Senator Coons: (3:40 PM)

• Spoke on the Solitary Confinement Reform Act.
  • "Today, Senator Durbin, Senator Booker, Senator Leahy, Senator Franken, and I are introducing a bill, the Solitary Confinement Reform Act, to codify into law many of the recommendations the Bureau of Prisons is working to put in place and to lay the groundwork for broader reform. This bill is grounded in two key observations. First, that our prison system has grown in population beyond any reasonable scope and that second, restrictive housing or solitary confinement is employed far too frequently for minor behavioral infractions, not as a sanction of last resort. This act will establish limits on use of solitary and require that it be limited to the briefest amount of time and under the least restrictive conditions that make sense in the setting."

 

Senator Booker: (3:50 PM)

• Spoke on the Solitary Confinement Reform Act.
  • "This is not a criminal justice system that reflects our highest values. It doesn't stand for moral right when you're exacting such cruel punishment that doesn't just do punitive damage but also puts an inmate in a situation where they can cause more harm and damage to themselves and others. And so the bill that Chris Coons talks about, the bill that we're introducing would substantially limit the ability the Bureau of Prisons to use solitary confinement in federal facilities. The bill would mandate that solitary confinement be limited to the briefest terms under the least restrictive conditions practical. And it would precluded the BOP, the Bureau of Prisons from placing vulnerable populations in solitary confinement like minors, like children, as well as people with serious mental illness, physical disabilities, and pregnant women. Critically, this legislation wants to promote more data collection."

 

Senator Perdue: (4:05 PM)

• Spoke on the budget.
  • "The dysfunction in the system is centered around this: The budget is not a law. It is a resolution. That means that the majority, with 51% of the votes in in this body, can pass its political statement. That's exactly what happened last year. Let me say this before we go any further. Everything you hear today is nonpartisan. This should be about a nonpartisan exercise that we have in funding the government. Yes, we're going to have debates based on our partisanship and based on our beliefs and principles. But the basic process should be a politically neutral platform that allows us to argue our differences out in the budget process, get to a budget, move to the appropriations, and fund the government by the end of the fiscal year. And we have only done that four times in the last 42 years. The dysfunction is centered around this: If you look at this chart, every year we just don't have enough time. It is not just time, but it is the process."

 

Senator Tillis: (4:11 PM)

• Spoke on the budget.
  • "Because when you have the world's largest and most complex entity that's ever existed, that can't figure out how much money it's going to spend or commit on more than about a 12-month cycle and sometimes over a few months, how on Earth can you save money and make long-term investments? We were in a committee hearing yesterday where we heard right now it takes an average of 15 years from the concept of a new satellite to the time that we're launching it in space. Well, how on Earth can you make those long-term investments when you can't even be clear that you're going to spend the money but every 12 months? This is a threat to our national security. This is a threat to our economic security. This is a threat to the security of every man and woman in the United States because they can't rely on a government that will provide businesses or individuals with any kind of certainty whatsoever. It's tough to make budget decisions. But they need to be made."

 

Senator Lankford: (4:16 PM)

• Spoke on the budget.
  • "But one of the key things that we have to have is an actual deadline. This town doesn't function on anything other than deadlines and pressure points, and when it's time that it has to be resolved, we actually get it resolved. But if we don't have to resolve it right now, this town just says tomorrow, we'll get it done next week, we'll get it done next session. So the focus is how do we create those pressure points? How about a simple idea that says if we don't get the budget done on time, the appropriations bills done on time, then it goes to an automatic CR so we don't have a government shutdown because government shutdowns waste money on the whole. So it automatically kicks in to last year's budget amount. But here's what changes. All the members of Congress, our budget, our staff, for how we function, our operating expenses, all of our committees, and the executive office of the White House - that's the three groups, the House, Senate, and the White House - all of our budgets drop immediately, let's say 4%, 5%, 6% the first day. And that does that for 30 days. Then if you still don't have the appropriations process, it cuts again another big percentage."