we are on the Senate floor today, yesterday, and tomorrow, and we will be continuing the debate on the Countering Iran's Destabilizing Activities Act of 2017. This is actually a very important bill, and I want to commend Senator Cardin…

It is a breath of fresh air that we have a new Administrator who actually wants to follow the law and work with States.

The EPA has to follow the law.

How can we assure that we continue the highest levels of safety with regard to our civilian nuclear energy capacity?

I had a bill that would disarm the EPA. The first 20 years of its existence the EPA had no armed agents.

We all agree that we need clean water and clean air. Really important, whether you are from New Jersey or Alaska or Rhode Island.

I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Tribute to Marty Shoryer

every week for some months now, I have been coming to the Senate floor and I have been using the opportunity to talk about someone in my State, the great State of Alaska, who has made a difference. We call that person the Alaskan of the…

The Essential Air Service program, which I think was created October 1978 during deregulation, is an important program.

251 communities in my state are exclusively accessed by air only, no roads.

I need your commitment to work with states like mine and others on the Essential Air Service program to make sure that the promises made during airline deregulation are not now forgotten.

I think there are only 17 other countries in the world that are bigger than Alaska.

if you split Alaska in half, Texas would be the third largest state in the country.

A one-size-fits-all on air policy does not work in my state for some of the reasons I just mentioned.

82 percent of the communities in Alaska are not accessible by road.

I think you have the support of this Committee behind you on that.

The Choice Program up there was an utter disaster, as it was in a lot of States, and you committed--and I think the VA has done a good job on it.

I think you will see bipartisan support here, but we want to kind of finalize that with the VA to make sure you guys are good to go with that one.

I have deep reservations about any proposal to transfer the FAA's air traffic facilities to a quasi-private corporation.

I have one final question I will submit for the record, but it actually relates to the vacant and underutilized list of buildings.

I think we need a very detailed answer on why that is not even being considered. It seems to me a huge oversight.

We should have no man or woman who puts the uniform of the U.S. military on that should deploy on a ship that is that old and broken.

The Arctic is key strategic terrain in part because of the new opportunities there, new challenges.

It is clearly in the national interest for the U.S. to have more than one heavy icebreaker.

I wanted to follow on to Senator Kaine's point and what you mentioned, General.