we do process. It just continues to get worse. There are some basic things we can do. We can do budgeting every two years. And people may say how does that solve anything. Thats predictability and planning. It creates greater oversight. Right now we do this every single year and in the speed of what has to be done, how it has to be done, theres very little oversight on our spending. We can actually put all the areas we have in spending all accountable every year. Right now theres about 25 or so, 25 to 30 of our budget that we actually focus in on every year with the appropriations process. The rest of its on auto pilot. And its never touched until we get everything in front offing everybody get everything in front of everybody every year to be able to look at oversights were not going to solve big issues. Weve got to look at budget gimmicks. Ive been at war with a budget gimmick called the chimp. Its my favorite of the gimmicks. There are a lot of them out there. Changes in mandatory programs. Chimps. The changes in mandatory programs is a budget gimmick thats out there that says we were planning to spend this much when we really werent, but on paper it said we were, but instead we said no were not going to spend that much this year, so well spend it on something else. Guess what . The next year they come back to the exact same dollars again and say no, were planning this year to do it, but were really not, and so well spend it on something else. So it just adds debt every year. And well have billions of dollars in chimps built into our budget. And claim that the deficit is even lower than it is. Its not. Its just this budget gimmick, and in real dollars it makes it even bigger. Weve got to deal with those budget gimmicks in there and to be able to take that away so is that when the appropriations process is done, you get real numbers. The hardest thing to get in d. C. Is the real number. So youre going to deal with all these gimmicks that are out there to remove those. You get with a longer time period to be able to plan, create so