Mr. President, the most important words of our Constitution are the first three words: ``We the people.'' That is the mission statement of our Constitution. Our Founders did not seek to design a government that would enable the powerful…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that my intern, Fiona Steiwer, be given privileges of the floor for the remainder of the day. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

I thank the gentleman. I really will wrap up. But we have had no hearing like the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee had. They brought all of the witnesses in to talk about our job. The last three chairs of the Ways and Means…

I thank Dr. Burgess and appreciate his leadership on this issue and the hard work he and his members on both sides of the aisle have done on the Subcommittee on Health in the Energy and Commerce Committee. As we all know, the opioid crisis…

I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy, and I appreciate his hard work with Chair Jenkins moving this forward. This is an example of--maybe people don't think it is earthshaking-- but being able to come together and deal with things that…

I thank the gentleman because I wanted to make one other point. But I must confess that one of the other reasons that I am really deeply concerned about that now is that it wasn't just that we weren't able to do a deep dive on the causes…

This week, the House Committee on Agriculture will be marking up the most important bill that almost no one pays attention to, rolled out with very little fanfare. And actually, we can kind of understand why it has been sort of played down…

Madam President, I am putting a hold on the nomination of Mr. Jason Klitenic to be General Counsel of the Office of Director of National Intelligence. I intend to maintain the hold until there is a satisfactory response to the March 6…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record. There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: S. 2653 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of…

Mr. President, every day, Social Security provides vital benefits to millions of Americans who worked and paid into the system, and I cannot overstate the important anti-poverty role that the program plays. Supplemental Security Income or…

Mr. President, the majority leader said that this is a promising day, and I would just say that I think it is more than that. It is really a milestone to have the majority leader of the Senate working with a bipartisan group of us to lift…

This is a very poignant moment. Speaker Paul Ryan announces his retirement the same week that the Republicans bring to the floor the so-called balanced budget amendment, which signals a surrender, that Republicans admit they can't budget…

It is so poignant that Paul Ryan announces his retirement the same week that the Republicans bring to the floor the so-called balanced budget amendment, which signals surrender. Republicans can't budget responsibly. After the largest…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that my fellow, Sharmin Syed, be granted privileges of the floor for the duration of her service in my office. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered

Mr. President, in Federalist Paper No. 76, Alexander Hamilton wrote that it was the job of the Senate to ``prevent the appointment of unfit characters.'' That is certainly the mission for which we have responsibility today--to make sure…

Mr. President, I am putting a hold on the Fiscal Year 2018 Intelligence Authorization Act, as currently drafted, for two reasons. The bill marked up by the Senate Intelligence Committee included three amendments I offered, one of which…

Mr. President, I rise today in support of H.R. 4547, the Strengthening Protections for Social Security Beneficiaries Act of 2018, a bipartisan bill developed by House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Sam Johnson and…

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I cannot in good faith support a nominee who has a lengthy track record of tweets attacking both prominent Democratic women and prominent Republican women. Since his nomination, these tweets…