internet is chairey senator roger wicker. >> it is precisely 10:00 a.m.. good . >> precisely 10:00 a.m. go

roger wicker, the republican mississippi senator and what hey has to look forward to. each senator has a chance to read but one at a time. let's say you're looking at 20 minute force each of them to read it multiplied times 100, 2,000 minutes, 30 plus hours. kristin fisher with more. >> yeah, neil, things are moving so fast here. we're hearing that senators could get their hands on that fbi report as early as this afternoon. whatever is inside could make or break the judge's confirmation hearing so could what president trump said at that rally last night. all three of the critical republican swing votes, flake, collins and murkowski, all three of them have come out and spoke out strongly against those remarks. here's two of them. >> the president's comments were just plain wrong. >> there's no time and no place for remarks like that. to discuss something this sensitive in a political rally is just not right is. it's not right. i wish he didn't do. just -- it's appalling. >> so as all of capitol hill waits for this fbi report to be released, there's tremendous tension a

according to senator roger wicker, he was speaking today, he explained judiciary looks at anti-trust issues. conners looked at 230 issues, including privacy. jack dorsey, sundar pichai and mark zuckerberg of facebook will appear voluntarily. with respect to the inquiry, speculation it will include more against dorsey, zuckerberg's name is being floated, too. they will fact check it. what is interesting, subpoena, not voluntary participation anymore. the central question with two weeks to go until the election is controlling messaging on the platforms, some sort of breach, that is what everyone is trying to get to. you have elizabeth warren advocating and donald trump has said for different reasons. one is financial power and scope and once is ce censorship. the pandemic slowed this down. today, you have news thgoogle i being sued by the department of justice, does it monopolize search responsibility? big battle over companies that will continue on into 2021 and depending who has the white house, we'll see how this goes. >> neil: thank you very much, jacky. names to keep track of ther

many disagree including senator roger wicker that was just with us. you can't help but not have a benefit. i can see that, greg. the one thing i also see is a sort of a concern among many that companies will take this money and not invest it and plan it and plow it back into stocks, raise dividends and eventually might not do some of this to the degree that some people want to see like mark cuban says. what do you think? >> i don't buy that. every ceo spends a lot of time thinking about how to invest their cash to grow their business. it's about growing the business. the tax reform bill is about jobs. at the end of the day, that's what that stimulus is intended for. if i'm a ceo and sitting there and saying, look, i have $10 million to spend because i got a corporate tax rate cut, the things i need to do with that money or look to do would be product improvement, product line expansion, territory expansion. all of those things are job creators. >> neil: you can buy a lot of companies. that wouldn't necessarily create jobs. i'm just giving you the cyni

if you listen to senator roger wicker on capitol hill, he suggested it could be in the area of a trillion dollars to be paid for by keeping the corporate tax structure in place and maybe using unspent covid funds is what some republicans are talking about. that is important, neil. the white house has come down to $1.7 trillion. they want to pay for a infrastructure package by raising the corporate tax rates. so earlier today, i asked the white house press secretary jen psaki if the white house would accept a proposal in which the tax code is not changed. listen here. >> we're waiting to hear back from republicans on how they would propose to pay for it. if they don't want to touch the 2017 tax cuts that did not end up having a wind fall back to the american public, that's their choice. but they have to propose an alternative. >> republicans say that alternative will come thursday using unspend covid funds to pay for infrastructure. we heard from senate republicans, neil, this afternoon. i got to say, they sounded pessimistic about the prospects of a deal. watch. >> could be a bipartisan a

wicker, the republican senator from mississippi, he's in charge of getting republicans elected to the senate. it's a very tough year for republicans in the senate. he said i feel better today than i did earlier. james corpsman, the republican whip, he said we're going to have to work on immigration reform and there's a way to soften that rhetoric. so republicans are trying to figure out a way to get on board with donald trump. >> so you got to wonder then, is the bush family next? all of them have expressed sincere doubts about donald trump. none of them even want to vote for him. i asked him, what about your old boss? >> no, i did not. i got great love and affection for the entire family, particularly 41. and i'll be talking to them all, i'm sure, relatively soon. but, look, donald trump is going to be the nominee of the republican party, i've been a republican all my life, i was a republican vice president, so of course i'm going to support the nominee of our party and i think others will begin to step up and support him as well. some may not at the very end, i can understand that,

we're going to ask roger wicker, the senator from mississippi that is on the commerce committee what to do after this. are you packed yet? our flight is early tomorrow. and it's a long flight too. once we get there, we will need... buttercup! ♪ if you have postmenopausal osteoporosis and a high risk for fracture, now might not be the best time to ask yourself, 'are my bones strong?' life is full of make or break moments. that's why it's so important to help reduce your risk of fracture with prolia®. only prolia® is proven to help strengthen and protect bones from fracture with 1 shot every 6 months. do not take prolia® if you have low blood calcium, are pregnant, are allergic to it, or take xgeva®. serious allergic reactions like low blood pressure, trouble breathing, throat tightness, face, lip or tongue swelling, rash, itching or hives have happened. tell your doctor about dental problems, as severe jaw bone problems may happen. or new or unusual pain in your hip, groin, or thigh, as unusual thigh bone fractures have occurred. speak to your doctor before stopping, skipping or

eastern time as we look ahead to the big game and what's at stake, mississippi republican senator roger wicker and then the city attorney of san francisco's doing his own school district because wait a minute, kids matter more than teachers, why can't we all get on the same page and open things up? he's suing to make the point. tomorrow, we will see you then. here comes "the five." ♪ ♪ >> jesse: hello everybody, i'm jesse watters along with juan williams, dagen mcdowell, greg gutfeld and martha maccallum. it's 5:00 in new york city and this is "the five." it's another day and yet another example of hypocrisy from democrats. joe biden and his white house have preached endlessly about how we have to follow the science and listen to the experts. and they promised that they always will, you may remember this. >> i think it's important to follow the science, listen to

to republican senator roger wicker who serves on the armed services committee. senator, we don't know a lot of what transpired in that phone call. we do know that vladimir putin still has the 100,000 plus russian troops on the border. do you think he will hold off? >> i hope he does. two schools of thought on this. one is that it's a ruse, he doesn't have any intention of going in instead of using it as a bargaining chip. a lot of other people think that an invasion could take place and could take place within weeks. i'll just say this. vladimir putin has surprised the west twice. once in 2008 in georgia invading a sovereign nation and then in 2014 with ukraine. he could surprise us again. i hope although there was no finger wagging in the conversation from the president today, i hope there was a show of resolve that we think this would be a game changer for free europe and it's something that the united states and our allies cannot tolerate. >> neil: senator, some of your republican colleagues think we should have troops in the region. they didn't delineate how

senator roger wicker here with us now. very good to have you. thanks for coming. >> good to be back. >> neil: senator, where do you think things stand first off on the covid-19 relief measure? >> well, first of all, we're not going to shut the government down tonight. there will be a two-day extension. we're closing in on a deal. details have been a little harder than i expected. so i think maybe -- i'd say by tomorrow morning, we'll have the outlines 0 a deal. it will take another day to get it on paper. you have to write it up in bill form. i'd say we'll be finished sunday afternoon. i'm looking at a two-day extension of this short-term continuing resolution. >> neil: all right. we're hearing that unemployment benefits for ten weeks, probably closer to $300 a week rather than the 600 at the height of the pandemic. is that accurate? >> you probably have accurate information. i'm not in the room on that negotiation. i'm talking about broad band expansion during this pandemic about the airline piece and the paycheck protection plan, things like t

senator roger wicker with him. thanks for taking the time here. that's been your argument all along. in prior interviews, you said i'm open to infrastructure but better just be infrastructure, right? >> well, we've been advocating infrastructure for four years as members of the epw committee and the commerce committee and republican conference. you know, senator gillibrand got ridicule yesterday for tweeting that paid leave is infrastructure. child care is infrastructure. actually it's president biden that really deserves a good bit of the raspberries on that. it's actually his bill. it's $2 trillion, maybe $2.3 trillion. only about 30% of it by any stretch of the imagination could be called infrastructure. so i think -- i heard what roy blunt said sunday. i like it very much. we have a problem with the president when we ask him to compromise on the rescue bill. he offered 1.9 trillion. we offered $600 billion. then he said it was up to us to make yet another counter offer. that's usually not the way compromise works. >> neil: so where is this goi

we've got these two suspicious letters addressed to president obama and republican senator roger wicker and law enforcement sources say they have a person of interest, so we expect the investigation is moving forward. it's important to note both of these letters were stopped at offsite facilities, so they did not get close to the white house or the united states capitol. at the white house, jay carney says the president's been briefed and offered this update. >> the f.b.i. has a lead for determining whether a suspicious powder is a dangerous substance such as risin. and those take place at accredited facilities and they take a certain amount of time, as the f.b.i. has indicated. these procedures are in place. the procedures are effective and in operation now and we are in the midst of that process, which the f.b.i. is your taking at this time -- undertaking at this time. >> heightened security has brought heightened security activity on capitol hill, suspicious package was delivered to the office of alabama republican senator richard shelby. it was cleared. the bomb squad was sent to th

senator roger wicker is here. (judith) at fisher investments, we do things differently and other money managers don't understand why. (money manager) because our way works great for us! (judith) but not for your clients. that's why we're a fiduciary, obligated to put clients first. (money manager) so, what do you provide? cookie cutter portfolios? (judith) nope, we tailor portfolios to our client's needs. (money manager) but you do sell investments that earn you high commissions, right? (judith) we don't have those. (money manager) so what's in it for you? (judith) our fees are structured so we do better when our clients do better. at fisher investments we're clearly different. i'm jayson tatum. check out my subway sub with delicious turkey and crispy bacon. i'm draymond green. with my subway sub with tender steak and melty cheese. my sub will help you put points on the board, unlike some other subs. why would you say that, jayson? hey man, i'm just talkin' about subs here. oh c'mon. my sub is gonna throw down on

mitt romney, jerry moran, pat toomey, roger wicker, marco rubio, and roy blunt. i understand they have their own reasons for doing this. congress passed the emergency declaration. are they saying congress passed an unconstitutional act? what is the act there if it's not to be used? i understand their point, but at the same time there is an emergency. the democrats do not want to protect the country. >> this is not a constitutional crisis, it's a national security crisis at our border. that's what i would cul d that's what i would call 76,000 migrants apprehended at our border and tend-year-old girls given birth control pill biz their families because we know how many women are being sexually assaulted. we have tons of drugs pouring over our borders. that's not everyone. but it shouldn't be one. if it's one, it's 10 too many. this president has been consistent for four years now. we have a crisis at the border. he tried to let congress do its job. the congress and the courts failed to act. he's invoking a congressional act from 1976. it's 43 years old. if you don'

that doctrine, republican from mississippi with $2.6 million in number directed spending, roger wicker of mississippi 1.4 million, daniel anyway from hawaii 1.3 billion, tomharkin from hawaii , 1.2 billion and robert byrd of virginia, 1.1 billion. our current president joe biden in 2008, $86 million and member directed spending for his state, $104 million for fiscal year 2009 and we've been talking about mitch mcconnell and another regard this morning but i want to play both of you the comments of the minority leader. then minority leader as well back in 2010 and his calling of supporting a moratorium on your marks spending, here's what he said. >> what i concluded is on n the issue of congressional earmarks as the leader of my fiparty in the senate, i have to leave first example. nearly every day the senate t is been in session for the past few years i've come down to this very spot said that democrats were ignoring the wishes of the american people area when it comes to your marks, i will be guilty of the same thing. make no mistake, i know the good that has come from the projects th

that is not roger wicker speaking, that is former president jimmy carter speaking. so, we only have to look at prominent democrats who concede that sadly this has been a miserable eight years, of the lack of success and the lack of progress in the area of keeping americans safe and secure. >> will there be spending offsets? >> we are not in a position to negotiate this with you, but you you know the various component parts of the discussion. they are ongoing. we had a chance to talk about it with the president and it democratic leadership at the house and spent in speaker ryan yesterday afternoon. i think we're making good progress toward resolving all of the moving parts and ultimately we will move a cr that addresses zika and other matters. [inaudible] >> we will you know how we work out these various subparts when we do. [inaudible] not on. >> they want the senate republicans to still be in the majority sharon wanted to do anything they could to communicate and to be helpful. [inaudible] >> let me say one thing for so i don't expect hillary clinton to be elected

so this spring roger wicker, senator wicker and i joined together to introduce this legislation, the railroad efficiency and enhancement and efficiency act, that bill is making the critical investments. the bill would allow the northeast corridor very critically would crowe the northeast corridor to reinvest its profits into that region, which is going to be significant for helping to give us a 21st century competitive infrastructure, and that is something i cannot understate the urgency of. our bill, as i said earlier, added critical safety provisions that's going to help to make for positive train control. and earlier this month as was mentioned by roger wicker, the chamber passed the fixing america's surface transportation act or the fast act, a five-year, $305 billion transportation compromise bill, which for the first time includes the rail provisions that i'm proud to say were in our railroad enhancement and efficiency act. and so this bill that passed the senate will enable critical projects like the hudson tunnel plan. it's going to achieve incredible safety for our community

in 2014 senator roger wicker and i led the m.d. care amendments of 2014 which built upon the progress by ensuring that efforts are focused on the most critical needs of doctors, patients and researchers. these are important accomplishments but more needs to be done. the food and drug administration safety and innovation act of 2012 gave the f.d.a. increased flexibility to grant accelerated approval for rare disease treatments that have proven to be beneficial. the bill also directed the f.d.a. to use patient-focused drug development tools during the drug approval process. the idea is simple. patient experience should be a factor when the f.d.a. considers a drug for approval. this gives the f.d.a. the opportunity to hear directly from patients, their families, and caregivers about the symptoms that matter most to them, the impact that the disease has on patients' daily lives and their experiences with treatments. to build upon that progress, senator wicker and i introduced the patient-focused impact assessment act. the bill would he

and that's why republican senator roger wicker of mississippi and i joined together to get our provision ensuring change and cancellation fees are reasonable into the senate f.a.a. reauthorization bill. when a liberal from new england and a republican from the deep south can agree on policy, we're on the right side of history, but the airline industry had other plans. they stated that its number one priority in the f.a.a. reauthorization was defeating our fair fees provision. and what is it about this provision that would stop at nothing to block it from becoming law? why would the airline industries band together on this one issue? they really don't compete truly against each other in the marketplace, but here they could all come together on one policy, and that's because they don't want the department of transportation to assess whether change in cancellation, baggage and other fees are reasonable and proportional to the costs of services provided. they don't want to ensure change in cancellation fees -- change and cancellation fees are reasonable. and that is all our provision does. e

wicker, a senator from the state of mississippi, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: chuck grassley, president pro tempore. comoimed. mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: the senate spent the last few days, like all americans have, praying for quick healing and smooth recovery for president trump and the first lady following their positive covid-19 tests. i spoke to the president by phone twice this past weekend. both times, his spirits were high. both times, we talked about the people's business, our nation's fight against this pandemic, his exceptional nominee to the supreme court, judge barrett, as well as our efforts to continue rebuilding the economy for working families. we're also thinking of our friends and colleague, the senior senator for utah, the senior senator for wisconsin, and the junior senator from north carolina who are currently working from home. the standard cliche would say that these past few days have provided a stark reminder of the dangers of this terrible virus. but the truth is tha

last year senator roger wicker, a republican from mississippi, and i secured a provision in the senate f.a.a. reauthorization bill that would protect passengers from ridiculous, sky-high airline fees. our fair fees provision directed the department of transportation to, one, assess whether change and cancellation and baggage and other fees are reasonable and proportional to the costs of the services which are being provided and, secondly, to ensure that change and cancellation fees are reasonable. airline fees would be fair and reasonable. that's all that the provision did. and the reason why we need that is simple. in a truly competitive industry, an airline would be unable to charge unreasonable fees because their competitors would undercut their prices. darwinian paranoia-inducing competition would drive fees down to reflect the actual cost of the services provided. the cost to check a bag, the cost to change a flight reservation, the flight of booking a passenger on standby for an earlier flight -- fair and reasonable. but the airline industry is f -- far is competitive. in the pas

my partner in passing the global magnitsky act and the magnitsky act is my good friend, roger wicker, who is the chair of the senate u.s. helsinki commission. we worked together to make sure that we passed these magnitsky acts. what does it do? what it does is the country does not hold accountable those who violate basic global human rights of its citizens, we impose sanctions. those sanctions prevent that individual who perpetrated these acts from visiting the united states through the issuance of a visa, for participating in our banking system. why do we do this? today we heard from mr. merza who is one of the activists on human rights in russia, who has been poisoned twice by the russian government when he said about the manta of the kremlin, he said they steal at home and spend abroad. they don't want their money in rubles. they want their money in dollars. so that if we can prevent them from using our banking system, we can really make it hurt. let me tell you how important this is. this is not limited to russia we passed the global magnitsky laws, it applies to all of the countr

senator roger wicker had a very good op-ed in "the wall street journal" today just on that very topic. and we need to make sure taiwan has that capability. it's in the taiwan relations act that we have that responsibility -- to defend itself and is doing -- undertaking the right approach with regard to military weapons that they are buying from the united states and other places. the second level of deterrence you see here on this chart would be america's capability to defend taiwan militarily, should the president of the united states decide to do so if there is an invasion by the chinese communist party. and over several decades, mr. president, through many different crises in the taiwan strait, this layer of deterrence where the united states has shown up with military force has proven to be decisive in keeping the taiwanese people free and our deep network of allies in the region. there's also a third level of deterrence. the third level of deterrence is often not discussed, but in many ways it particularly -- particularly now it could be more powerful than the first and second le

along with commerce committee chair maria cantwell of washington and ranking member roger wicker of mississippi. like americans' response to sputnik, the new era of scientific and technological discovery will be driven by seed money from the federal government, but this effort is not limited to the government spending. america is home to the world's best research colleges and universities and laboratories like oregon national lab in my state of illinois. they are part of this effort, too. we will harness the combined efforts of america's best scientific and technological minds in the public sector and the private sector. the endless frontier act and broader competitiveness package represents the largest investment in u.s. science and technology since the apollo era. it will authorize more than $100 billion over five years to support breakthrough scientific discovery and technological innovation in ten key areas vital to building an innovation economy for the 21st century and creating good jobs in the process. the key areas include fields of advanced energy, semiconductors, artificial intelligen

i want to single out senator projer wicker, who has been -- senator roger wicker, who has been a real champion making sure we worked in a bipartisan manner. we were joined on the republican side by senator murkowski, ernst, cassidy, hyde-smith, collins, and blunt, and others joined us during the process. i want to take you back a little before we filed that bill in august of last year. there was legislation filed that would replenish the funds at $60 billion, because we thought $60 billion was going to be needed to complete the funding. i think senator sinema led the effort in file that legislation. -- in filing that legislation. the difference between the bill filed for $60 billion and the bill that we are going to be considering tomorrow is the bill tomorrow is $48 billion less. we were able to reduce the amount of dollars that were needed in order to carry this out, some restaurants have closed, we have tightened up the rules, and we can not only do that for $12 billion less than initially thought was going to be possible when we had bipartisan support last summer, we're now able t

i cosponsored this legislation, which was developed by commerce committee chairman roger wicker. madam president, cost is a major obstacle for small broadband providers when it comes to replacing telecommunications hardware. but as one expert witness at the hearing noted, a lack of qualified telecommunications workers also poses a barrier to replacement. i recently introduced legislation, the telecommunications skilled workforce act, to help increase the number of workers on the front lines of replacing this equipment and deploying new, secure 5g networks. i hope, madam president, this legislation will quickly make its way through the senate. replacing problematic hardware in our domestic telecommunications networks will help ensure the security of our communications to come. as i said earlier, that's not the only challenge we're facing. we regularly exchange information, including sensitive national security information, with our allies and trading partners, and this information can only be secure if networks on both ends are secure. that's why the united states has called for o

in march, the president signed legislation developed by commerce committee chairman roger wicker, the secure and trusted communications networks act, to help speed up this process. this legislation which i cosponsored will help small telecommunications providers with the cost of replacing network components that pose a security risk. also in march, i introduced legislation to help address the other part of the problem, and that's the use of huawei technology by our allies and our trading partners. we regularly exchange information including sensitive national security information with our allies and trading partners, and this information can only be secure, can only be secure if networks on both ends are secure. that's why the u.s. has called for other countries to reject telecommunications technology from huawei and z.t.e. a number of countries have committed to using trusted companies to build out their telecommunications networks, but other countries are still planning to make use of huawei's technology. my legislation, the network security trade act, would make telecommunication s

it's a matter of electioneering, hi, i'm roger wicker, running for senator, here's a bottle of water, hope you'll remember me in another 50 feet when you get into the polling place. the people of georgia in their wisdom have decided that's going too far, and i'm told, perhaps the distinguished majority leader could come to the floor and correct me, and i would stand corrected if he did, i'm told that it's against the la you in new york to do the same thing. once you're in line in new york, somebody comes to hand you something that advocates for one candidate or another, that is forbidden, not only under georgia law but under new york law, and i can see the wisdom of that. two months ago, mr. president, there were two amendments to the new york constitution that were presented before the voters, the november 2 election, 2021, in the state of new york. one would have deleted the current requirement that a citizen be registered to vote for ten days. now, in my state you got to be registered for 30 days. in new york state it's ten days. the law is you got to be registered for ten days or

wicker, a senator from the state of mississippi, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: chuck grassley, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate will stands adjourned until 3:00 p.m. on monday december 16, 2019. >> and so the senate is gambling out now after the brief pro forma session. they will be back monday to debate the conference report. this morning the house judiciary committee approved two articles of impeachment against donald trump, abuse of power and obstruction of congress, those articles of impeachment go to the house floor for a vote next week possibly wednesday followed by live senate coverage on c-span2 and you can watch the house on our companion network c-span. >> the house will be in order. >> for 40 years c-span is providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court and public policy events from washington dc and around the country so you can make up your own mind, created by cable in 1979. provided by your local cable or satellite provider. c-span, your unfiltered vi

and you learn from other members like roger wicker who i worked together with to end military suicide. we've not been able to end it yet but we sure work on it every day. and learning from other members and hearing about the difficulties people in their states are facing and working together to address common challenges, you can be from idaho, you can be from north dakota, you can be from new hampshire, indiana, but we all have the same challenges. and all of us worked hard to get here and our jobs should be not worrying about politics but worrying about making lives better. partisanship gets us nothing. division gets us nothing. you know, i was thinking the best way to explain this. and it's this. when a fire department goes to a house, they don't ask if the person living there is democrat or republican. they're just there to help their neighbor. no soldier has ever asked when they're in a fox hole fighting their way out where do you come from, what party are you, what's your religion, what's your ethnic background. you're americans. you're in this together. you have each other's bac

wicker. one of the tens of thousands of americans who commutes to work on the east coast by taking amtrak almost daily, i am encouraged to see that this bill invests in our railway across our nation. this legislation not only provides $6 billion in grants for the northeast corridor to address adam's deferred maintenance needs, it also provides another $16 billion for the adam national network. amtrak's national network. and another $41 billion in grants to improve passenger rail performance and safety. i also want to apply -- applaud the chairman of the senate banking committee and others both on and off the committee who worked tirelessly to advance robust funding for public transit infrastructure in order to make it possible for millions of people to get to work and home again every day. transit and rail are both critical components of our climate change response, providing low and low-emission travel choices. this bill, our bill, reauthorizes and grows our transit programs while also provi

wicker, dan sullivan. thank you for your input, your encouragement and your support. i want to give a particular thank you to my friend and colleague, our republican leader, senator mitch mcconnell. i want to thank him for his encouragement and his support throughout this process, for sticking his neck out. i know he's probably the only person who is as happy as i am in this chamber to see us move forward with this legislation that will help us find a long-term solution to a major bridge, the brent spence bridge. i want to thank the committee staffs who did so much to lay the groundwork for this legislation. about 73% of the pages in this final 2,300-page legislation are legislation that either passed the senate or cleared committees in the senate in this congress, and that's a tribute to the quiet bipartisanship that goes on at the committee level every day that allows us to get these things done with the requisite knowledge and expertise. i also want to thank all the nonpartisan staff here in the united

wicker, but past very much with senator alexander also. and so i just wanted to mention that not to prolong this discussion, but mention that act of selflessness and humility is another attribute to this great senator who we say farewell to today. i think, mr. president, that the remarks we heard from senator alexander will be taught at civics classes, college-level government classes for decades and decades to come. it was so profound and it is a real honor that a piece of legislation that he and i worked on together will always be a part of what i consider to be those immortal remarks. and so i thank you very much, and i yield the floor. >> mr. president. >> the senate from washington. >> mr. president, i come to the floor to thank the scented from tennessee for his service to our nation and for his work you're in the united states senate. some of my colleagues have already mentioned that the brevity of boards of which senator alexander can deliver a message, i, too, remember his comments at a rules committee member the inaugural address

senators rob portman, roger wicker, richard blumenthal and andy klobuchar spoke about their visit and other steps the us can take to assist ukraine as the war with russia escalates. during the remarks majority leader chuck schumer offered a resolution condemning president putin for alleged war crimes. >> i come to the floor today to stand with the people of ukraine. what russia is doing to ukraine and its citizens is an atrocity. ukraine is an american ally, an independent and democratic country of 41 million people who simply want to live in peace. the russian invasion is an illegal, unprovoked, and brutal assault and over the past 19 days since the full-scale invasion began has targeted and killed thousands of civilians. americans have seen this atrocity in real-time with horrific videos online or on our television screen. the videos and photos have been shocking. remember the one of the woman who was on a stretcher, pregnant, leaving the maternity hospital that was bombed by the russians. we learned that woman and her baby have died. today we learn more journalists have been killed

wicker. as one of the tens of thousands of americans who communities to work by taking amtrak almost daily, i'm encouraged to see this investss in our railway across our nation. this legislation not only provides $6 billion in grants to the northeast or corridor to address amtrak's deferred maintenance needs, it also provides another 16 billion for the national network, impacts national network. another 41 billion in grants to improve passenger rail performance and safety. i also want to applaud the chairman of the senate banking committee and others both on and off the committee who worked tire restly to dance -- tirelessly to informs money public transit in order to make it possible for millions of people the make it to work and home again every day. transit and rail are both critical components of our climate change response providing low and low-emission travel choices. this bill, our bill, reauthorizes and grows our transit programs while also providing more than $5 billion in grants for

and you learn from other members like roger wicker who i worked together with to end military suicide. we've not been able to end it yet but we sure work on it every day. and learning from other members and hearing about the difficulties people in their states are facing and working together to address common challenges, you can be from idaho, you can be from north dakota, you can be from new hampshire, indiana, but we all have the same challenges. and all of us worked hard to get here and our jobs should be not worrying about politics but worrying about making lives better. partisanship gets us nothing. division gets us nothing. you know, i was thinking the best way to explain this. and it's this. when a fire department goes to a house, they don't ask if the person living there is democrat or republican. they're just there to help their neighbor. no soldier has ever asked when they're in a fox hole fighting their way out where do you come from, what party are you, what's your religion, what's your ethnic background. you're americans. you're in this together. you have each other's bac

wicker to end military suicide. though we haven't been able to end it yet but we work on it every day. and learning from other members in hearing about the difficulties. working to address common challenges. you can be from idaho, you can be from north dakota and from new hampshire, indiana. but we all have the same challenges. .. >> that sets the example we want our children and grandchildren to follow. getting to know one another. it with other experiences. what amazes me the most i was out campaigning and never was failed to be astounded by those who said you didn't do this one thing that i wanted. i'm really mad at you i willi never support you again. but i did 19 other things. you're not from a family of five children like i have. [laughter] so when there were seven pork chops so if you need 100 percent all of the time this is not the place. this is a place 70 percent to build america and with that divisive rhetoric by tens of millions of dollars with that dark money interest is really doing damage to this coun

wicker, a senator from the state of mississippi, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: orrin g. hatch, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate stands adjourned until 10:30 a.m. on monday, october 24, 2016. october 24, 2016. for their contaminated water issues, medical research and defense department programs. the house will be back on monday november 14th. live coverage on c-span. and we will go back now to the new hampshire senate debate. >> numerous tax increases and she vetoed the budget she now claims credit for that wanted to -- >> do you want to respond? >> i'm just going to say this, it's not surprising to hear senator ayotte after her years in washington failed to appreciate that you can actually stand up for fiscal responsibility as i did when i vetoed the budget, then work across party lines to brocker a compromise and get to a place we got important safeguards in place so that we could both cut taxes and protect critical investments and critical things like substance abuse funding and you know what, there's e

row is my friend roger wicker from mississippi. down in mississippi the university of mississippi ole miss actually has an office of sustainability. the ole miss office of sustainability is there and i quote, to further the university's efforts to combat global climate change. believe it or not ole miss is another signatory to that university president's climate commitment, just like arkansas, and it's moving towards net zero grievehouse gas emissions -- greenhouse gas emissions. so, by the way, is the university of southern mississippi. the director of the university of mississippi center for hydroscience and engineering explains why this matters. i quote him. human influence and greenhouse gases are the dominant causes of the increase in global average temperature of the earth. the impacts are observed in rising sea levels, precipitation patterns, hide logic -- hydrologic regimes, floods and droughts and environmental processes. he continues, we must reduce our carbon footprint and take the necessary steps to reduce our vul necia

my fellow cochair, senator murkowski, and honorary cochair senator mark begich and senator roger wicker and all of our partners are working to stop illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, clean up marine debris and collect baseline scientific data so that we can make informed policy decisions. this is important work. it demonstrates the good we can accomplish when both parties come together, and i look forward to getting it done. but it is not enough. it is not enough. until we address what is causing our oceans to change so drastically, until we protect our planet from carbon pollution unprecedented in human history, we are doing little more than putting band-aids on a gaping and growing wound. mr. president, i want here today to push back on the idea that so many of us seem to have accepted that we can't do anything serious on carbon pollution. in fact, we can, and the tools to do it lie right around us, if only we pick them up and go to work. here is my case, very simply. pricing carbon is necessary. make big carbon polluters pay a fee to the american people to cover the cost of

wicker, mark pryor, james reich and ben cardin. jeanne shaheen is also here and kay kagan. let me say, mr. president that, these members have been extraordinary in my view. we have passed not one, not two, not three, not four but five fairly significant pieces of legislation in a completely bipartisan fashion. the bills that i'm going to highlight this morning have been passed by our committee by large and convincing margins. 18-0, 15-3, 16-4. we are very proud of the work that we've done. and my call to the senators this morning is to let's get our eyes off of wall street and get our eyes on main street. if we really want to dig out of this recession that we're in, created by a number of things -- failed policies from the past administration, a confluence of a crash of the stock market and the financial sector, poor regulation from us over time. but, you know, mr. president, the people that have really suffered are the small business owners that, unlike maybe large businesses and public companies, have put everything at risk. ever

cosponsored by my friend, senator roger wicker of mississippi. this legislation requires all d.o.d. primary care and mental health providers that they have received evidence-based training on suicide risk recognition and management and that their training be up-dated to keep pace with changes in mental health care best practices. it also requires d.o.d. to report to congress on the military's current melgt health workforce. the long-term mental health needs of service members and families and how we assure that d.o.d. meets those needs. finally it requires the department of defense to bring us a plan to assess mental health outcomes and d.o.d. care, variations in outcomes across different d.o.d. facilities and barriers to d.o.d. mental health providers. implementing the best clinical care guidelines and other evidence-based treatments. finally, but including elements from the front-line mental health provider training act cosponsored by my friend senator john boozman from arkansas, the ndaa calls on the department of defense to train physician assistants to specialize in psychiatric

of -- roger wicker of mississippi. it gave the securities and exchange commission authority to address the conflict of interests inherent in the industry, conflict of str tr* which contribute -- conflict of interest which contributed fightly -- mightily to our financial collapse and has continued to plague that industry through today. i'm speaking about that again today because even though the conflicts continue to put the industry at risk the s.e.c. still has not proposed meaningful reforms. the s.e.c. has studied the issue, the financial crisis inquiry commission has studied the issue. the permanent subcommittee on investigations has studied the issue. now it is time to move forward and take action on the issue. let me start off by briefly reminding everyone what this conflict of interest is about and why it is important. in the years leading up to the 2008 financial collapse, the credit rating agencies were enjoying massive profits and booming business. there's nothing inherently wrong with massive profits and boomi

why is roger wicker from mississippi down here advocating for federalism and advocating for states making their own decision basically advocating against a federal mandate for these long trucks? i'll tell you i started hearing from folks when this issue came before the appropriations committee. a group of people rose up and said what are you doing? what are you thinking mandating this to all 50 states without their consent? so who is for the feinstein-wicker amendment and opposed to mandatory p twin 33 trucks in all of our states? i'll tell you who's opposed to it. advocates for highway and auto safety. triple-a knows a little something about getting around the united states of america triple-a is for the feinstein-wicker amendment. the national troops coalition know a little something about safety on the highways, they are opposed to mandatory twin 33's. i will also tell you mr. president, it's very interesting that the mississippi trucking association you'd think every trucker would want to be for this, make more money get to haul more stuff. the mississippi truckers association contact

>> i sat with roger wicker, republican from mississippi. it wasn't just symbolic. the two of us work together and we want to work together to get things done for our country. i think it is a clear message that we want to rise to the occasion in 2012. we know it is an election year. there is plenty of time to get the business done. >> the economy, energy, education, financial enforcement were some of the things that the president called for. several of those were legislative proposals including the senate passing a rule, 90 days up-or-down vote on nominees. is that possible? >> i think that will be a real challenge for us to get that done. i think the president is absolutely right. i stood up and applauded on that action. the senate has the responsibility to vote on the presidential nominees. we can't routinely deny the advice and consent. i think the president is absolutely right. time to exercise our responsibility and vote on issues. a lot of issues he talked about was fairness. the people most well off need to step up also. i thought he really did try to bring u

st: sen a terror roger wicker -- senator roger wicker, he has now moved on to armed services. he is a part of the leadership team for the senate. a want to start with your perspective on egypt. as you sit and watch this water your concerns for u.s. interests in that region? >> actually, egypt has been a linchpin in our policy toward israel. that is my major concern. of course, we do not want to see what happened in iran three decades ago happened in egypt. it is clear to me that president mubarak is on his way out. the question is who is going to replace him. this may happen today. it would be a member of the military, someone who is in charge of this vast military establishment that conols 40% of the gross domestic product of egypt. in that case, i think it would be a stabilizing transition period to the extent there is a group that takes over including the islamic brotherhood, then we have real trouble. and i think we have yet to see what is going to happen there. but i dknow this. egypt is right next door to israel. they signed the camp david accords back in 1978. since tha

in the house, roger wicker and marsha blackburn helped pass the bill there where they were then. the teachers who come to the floor before we open invariably go to our desks and try to find daniel webster's desk. they look for the kennedy brothers'-esque did -- brothers' desk. they ask where is jefferson davis' desk because they've heard the story there is a chop mark on the desk that was imposed by a union soldier when they captured washington and the soldiers was chopping the desk until his commander said, stop that. we're here to save the union, not to destroy it. invariably a teacher will ask a senator, what would you like for us to take back to our students about being a united states senate. my reply is always the same -- please suggest to your students that they look at washington, d.c., as if it were a split-screen television. on one side are the confirmation hearings and the tweets. and on the other side you have democratic and republican senators working together to strengthen national defense, national laboratories, national parks and the national institutes of health.

i proposed a solution with my friend and colleague, senator roger wicker of mississippi. if our provision is implemented in full, it would root out the conflicts of interest from the issuerer-pays model. the amendment that senator wicker and i offered to the financial reform bill directed the securities and exchange commission to create an independent self-regulatory organization that would select which agency, one with the adequate capacity and expertise, which agency would provide the initial credit rating of each product. the assignments would be based not only on capacity and expertise, but also after time on their track record. our approach would incentivize and reward excellence. the current pay for play model with its inherent conflict of interest would be replaced by a pay for performance model. this improved product, this improved market would finally allow smaller rating agencies to break the big three's oligarchy. -- oligopoly. it is clear, the s.e.c. estimated that as of december 31, 2011, approximately 91% of the credit ratings for structured finance products