[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 12 (Friday, January 19, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S351-S355]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        FEDERAL REGISTER PRINTING SAVINGS ACT OF 2017--Continued

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
mandatory quorum call be waived.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.


                             Cloture Motion

  Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before the Senate the pending 
cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the

[[Page S352]]

     Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby move to bring to a 
     close debate on the motion to concur in the House amendment 
     to the Senate amendment to H.R. 195.
         Mitch McConnell, John Boozman, Marco Rubio, Deb Fischer, 
           John Barrasso, Richard Burr, John Cornyn, Thom Tillis, 
           John Hoeven, Richard C. Shelby, Tom Cotton, Joni Ernst, 
           James M. Inhofe, Shelley Moore Capito, Steve Daines, 
           James Lankford, and Roy Blunt.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum 
call has been waived.
  The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the 
motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 
195 shall be brought to a close?
  The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Arizona (Mr. McCain).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lankford). Are there any other Senators in 
the Chamber desiring to vote?
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 50, nays 49, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 14 Leg.]

                                YEAS--50

     Alexander
     Barrasso
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Burr
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Cochran
     Collins
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Donnelly
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Gardner
     Grassley
     Hatch
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Jones
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Manchin
     McCaskill
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Perdue
     Portman
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott
     Shelby
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Wicker
     Young

                                NAYS--49

     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Flake
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Harris
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hirono
     Kaine
     King
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Lee
     Markey
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Paul
     Peters
     Reed
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--1

       
     McCain
       
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Johnson). On this vote, the yeas are 50, 
the nays are 49.
  Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted 
in the affirmative, the motion is rejected.
  The majority leader is recognized.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I enter a motion to reconsider the 
vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The motion is entered.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I want to call to the attention of my 
colleagues a part of the statement of the White House Press Secretary 
tonight, presumably on behalf of the administration. It simply says: We 
will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while Democrats 
hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands.
  That appropriately represents the White House view of where we are. 
And what we have just witnessed on the floor was a cynical decision by 
Senate Democrats to shove aside millions of Americans for the sake of 
irresponsible political gains. A government shutdown was 100 percent 
avoidable--completely avoidable. Now it is imminent, all because Senate 
Democrats chose to filibuster a noncontroversial funding bill that 
contains nothing, not a thing, they do not support--nothing they do not 
support.
  Perhaps across the aisle some of our Democratic colleagues are 
feeling proud of themselves, but what has their filibuster 
accomplished? What has it accomplished? The answer is simple: their 
very own government shutdown.
  The shutdown effects on the American people will come as no surprise. 
All week, as we have stood on the floor and begged our colleagues to 
come to their senses, Senate Republicans have described exactly what 
this will mean.
  For America's men and women in uniform, shutting down the government 
means delayed pay. For the many thousands of civilian employees who 
support their missions, it means furloughs. And for the families of 
fallen heroes, it may well mean a freeze on survivor death benefits. 
For veterans who rely on our promise of care, shutting down the 
government means threatening their access to treatment. For so many 
Americans struggling with opioid addiction, the same is true. Thanks to 
the Democratic leader's decision to filibuster an extension of the 
State Children's Health Insurance Program, low-income families will 
slip closer to losing health coverage for their kids, and in many 
States, this is an emergency.
  I am having trouble understanding which one of these outcomes my 
Democratic colleagues could possibly be proud of. Which one of them? I 
think our friends on the other side took some bad advice--really bad 
advice. I would hate to have to be trying to explain this myself.
  They ignored the Governors, including seven Democrats who wrote 
Congress begging us to extend SCHIP for 9 million children. They 
ignored the needs of millions of Americans who rely on the Federal 
Government for important services. They held all this hostage--all of 
this hostage over the completely unrelated issue of illegal 
immigration.
  Republicans in the Senate have done all we can to continue the normal 
operations of the Federal Government and secure certainty for these 
SCHIP kids. We could pass it tonight, it could go to the President for 
signature, and these kids would be OK.
  Well, we are going to continue to do all we can. We will vote again 
so the American people know who stands for them. And when our friends 
across the aisle remember who it is they actually represent, we will be 
ready to come together in a bipartisan discussion that will be 
necessary to clean up all of this mess.
  We have all been having private conversations here on the floor. 
Almost everybody on both sides doesn't understand how we ended up here, 
because most of the stuff, we agree on. Well, there is only one reason 
we ended up here: the shoehorning of illegal immigration into this 
debate.
  Now, having said that, there is a lot of sympathy in this body for 
doing something about the DACA kids. It is not like nobody is 
interested in that. We have been talking about it for 3 months. But the 
one reason we are where we are is because we couldn't close out any of 
these other component parts because our friends on the other side said: 
You have to deal with this issue. This issue is the key to getting 
defense spending, this issue is the key to getting help for SCHIP kids, 
and on and on and on.
  I think most of the American people believe that shutting down the 
government over this issue, which doesn't even ripen until March, is 
irresponsible. And I have just listed all of the people who are going 
to be adversely impacted by this action.
  So we are going to keep on voting, and the government may be heading 
into a shutdown, but the Senate is not shutting down. We are open to 
talk and to resolve this. I don't think it makes the institution look 
very responsible. The American people should expect better from us than 
this.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, very sadly, we are on the precipice of a 
government shutdown. The majority leader only just allowed us to vote 
on a continuing resolution that he knew lacked the votes long before 
this hour. It is not just Democrats who oppose this CR; several 
Republicans did as well.
  All of today, we have endeavored to reach an agreement with President 
Trump and the Republicans that would have not only spared a government 
shutdown but cemented an agreement on spending caps, including those 
for our military, the healthcare issues, disaster relief, and 
immigration issues.
  President Trump reached out to me this morning to invite me to the 
White House to talk over all of these issues, and I accepted. We had a 
lengthy and substantive discussion. During the meeting, in exchange for 
strong DACA protections, I reluctantly put the border wall on the table 
for discussion. Even that was not enough to entice the President to 
finish the deal. Many Democrats don't want to go that far on

[[Page S353]]

the border. Many Republicans don't either. But we were willing to 
compromise with the President to get an agreement. In the room, it 
sounded like the President was open to accept it. This afternoon, in my 
heart, I thought we might have a deal tonight. That was how far we had 
come. That is how positive our discussion felt. We had a good meeting, 
but what has transpired since that meeting in the Oval Office is 
indicative of the entire tumultuous and chaotic process Republicans 
have engaged in in the negotiations thus far.
  Even though President Trump seemed to like an outline of a deal in 
the room, he did not press his party in Congress to accept it. Speaker 
Ryan and Leader McConnell, without the commitment of the President, 
would not agree to accept anything either.
  What happened to the President Trump who asked us to come up with a 
deal and promised that he would take heat for it? What happened to that 
President? He backed off at the first sign of pressure.
  We had the outline of a deal on caps. We had the outline of a deal on 
healthcare. We had the outline of a deal on immigration, the toughest 
issue. It was real, and it was an honest-to-goodness breakthrough. We 
could have passed a short-term extension of funding so that we could 
cross the t's, dot the i's, and be done with it all, but the dynamic of 
the past few weeks during which the congressional Republicans looked to 
the President for guidance and the President provided none prevailed 
again today, unfortunately. The same chaos, the same disarray, the same 
division and discord on the Republican side that has been in the 
background of these negotiations for months unfortunately appears 
endemic, and it is standing in the way of bipartisan solutions to all 
of the issues now before us.
  Every American knows the Republican Party controls the White House, 
the Senate, and the House. It is their job to keep the government open. 
It is their job to work with us on a way to move things forward. But 
they didn't reach out to us once on this CR--no discussion, no debate, 
nothing at all. It was produced without an ounce of Democratic input 
and dropped in our laps. Meanwhile, they can't even get on the same 
page as a party. They control every branch of the legislative process, 
and it is their responsibility to govern, and here they have failed.
  Several Republicans voted against the CR, as well as Democrats, for 
the same reason we voted against it. One of the most serious 
consequences of having continuing resolution after continuing 
resolution is the damage it does to our military. As the Pentagon 
spokesman said last night, another CR would be wasteful and destructive 
to our military. The Navy Secretary said that because of CRs, ``[the 
Navy has] put $4 billion in the trash can, poured lighter fluid on it, 
and burned it.'' That is the Navy Secretary--because of what you have 
done.
  This is no way to conduct the Nation's business. Republicans know it. 
Democrats know it. The American people know that this party is not 
capable of governing.
  So where do we go from here? I believe many of my Republican 
colleagues sincerely want to get a deal. I know their hearts are in the 
right place. I know they lament the fact that we now accept 
brinksmanship where bipartisanship used to be. In the past, there was 
always discussions on these issues. Everyone knew in the Senate you 
needed both parties to work together. None of that happened here today.
  Now, all of this problem is because Republican leadership can't get 
to yes because President Trump refuses to.
  President Trump, if you are listening, I am urging you, please take 
yes for an answer. The way things went today, the way you turned from a 
bipartisan deal, it is almost as if you were rooting for a shutdown, 
and now we will have one, and the blame should crash entirely on 
President Trump's shoulders.
  This will be called a Trump shutdown. This will be called a Trump 
shutdown because there is no one--no one--who deserves the blame for 
the position we find ourselves in more than President Trump. He walked 
away from two bipartisan deals, including one today in which I even put 
the border wall on the table. What will it take for President Trump to 
say yes and learn how to execute the rudiments of government?
  Tomorrow marks a year to the day President Trump took the oath of 
office on the Capitol steps. Unfortunately, a Trump shutdown would be a 
perfect encapsulation of the chaos he has unleashed on our government. 
Instead of bringing us all together, he has pulled us apart. Instead of 
governing from the middle, he has outsourced his Presidency to the 
extremes. Instead of living up to the great dealmaker he marketed 
himself to be, he has been the single driving force in scuttling 
bipartisan deals in Congress.
  Now, at this late hour, his behavior is on the verge of grinding our 
government to a halt--a Trump shutdown. Democrats will continue to 
strive for a bipartisan agreement on all of the outstanding issues. I 
know there are men and women of good will on the other side of the 
aisle who are just as upset as I am with the direction we are headed 
in. I plead with them to see reason and prevail upon their leaders--and 
most of all the President--to give us the space to work together, to 
let us do the job the American people sent us here to do.
  When President Trump decides he is finally ready to lead his party to 
a deal, Democrats will be ready, willing, and eager to clinch it. There 
is a path forward. We can reach it quickly.
  Tomorrow, the President and the four leaders should immediately sit 
down and finish this deal so the entire government can get back to work 
on Monday.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I want to particularly commend the five 
Democrats who voted not to shut the government down. The new Senator 
from Alabama, during his campaign, said it was important to fund the S-
CHIP program before it ran out of money, and he listened to the seven 
Democratic Governors who said: This is an emergency; we need help.
  There were five courageous Democrats on the other side who stood up 
to this ridiculous argument that it made sense somehow to shut down the 
government over an illegal immigration issue that the vast majority of 
this body would like to do something about anyway.
  I want to particularly commend the five Democrats who had the courage 
to stand up to this ridiculous strategy that put their whole party in 
an incredible predicament because, as the White House just indicated, 
the President is not going to talk about the issue at all while the 
government is shut down. He made it quite clear. He said: ``When 
Democrats start paying our armed forces and first responders, we will 
reopen negotiations on immigration reform.''
  So this particular strategy has eliminated the possibility of getting 
a signature on the thing they shut the government down over. Can 
anybody explain to me this strategy? I am perplexed. I wasn't first in 
my class, but I wasn't last either. How does this get them what they 
are looking for?
  We will continue to talk because when all the games stop, the issues 
are still there--every single one of them are still there. The American 
people expect us to act like adults, to get together and solve the 
problems.
  Now I will be offering an amendment to change the date to February 8. 
We will, unfortunately, not be able to get that vote tonight, but I 
will be subsequently asking for consent, but at some point here, we 
will be voting on February 8. That is the date the senior Senator from 
South Carolina and I have been talking about, and the Democratic leader 
and I have been talking about--which begins to move a little bit closer 
to where our friends on the other side said they wanted to be--but a 
reasonable period of time that takes into account the State of the 
Union, our party conferences, and the amount of time it takes to 
actually write a bill once you have an agreement. You can't just reach 
an agreement, snap your fingers, and everything falls into place and 
you are ready to go. It is a reasonable period to first agree, and then 
write, get ready to negotiate a settlement that we have been working on 
for months. February 8 is a very reasonable time. I hear there is 
sentiment for that on both sides of the aisle. I hope so.

[[Page S354]]

  At some point, we will vote on that option. I can't get that vote 
tonight, but I am going to ask consent to have that vote tonight.


            Vote on Motion to Refer with Amendment No. 1905

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I move to table the motion to refer.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Arizona (Mr. McCain).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Perdue). Are there any other Senators in 
the Chamber desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 55, nays 44, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 15 Leg.]

                                YEAS--55

     Alexander
     Barrasso
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Burr
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Cochran
     Collins
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Donnelly
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Flake
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hatch
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Jones
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     Manchin
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Paul
     Perdue
     Portman
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott
     Shelby
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Wicker
     Young

                                NAYS--44

     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Gillibrand
     Harris
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hirono
     Kaine
     King
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Markey
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Peters
     Reed
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--1

       
     McCain
       
  The motion was agreed to.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.


            Vote on Motion to Concur with Amendment No. 1903

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I move to table the motion to concur 
with further amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion.
  The motion was agreed to.


                Motion to Concur with Amendment No. 1917

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I move to concur in the House amendment 
to the Senate amendment to H.R. 195, with a further amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Kentucky [Mr. McConnell] moves to concur 
     in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 195, 
     with an amendment numbered 1917.

  The amendment is as follows:

       On Page 1, line 6 of the House Amendment
       Strike ``February 16'' and insert ``February 8''

                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk on 
the motion to concur with amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.

       The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to 
     concur with a further amendment in the House amendment to the 
     Senate amendment to H.R. 195.
         Mitch McConnell, Joni Ernst, Shelley Moore Capito, Deb 
           Fischer, David Perdue, John Kennedy, John Hoeven, John 
           Thune, John Barrasso, Roy Blunt, Lisa Murkowski, Susan 
           M. Collins, Bill Cassidy, Richard C. Shelby, Pat 
           Roberts, James E. Risch, Johnny Isakson.


                Motion to Refer with Amendment No. 1918

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I move to refer the House message on 
H.R. 195 to the Committee on Appropriations to report back forthwith 
with instructions.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Kentucky [Mr. McConnell] moves to refer 
     the House message on H.R. 195 to the Committee on 
     Appropriations to report back forthwith with instructions, 
     amendment numbered 1918.

  The amendment is as follows:

       At the end add the following.
       ``This act shall be effective 1 day after enactment.''

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that 
notwithstanding rule XXII, the mandatory quorum call be waived and the 
Senate immediately vote on the motion to invoke cloture without any 
intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. SCHUMER. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Missouri.


                  Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 1301

  Mrs. McCASKILL. Mr. President, this shouldn't take very long.
  I was most disappointed tonight when the President of the United 
States put out a statement that tried to divide us based on party when 
it came to support of our military. There is no such division. Everyone 
in this Chamber knows it. So, as we have in other instances where we 
have had a shutdown--I remember, in 2013, we did this right off the 
bat. I want to make sure that tonight we send a very clear signal that 
we don't want one moment to pass with there being any uncertainty that 
any soldier anywhere in the world will be paid for the valiant work 
they do on behalf of our national security.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the 
immediate consideration of Calendar No. 36, H.R. 1301; that the 
amendment at the desk, providing for continuing appropriations for pay 
and death benefits for members of the Armed Services, be considered and 
agreed to, the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and 
passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon 
the table with no intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, we 
passed similar legislation during the government shutdown back in 2013. 
My hope is that we can restore funding for the entire government before 
this becomes necessary. I am going to object for tonight, but we will 
discuss it again tomorrow. Therefore, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Florida.


                  Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 1301

  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, many of us have participated over the last 
few hours in several conversations trying to bring the parties 
together, and, indeed, a lot of movement has occurred. There seems to 
be one substantial issue remaining in which things could come together. 
So I am going to ask that we delay the shutdown for at least 1 day.
  Most of us on this floor do not want a shutdown. Since there were 
discussions here in earnest in a bipartisan way, we ought to give those 
discussions a chance to bear fruit.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the 
immediate consideration of Calendar No. 36, H.R. 1301; that the 
amendment at the desk that would provide for a continuing resolution to 
fund the government through Saturday, January 20, 2018, be considered 
and agreed to, the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time 
and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid 
upon the table with no intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. McCONNELL. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Montana.


                  Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 1301

  Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, I had the feeling at one point in time 
tonight that we were very, very close to an agreement. I think, as we 
look around this body, we see folks on both sides of the aisle who want 
to come to an agreement and will work hard for an agreement.

[[Page S355]]

  It is a fact that we need a better budget. We need a budget that 
works for America. We need a budget that goes to the end of the fiscal 
year, which isn't that long from now, by the way--only the end of 
September. It is a fact that we need CHIP funding and money for our 
community health centers, certainly for our military, and money for the 
northern and southern borders and for opioids and the list goes on.
  The majority leader has said that they have been working on a budget 
settlement for weeks. I think most of us, if not all of us, are willing 
to stay here and work until this work gets done. I am certainly willing 
to.
  This is supposed to be the most deliberative body in the world. I 
know that some will say there is just not enough time, but there is. I 
have watched this body work very quickly when necessary. I think a 
government shutdown would require that.
  We have pushed this budget off now for 112 days. That is why I am 
proposing a 3-day continuing resolution so we can work together to come 
to a conclusion to do what the American people want; that is, have a 
budget that works until the end of the fiscal year that funds critical 
programs for our military and domestic.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the 
immediate consideration of Calendar No. 36, H.R. 1301; that the 
amendment at the desk that would provide for a continuing resolution to 
fund the government through Monday, January 22, 2018, be considered and 
agreed to, the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and 
passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon 
the table with no intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. McCONNELL. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The majority leader.


                                Program

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, for the information of all our 
colleagues, the Senate will convene at 12 noon tomorrow.
  My hope is that an agreement can be reached. We will be here in 
session tomorrow working to finally resolve the way forward. Senators 
should expect votes tomorrow.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                 Orders for Saturday, January 20, 2018

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the 
Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 12 noon, 
Saturday, January 20; further, that following the prayer and pledge, 
the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be 
approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their 
use later in the day, and morning business be closed; finally, that 
following leader remarks, the Senate resume consideration of the House 
message to accompany H.R. 195.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________