Today -

• The Senate will convene at 3:00 p.m.
• Following leader remarks, the Senate will proceed to Executive Session and resume consideration of Executive Calendar #1013, Charles P. Rettig, of California, to be Commissioner of Internal Revenue.
• At 5:30 p.m., the pending cloture motion will ripen.
• Note: on Thursday, September 6, cloture was filed on Executive Calendar #1013, Charles P. Rettig, of California, to be Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

Senator McConnell: (3:05 p.m.)

• Spoke on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
  • "Judge Kavanaugh was candid and forthcoming within the ethical constraints that exist for judicial nominees. He demonstrated the intellectual brilliance and the thoughtful temperament for which he is so widely known. He has showed exactly why he is universal acknowledged as the leading legal mind and exactly why he will make a phenomenal associate justice of the Supreme Court. Not everyone performed as admirably or as professionally last week. Some of our democratic colleagues repeatedly interrupted Chairman Grassley, based rudely toward the nominee and hauled out one dishonest partisan attack after another to try to distort his record and smear Judge Kavanaugh."
• Spoke on the upcoming Senate business.
  • "His nomination comes as a crucial time as the federal government continues to implement once in a generation tax reform. Recent memory reminds us just how important it is that all Americans get a fair shake from the agency that oversees the tax code. This historic new law makes it all the more important that the I.R.S. continue to modernize and improve its technological infrastructure. I look forward to this nominee getting to work on behalf of the American taxpayers and we'll turn back to appropriations. This week we'll vote to approve the conference report that will fund energy and water, military construction, and the V.A. and the legislative branch."
• Spoke on Republican economic policy.
  • "The economy is literally flying through all-time records faster than I can come here to the floor to discuss them. Many of these numbers are unprecedented. They are exactly the opposite of what some gloom and doom Democrats insisted would happen if this unified Republican government put our opportunity agenda into effect. Fortunately, my Republican colleagues and I know that getting Washington out of the way helps make good things happen for the American people, and that is exactly what we will continue to do."