[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 152 (Wednesday, September 12, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6117-S6118]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



          Republican Agenda and Nomination of Brett Kavanaugh

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, the Senate recently completed what was 
easily the most productive August in memory. We passed six 
appropriations bills with full debate on the Senate floor. We passed 
the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act. We confirmed 25 
appointees to important jobs in the administration. We confirmed 17 
Federal judges to the bench, and we set up votes for another 8 earlier 
this month.
  When I was home in Wyoming, I talked to a number of people around the 
State, and they were pleased to see how much we are actually getting 
done. I can state that they absolutely think we should keep up this 
pace.
  Maybe the most important thing that people expect us to deal with 
quickly is confirming Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. I 
believe we are off to a good start with confirmation hearings for Judge 
Kavanaugh, which were held last week in the Judiciary Committee.
  What people who watched the hearings learned was that Judge Kavanaugh 
is well respected, mainstream, and a highly qualified individual for 
this important job. What people also saw is that some Members of the 
opposite party--the Democrats in the Senate--are totally unwilling to 
give him fair consideration.
  Senators have been given access to more than 500,000 pages of records 
from his time as a judge and throughout his career in public service. 
That is three times the amount of information that any other Supreme 
Court nominee has ever produced. For some nominees of the Supreme 
Court, these kinds of documents are very important. They can tell us a 
lot about how a nominee thinks and about how he or she might approach 
the job of being a Justice. It is especially important when that person 
under consideration has never served as a judge before, and sometimes 
that is all we have to look at. But that is not the case with Judge 
Kavanaugh.
  Judge Kavanaugh has served on the circuit court of appeals for 12 
years, and he has written opinions in over 300 cases. If anyone wants 
to know what he will act like as a judge, then they can just look at 
how he has already acted as a judge for the past dozen years.
  These documents, these opinions he wrote in the 300 cases on the 
court in which he is serving, are the documents that matter. They are 
the ones that tell us how he approaches being a judge. Senators have 
had access to these court opinions since the day Judge Kavanaugh was 
nominated 8 weeks ago. If Democrats would just take the time to read 
through these opinions, they would see that Judge Kavanaugh is 
extremely thoughtful and is independent. He is absolutely devoted to 
preserving the rule of law and protecting the separation of powers that 
is the basis of our Constitution. If Democrats don't want to read 
through all these documents and these decisions, well, they can focus 
on the 13 cases where the Supreme Court adopted Judge Kavanaugh's 
reasoning. That is how much respect other judges and Justices have for 
the careful and compelling decisions he has written.
  One case dealt with a regulation put out by the Environmental 
Protection Agency. Judge Kavanaugh found that the Agency had exceeded 
its authority under the law when they wrote the regulation. Judge 
Kavanaugh wrote that ``it is not our job to make the policy choices and 
set the statutory boundaries, but it is emphatically our job to 
carefully but firmly enforce the statutory boundaries.''
  The Supreme Court agreed with Judge Kavanaugh's reasoning.
  One constitutional scholar pointed out that ``Judge Kavanaugh 
commands wide and deep respect among scholars, lawyers, judges, and 
justices.''
  Another legal scholar said that Judge Kavanaugh is ``one of the most 
learned judges in America on a variety of issues, ranging from theories 
of statutory interpretation to separation of powers.''
  A third law professor agreed. He called Judge Kavanaugh ``a true 
intellectual--a leading thinker and writer on the subjects of statutory 
interpretation and federal courts.''
  Finally, if it is even too much for some Democratic Senators to read 
through all the glowing reviews of Judge Kavanaugh's career, they could 
just look at what he has actually said. Look at his own simple, 
straightforward summary of his judging philosophy. In a speech last 
year, he made it very clear. He said: ``The judge's job is to interpret 
the law, not to make the law or make policy.''
  This view--that the judge's job is to interpret the law, not to make 
the law or make policy--and every example I have seen from Judge 
Kavanaugh's record is squarely in the mainstream of America's thinking 
today.
  Despite all of this information being available, some Democrats are 
trying to say that they still want even more documents. They are hoping 
against hope that if they request another 500,000 pages, they can delay 
things a little longer. Well, let me assure you, it is not going to 
happen.
  I think that most Democrats who have been making the most noise 
really don't want more documents. That is because so many of the 
Democrats complaining the loudest are the same ones who said that they 
have already made up their minds and made announcements that they are 
planning to vote against the nominee. Some were saying it before the 
nomination was even announced.
  From the very beginning, liberal activists called on Senator Schumer 
to do everything in his power to keep this seat empty for as long as 
possible. There are several Senators on the other side of the aisle who 
have gladly taken up this challenge from the far left corners of their 
base.
  I hope that more reasonable Democrats will reject the calls for 
needless delays and dangerous obstruction. I hope there are Democrats 
in the Senate who are willing to listen to what Judge Kavanaugh 
actually said during his hearing. I hope there are Democrats who are 
willing to read some of the hundreds of thousands of pages of 
documents. I hope there are some Democrats who are willing to listen to 
the experts who are describing Judge Kavanaugh as ``one of the most 
learned judges'' in our country.
  It is clear that Judge Kavanaugh has the right approach to being a 
judge. It is clear that he is a person of solid character and that he 
has a strong intellect. It is clear that America needs Judge Kavanaugh 
on the Supreme Court and that it is time for Democrats to give up this 
pointless obstruction.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.


                     Conference Report to H.R. 5895

  Mr. DAINES. Mr. President, the conference report that we are 
considering today is good news for our country. Along with providing 
funding for our veterans and supporting critical energy and 
infrastructure projects, it also includes $4.8 billion for the agencies 
in the legislative branch.
  The legislative branch portion of the conference report allocates 
funding in an appropriate manner. It promotes government transparency, 
as well as increasing security here at the Capitol Complex. This is 
very important.
  In support of good government, this agreement includes a provision 
known as e-file, requiring U.S. Senate candidates to file campaign 
finance reports electronically, directly with the Federal Election 
Commission, as every other Federal candidate must do. Not

[[Page S6118]]

only does this provision increase transparency, it will reduce 
bureaucratic inefficiency and will save about $1 million in taxpayer 
dollars.
  This agreement also provides $589.7 million for the Government 
Accountability Office to hire additional staff to bolster oversight of 
government programs and spending. Having spent most of my career in the 
private sector, accountability is a good thing. There is not enough of 
it here in Washington, DC. In fact, according to a report issued by the 
GAO, the GAO returns $128 for every dollar invested in its budget. That 
is a good example of accountability and getting results for the 
American taxpayer. In fact, the resulting benefit of this oversight by 
GAO was approximately $74 billion in documented savings for the 
taxpayers in 2017. That is where you get the $128 return for every 
dollar invested in the agency.
  The Capitol Police is fully funded at the requested level of $456.3 
million, allowing for the continued protection of visitors coming to 
the Capitol campus every year, as well as the Members and their staff.
  These are just a few highlights of the bill, which allocates 
resources in a responsible way to maintain existing services, as well 
as providing critical investments across the U.S. Capitol campus.
  Lastly, and importantly, I want to thank Senator Chris Murphy, my 
ranking member, for working with me in a bipartisan manner throughout 
this process. This is my first year as chairman of the Legislative 
Branch Subcommittee. I would also like to thank Chairman Shelby and 
Vice Chairman Leahy for their leadership and efforts to return to 
regular order on a Senate appropriations bill. This is quite 
remarkable, but it shouldn't be. The bar has been set so low in 
Washington, DC, that Congress can't get their appropriations bills or 
spending bills passed before the end of the current fiscal year going 
into next year. Well, guess what. The fiscal year ends on September 30, 
and here we are on September 12, moving forward now on appropriations. 
That is a good thing for our country.
  I urge my colleagues to support this conference report as we continue 
to move these bills forward to fund the government on time and in the 
right way.
  I see my distinguished colleague, Senator Murphy from Connecticut, is 
here as well, and it has truly been an honor to serve with Senator 
Murphy to move this forward on behalf of the American people.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, let me express my thanks in return to 
Chairman Daines for being such a fantastic guide and a fantastic 
partner on this subcommittee budget. I am excited to bring this to my 
colleagues this morning. I will note that he took over midstream from 
Senator Lankford, who began this process. I will also note that we 
didn't really get moving so quickly to a conference committee until 
Senator Daines took over. I give him great credit for adding so much 
and being such a great partner in all of this.
  I really don't need to go through all of the important initiatives 
Senator Daines already did; maybe I will spend a minute doing so. I 
would note that we made progress on some issues that had been stalled 
in the Legislative Appropriations Subcommittee for a long time--such as 
intern pay or the requirement to file campaign finance reports online--
I think because we were able to do this budget on its own, with a real 
process, with a real committee debate, and with a real conference 
committee. When these budgets get tied up in giant omnibus 
negotiations, it tends to be that only the top four or five issues in 
the omnibus get the attention from the folks in the room. These budgets 
are very important, but maybe because they are a little bit smaller 
than the budget for HHS or the Department of Defense, they go untended 
to.
  As we return to regular order, not only do I think that is a breath 
of fresh air for democracy, it is not good news for anybody when the 
decisions over a budget get decided behind closed doors amongst a very 
small set of people appointed by the Democratic leader and the 
Republican leader. It is also good government because when we do these 
budgets one by one, we get to flesh out some very important and 
sometimes controversial issues that we might not get to address when 
they are all lumped together in a massive package.
  I hope this is now the way we do things. I congratulate Senator 
McConnell and Senator Shelby for setting the tone. I know there are a 
couple of conference committees tomorrow on some other packages. I hope 
they go as well as ours did.
  In this budget, we did some very good things. We have a long list of 
deferred maintenance here on this campus. We have 16.5 million square 
feet of buildings. We have millions of visitors who come to experience 
the U.S. Capitol. We provide $734 million for the Architect of the 
Capitol to make those targeted investments.
  Accountability and transparency were things Senator Daines focused on 
as chairman. We will have 50 additional auditors and investigators at 
the Government Accountability Office. That is the office which makes 
sure that we are doing our job, that we are spending taxpayer dollars 
wisely. When they issue reports, the taxpayers save money, and now they 
have the ability to do more of that great work.
  It also provides full funding for the Capitol Police. I want to 
specifically thank Senator Daines for working with us to include in 
this budget an initiative that we started here in the Senate to improve 
protections and coordination for Members' security off campus, to 
recognize the new and emerging threats that exist in and around 
Washington, DC.
  Finally--I have said it before, but I will say it again--there is a 
breakthrough, a small amount of money to help compensate interns. Lives 
change when they get to experience something like working for their 
Member of Congress, for their Senator. It opens their eyes to a set of 
experiences that would not be available to them otherwise.
  Under prior practice where very few Senate offices paid for those 
internship experiences, you had to be a child of means in order to get 
here. Now, hopefully, with this small amount of money we are giving to 
our interns, we will have a much greater pool of applicants and a much 
greater pool of young men and women who will be able to be here and 
work in our offices. I think that is good for this place, and I think 
it is good for the kids who are going to get to experience government. 
Faith in government and belief in civic participation couldn't be lower 
today. Giving more kids from diverse backgrounds access to the Federal 
Government is a very positive development.
  Again, it has been a joy to work with Senator Daines. It is great to 
be on a conference committee. I had heard rumors about conferences 
committees, and we got to sit on one and hammer out a budget with our 
House colleagues. I hope it sails through as we move to final debate 
and passage.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.