Senator Gardner: (2:55 p.m.)

• Spoke on the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
  • "Thank you, Senator Daines and thank you, Mr. President, for the opportunity to be here to talk about the importance of the LWCF. The press conference that Senator Burr referred to marking 150 days until the expiration of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, we've since come to the floor offering unanimous consent agreements. We've introduced legislation, fought for amendments to make sure we extend not just temporarily, not just for a year or two, but to make sure that we fight for the permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund."

Senator Merkley: (3:06 p.m.)

• Spoke in tribute to a member of his staff.
  • "There were three of us over the course of the summer. It was my job to come in early, run the envelopes through the cutter, take out the sheets of information, the letters, and stack them into one of four stacks for the different correspondence. Well, that now sounds like such a simple task compared to that that Jody has guided with more than 200 interns and more than 5,000, almost 6,000 unique letters being drafted to respond. So thank you so much. Jody, you will be dearly missed by everybody here in Washington, D.C. that has had the pleasure to know you, to work alongside with you, to partner with you over nearly a decade."
• Spoke on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
  • "It would be for the F.B.I. to investigate. Not a criminal investigation, but a background investigation. That was accorded to Anita Hill in 1991, a reopening of the background investigation to get the facts. How is it that a Senate that could support and a president who could support the proper role of the F.B.I. in 1991 will not stand up today for fairness for women who are coming forward? Why is it that the nominee steeped in the law who has said he wants a fair hearing, wants a fair hearing, why does the nominee not demand an F.B.I. investigation so it is fair to him and fair to these three women? Dr. Ford coming forward and Deborah Ramirez coming forward and Ms. Swetnick coming forward. They are being treated very poorly by this institution."