I commend the Marshals Service for having a Counter Gang Unit up and running in the Great Lakes Regional Task Force that serves Chicago.

How does ATF plan to disrupt violent crime using NIBIN into areas of the country that have minimal resources but high levels of gang members and gun crime?

Amendment No. 273 would include the SAVE Act, which has already substantially passed with huge bipartisan support of the party of the Senator from Vermont in the House of Representatives. If we look, we will find that backpage.com is…

I thank the Senator. Madam President, this is an amendment that is directed at attacking backpage.com, which stands on the principle that was well established in the Civil War--that we Americans have freedom and we should not be free to…

Very much so. The way we thread the needle here is to make online providers of slavery services liable for the costs that local governments incur in cleaning up the mess they create. In the case of Cook County, IL, we have had our…

The critical issue is how to restrict the ability of Americans to enslave each other. I don't think we should have that freedom. We want to make sure we thread the needle very carefully here, to make sure the freedom and commerce available…

As a Senator from Illinois, our true gift to the people of this country has been individual freedom and dignity, epitomized by the Lincoln candidacy for the Senate, and by the victory in the Civil War. We should not allow the freedom of…

You can't solve this problem militarily alone, but if you don't have a capable military, you are never going to solve this problem.

Assyrian Christians, including women, children, priests, and the elderly are being driven from their homes, kidnapped, violently attacked and in many cases killed by the Islamic State or ISIL in Iraq and Syria.

Young people are demanding more rights. They are refusing to live in dictatorships for our convenience.

This is not just about killing people who are terrorists. It is about building up those who would fight back.

I would say that this amendment is directed at backpage.com, probably the largest provider of online slavery services in the United States. I would hope the Senator is not defending Lacey and Larkin, who make $30 million a year off of…

I ask the Senator from Vermont if he opposes the amendment that was also cosponsored by Senator Feinstein.

We will have the smallest Army since 1940, the smallest Navy since 1915.

I ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment to consider my amendment No. 273.

If we are not involved over there constructively, it is just a matter of time before they come here.

There is a fight for the heart and soul of Islam. This is a religious war, and we need to take sides.

I am going to be doing what I can to make sure that Mavash Sabet is a poster child for all the prisoners of conscience that we see in Iran.

Dr. Clancy, if I can interrupt you a little bit. I understand the economics of this treatment. It's about $83 grand for a full course of treatment. That obviates the need for a liver transplant, which otherwise could cost the VA $300 grand.

I want to ask you about Germaine Clarno, who is working in the Hines VA. She is a very prominent whistleblower who told us about waiting lists and everything.

I would ask you, do you have good third-party validation on those numbers?

I think we have kind of beat this to death.

I would say that, for some of the staff in this room, you may be in this chair one day 30 years from now.

I would say, in my experience with Hines VA, it is an utterly corrupt culture there.

I have been warned through my family and patients that I have seen, including an ex-staffer of mine, there is a growing method in medicine just to give the patient happy pills, which emphasize opioids, and get them pretty heavily addicted.