Jeff Merkley

I think a principle of reciprocity is a great one to apply to this problem.

Why should we give them such easy access when they are putting up such fierce obstacles to our investments in China?

A couple of years ago when I was part of a delegation to China, we were at a meeting of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in which many of these practices were highlighted.

We certainly have an understanding of massive Chinese subsidies that are not allowed under WTO.

I did an amendment a few years ago that said if China does not produce a report, our trade representative will be directed to produce our report.

So, in essence, if our colleagues across the aisle vote for this confirmation, they are basically saying that they are voting to give up the understanding among this body that has ensured that they would have a voice in making sure that a…

So if we lose this blue-slip tradition for circuit courts, it would be the case that when the seat comes open that is now held in Rhode Island, an administration could nominate and conceivably a majority could confirm someone who lives…

I very much appreciate his laying out this basic framework under which this conversation is taking place. But just for clarity, the Senator made the point that there is no law that requires a member of a circuit court to be in a particular…

We have a situation out in the West where Oregon put together a whole team of State experts of all kinds to try to develop a plan because we wanted to avoid a Federal listing.

I think this particular provision would throw things out of balance.

To that end, I want to understand a few of the practical events of the bill.

It's the argument that he made and he made it publicly.

What the President is proposing is equivalent of internment camps during World War II we locked up Japanese, American families together.

The President has not laid out a strategy for reuniting the more than 2300 kids who have been separated from their parents and he is replacing one policy for future families.

It's pathetic, that the president is incapable of -- as an adult taking responsibility.

I'm very concerned that Mitch McConnell's strategy of a narrow bill is a strategy that actually does further harm.

That is a presidential pen.

He caused this with a stroke of his pen. He can end it with a stroke of his pen.

In this case, we have a president who is just psychologically incapable of taking responsibility for what he's done.

I find that unacceptable. I find this inversion of the Constitution, this proposed inversion in which the President can go at forces in new countries, new organizations, deciding on his or her own whether or not it meets the test that is…

It is tough for us to make these decisions, but it is our responsibility, and it is why we need to craft a replacement AUMF that honors that vision of the Constitution and makes us have the tough debates and the tough votes.

I would love to follow up on that, because, essentially, the witness we had on the--in support of a new drafted AUMF, the Corker-Kaine AUMF, indicated that there were virtually no limits on it.

To fail to do so is to fail in our moral leadership in the world.

Every evidence is that that is not the case.

It makes sense, if we are providing this assistance, for us to understand what is being hit.