enenthank you, madam chair. -- mr. enyart: thank you, madam chair. thank you, ranking member peterson. madam speaker, i rise today in support of this important and long overdue legislation. when i ran for congress i pledged to work for southern illinois' agricultural industry. that's why i voted in committee to advance this bipartisan five-year bill. the inability of the house to pass a farm bill was amongst the biggest failings of the last congress. this is by no means a perfect bill. it cuts far too deeply to the snap program. there are people in my district and in yours who depend on this program and while we must reduce the deficit, we shouldn't be doing that on the backs of those who can't afford to put food on the table. however, i believe that funding will be bolstered here on the floor of the house and in the conference. but let's look at what the bill does right. it funds infrastructure upgrades for midwestern waterways so farmers can get their crops to market. it increases energy access in rural america, improving efficiency and reducing th

polis: thank you, madam chair. ery simple amendment to reduce funding for the procurement of 14 ground base interceptor missiles that simply don't work the re inefficient and for refurbishment of the missled field at fort greely, alaska until they can make sure these are adequately tested and work. it's simply a question of making sure something works before we spend additional money. but congress needs to ensure that these missiles are effective before we continue to provide the department of defense with a blank check. congress needs to verify every penny of taxpayer money we spend. we have a time of tradeoffs and of course it's nice to be able to support every program, but during this time of deficits and sequestration, we need to make sure we're vigilant to ensure that money we spend on the pentagon actually results in the maximum amount of heightened national security. since 1997, this weapon system has missed its target more than half the time. and my amendment would limit the funding for the procurement of 1

broun: thank you, madam chairman. my amendment would zero out our contribution to the brand new nato headquarters in brussels. and transfer that amount, more than $38 million, to the spending reduction account, to help us deal with our debt. this line item was -- within the bill is the very definition of ridiculous. u.s.'s furloughing civilian military personnel and sacrificing our own military readiness here at home. policies with which i disagree. and yet here we are spending -- sending millions of dollars overseas to build a lavish new headquarters for the international bureaucrats in nato. madam chairman, the planed nato head quarters are an unfortunate example of excess and waste. while every nato member nation is cutting back on overall spending, the new headquarters remains on track as a monument to bureaucracy. in total, the building will cost well over $1 billion to build and it's taken 13 years just to finalize the plans. if we are serious about confronting our spending problem, we must fundamentally reevalu

noem: thank you, madam speaker. we heard the minority leader saying we needed to do with bills that dealt with jobs and the economy that the american people care about. well, the american people support ending late-term abortions. just look at the graphic up here that says 64% of americans believe abortion should not be permitted in the second three months of preg assistancey. 80% of americans believe abortions should not be permitted in the last three months of pregnancy. americans recognize that h.r. 1797, the pain-capable unborn child protection act needs to be passed. it needs to be done because it is the right thing to do. i've always been pro-life. i believe as a lawmaker i have a duty to protect those that are the most vulnerable. recently we've seen atrocities in this country committed against unborn babies, babies born alive. atrocities against these babies and their mothers. the details of that trial only highlight the need for us to protect women and to protect these babies from people like gosnell and pr

thank you, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas. mr. hensarling: madam speaker, i just want to urge all my colleagues to support this bipartisan legislation to bring some relief to end users, promote economic growth, and jobs, and make congressional intent clear. again i urge all my colleagues to adopt it. yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: all time has been yielding back. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill h.r. 634, as amended. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules -- the gentleman from north carolina. mr. hensarling: i ask for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. all those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are order

davis: thank you, madam speaker. and i certainly want to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle because i think we've seen how people can come together on a serious issue like this that really does affect our national security. what's so important about this bill is i think it sends a message. it sends a message to perpetrators, but more than that it sends a message to bystanders that responding to bad behavior is an important and critical thing to do. we can celebrate the good behavior, and i think this is also a way of sending that message, but we're saying that bad behavior will not be tolerated. we see it not just in our armed forces but around the country. just recently a general from australia had a very concise and very strong message to his troops in saying that the standard that you walk past is the standard that you uphold. let's uphold the highest standard. retaliation drives people from not reporting sexual abuse and sexual crimes. we need it to be ok, ok to report because if people are fearing th

madam speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from indiana rise? >> thank you, madam speaker. i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. those who give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety. mr. messer: ben franklin uttered those words several hundred years ago, but his warning is still relevant today. reports of the national security agency has been monitoring the phone records and internet activities of ordinary citizens should concern every american. the president has said that these surveillance programs don't involve listening to people's phone calls or reading their emails. americans want to believe their president. yet, his tax agency lied about targeting conservative groups and his justice department spied on reporters

i know, madam speaker, and i'm sorry if i'm -- madam speaker, you understand this program very, very well. i would solicit your support for this and i think it's very important because it's going to stop terrorism in this form. i mean, this gentleman was sleeping with his family, rabbi, and the bomb came into the window, was thrown out the second floor, exploded. i mean, can you imagine the trauma for those children? i apologize for directing my attention to you because you know about these things and i'm asking you to be helpful to me. thank you, madam speaker. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. who seeks recognition? the gentleman will suspend. the clerk will -- the clerk will read and we will get to the point -- the clerk: page 41, line 3, emergency management performance grants. $350 million. radiological emergency preparedness program, aggregate charges shall not be less than 100% of the amounts anticipated by the department for its radiological emergency preparedness program in the next fiscal year. >> madam chair. the chair: for what purpose does the

thompson: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, friday's job report reminds us that the number one issue remains jobs and the economy. every day the house majority fights for solutions to grow the economy. by advancing an all-of-the-above energy plan, promoting a fair and simpler tax code, and making it easier for families and students to afford college. on may 23 the house passed h.r. 1911, the smarter solutions for students act, a bill based on the president's 2014 budget request that would provide a market-based interest rate for student loans -- excuse me -- and prevent the scheduled rate hike on july 1. rather than encouraging the senate to join the house in this good faith effort, the president chose politics over students and threatened to veto for a solution that's based on his own proposal. from student loans to reliable jobs, americans want a strong economy and a more secure future. we can deliver on this, madam speaker, but only if the president starts leading and the senate stops campaigning and both star

the speaker pro tempore: madam secretary. the secretary: i'm directed by the president of the united states to deliver to the house of representatives a message in writing. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the chair will postpone further proceedings today on motions to suspend the rules on which a recorded vote or the yeas and nays are ordered. or on which the vote incurs objection under clause 6 of rule 20. record votes on postponed

>> thank you, madam chairman. first i would like to commend the ig for what i think is extraordinary work and a very productive time during his leadership of the office. office released a public summary of an interim on the department's handling of known or suspected terrorists who had been admitted into the federal witness protection program. i must say that it came as a shock to me that we had known or suspected terrorists who were part of the witness protection program, but that is a whole another issue. what is troubling in this report to me is that it illustrated yet another failure of government to share absolutely vital information. in this case, according to your report, the federal witness protection program was not theseg information about suspected or even known terrorists who had been admitted to the program with the terrorist screening center. now, the reason this is important is the terrorist screening center's watchlist is used by tsa for its no-fly and selected list. so here we have a situation whe

. >> yes madam president. thank you. i'm reading the statement on behalf of the commission and i'm here today instead of the vice president who was unavailable. the commission is concerned about recent media reports that the united states authorities are processing on a large scale the data of european union citizens using major u.s. on line service providers. programs such as the so-called prism and the laws on the basis of which such programs are authorized in danger the fundamental right of privacy and to data protection of e.u. citizens. the prism case as reported in the media is also likely to reinforce the concerns of e.u. citizens regarding the use of their personal data on line and in the cloud. already in 2012, 70% of the e.u. citizens were concerned that their personal data could be used for the purpose of their been the one for which it was collected. the prism case as reported in the media also highlights the difference between the european union and the united states approaches to data protection. whereas in

president, i'd like to speak on the subject -- >> senator is recognized. >> madam president, first of all, i want to acknowledge -- >> time is -- is the senator proceeding? >> i understand that -- >> senator may proceed. >> thank you. >> madam president, the senator from alabama has done an outstanding job of talking about the problems with the bill. i do want to say that the vote tonight is not on the base bill. the vote tonight is on an amendment. many people on our side of the aisle have had concerns about border security. and the way the base bill reads is that the secretary of homeland security, janet napolitano, would decide what bored measures -- border security measures would be in place after 90 days. that causes people on both sides of the aisle to be concerned about what kind of border security measures would be implemented. the base bill as the senator from alabama listed, leaves that discretion hundred% to the person who leads homeland security. so, on the floor, we have had numbers of measures that we voted on to try to strengthen border security. all of those measures h

i look forward to working with you and thank you for being here this morning. >> madam secretary and colleagues here is where i think we are with the votes. the secretary can take 10 minutes or so if she is comfortable that. we can have each senator present here give five minutes for questioning. .. to the department of the interior. it is very helpful to have him beside me, but more importantly he's been generous with his wrist on the next year and i know it's only a phone call away on the hotline to his office as he goes to support stanford university in the community to the hewlett foundation. we will miss him, but very happy uses me today. i want to thank you for inviting me to appear before the committee. ever thought in the seven and a half weeks on the job. i've been to many places around the country and many of your state, so i want to do is ask about a few broad categories. i want to start with energy on shore appeared onshore oil production is the highest level in over a decade. he continues to increase and i'm very happy ranking member murkowski to provide you with statist

>> thank you very much, madam chair. colleagues. sensed r years ago, i the supreme court sort of gave us an indication that today's result could be what it is. i don't remember the case, the -- i remember the case, the court seemed to signal at that me, that the kind of history that we used in 2008 when we re-authorized the voting rights act, they considered to be outdated. and that something needed to be one to update the formula we used. now we in the congress did a study, to my memory serves, it was 15,000 page study. d the vote in the senate was 98-0. the vote in the house, i believe, was 390-33. and we decided that enough evidence was there in front of us to require a re-authorization of the voting rights act. that was just 2008. now, if we were to look, in my opinion, if we were to look at the reason that the supreme our gave in talking about failure to take into account the progress that had been made, i believe the best way to take into account the progress that's being made in this country on any subject is to look at the a

king: thank you, madam chair. i appreciate the gentleman from texas yielding. first, in response to some of the remarks that were made that davis-bacon wages are based on surveys. well, technically they are her rate urveys but shop employers don't always answer those surveys because union organizers show up to organize employees shortly after that. it's often not smart to turn in your wages to the department of labor because it results in labor organizers coming in to drive up wages more. the statement about the cost of davis-bacon wages saving money in katrina reconstruction, that's a new one for me. my recollection is george bush after ka tina suspended davis-bacon so the money could be best supplied to get the cleanup and then the reconstruction dobe down in new orleans in that area under katrina and shortly thereafter he lifted that order so i don't know how a study could show how much money was actually saved if my memory is correct that it never really was implemented for any length of time that was appreciable. i don't know of a study that shows imposed

madame secretary, you brought up sequestration. i wanted to ask about this revenue owed to states under the mineral leasing act. the department of interior notify states to with old -- withhold over $100 million for the remainder of the fiscal year. this was before he was sworn into office. the department said this decision was recorded with the budget control act. three weeks ago a bipartisan group of us, five members of and i sent you a letter to omb. you have a copy. we asked them to confirm it you would return fiscal revenue to the states. we explained a provision that was in the federal budget law requiring the department to return withheld revenue winds to procession took place in the mid-1980's. the same provision takes place now. of the letter. can you confirm the agency will return the money withheld to the tune of $109 million? >> thank you for the question. in your letter i understand the importance of minimal revenue to the states. we are doing our best to comply with a balanced budget and the sequester. our understandi

barrasso: thank you, madam president. madam president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: thank you. and i also ask unanimous consent that the senator from ohio, senator brown, have the opportunity to speak following me for up to ten minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: thank you. i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: thank you, madam president. madam president, i come to the floor today as millions of students in high school and colleges across the country have recently graduated. i had an opportunity to attend a number of commencements across wyoming, to speak to a number of students who are graduating, and i note that president obama has also been out giving graduation speeches this year. at ohio state university, the president criticized those of us who warn that government doesn't always have the best answer. the president suggested that anyone who thinks washington has grown too inefficient or too ineffectiv

and with that, madam president, i would yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. bennet: thank you, madam president. i want to first thank the senator from south dakota for his indulgence for five minutes or so to do this, and the senator from indiana for yielding his time to me. we got a little bit out of order on the floor. but i really want to come before the night was out to speak about an incredible chance we have with respect to fixing our broken immigration system. over the next few weeks the senate has a golden opportunity to do something great, to do something important, to do something that shows that washington can actually work, that we're aligned to the priorities of the american people, that we can take on hard challenges and solve them. that's the opportunity before us, and i have to say thank you to all of my colleagues that served in this so-called gang of eight and worked, i would say not even in a bipartisan way. i would say in a nonpartisan way to fix problems that afflict our economy and ou

thank you, madam president. mr. casey: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: thank you, madam president. i rise -- a senator: would the senator withhold? mr. casey: yes. mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: mr. leader. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that when i complete my request here that the senator from pennsylvania be recognized. the presiding officer: yes. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that following -- the following amendments be in order to be called up and that they not be subject to modification or division, with the exception of technical modifications to the merkley and paul amendments contained in this agreement. the amendments are manchin, 1268, pryor, 1298, merkley, 1237, as modified with the changes that are at the desk; boxer, 1240; reed of rhode island, 1224; cornyn, 1251; lee, 1208; paul, 1200, as modified with the changes at the desk; heller, 1227; and cruz 1320. finally, that no second-degree amendments be in order to any of these amendments prior to votes

thank you, madame chair. >> thank you. i wanted to go back to what happened on the skaget river bridge in my state. like a loft trucks that travel on our roads and bridges, the truck that hit that bridge was carrying an oversized load. when trucking companies move oversized loads, they have to get a special permit from the state government. administrator mendez, can you tell me what the federal role is in the permitting process? >> you may have raise add couple issues there. one is on the weight issue and one the height issue. on weight issues, basically the states provide the permits for both. specifically -- specific to the height issues, we administer and publish the manual on uniform traffic control devices. mutcd for short. this is a document that basically provides standards for devices on streets, highways, and bicycle trails that are opened to the public. what we provide through there as a standard is that low clearance signs, warning signs must be provided when a clearance is less than 12 inches above the state st

thank you so much, madam chairwoman. ms. stabenow: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. ms. stabenow: thank you, madam president. i want to take a moment before we vote today to recognize folks that have worked so hard to get us to this point. and first of all, i thank my colleagues in advance for coming together one more time and leading for rural america, for farmers, for ranchers, for the 16 million people, to have a job because of agriculture in this country. it's been a long road for the agriculture reform food and jobs act, and i have been so blessed and pleased to have the wonderful partner and ranking member, the distinguished senator from mississippi, as my partner every step of the way, and i want to thank him, look forward as we move forward. hopefully the house this time will complete their work and we will have the opportunity to go to conference and craft an agreement that we will then present back to the senate, but i can't thank senator cochran enough and the staff for their wonderful partnership. we start

reid: thank you, madam president. the pending business is the committee-reported substitute amendment, with all postcloture time having expired. is that right? the presiding officer: the senator is correct. mr. reid: i raise a point of order that the reed of rhode island amendment is no longer due to be adopted. the presiding officer: the point of order is well taken. the amendment falls. mr. reid: i raise a point of order that the cruz amendment is no longer in order. the presiding officer: the point of order is well taken. the amendment falls. mr. reid: i raise a point of order that the boxer amendment is also no longer in order. the presiding officer: the point of order is well taken. the amendment falls. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the next two votes be ten minutes in duration. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. reid: madam president, during these votes, we're going to try to work out a time to finish our work today. as i mentioned earlier today, whenever the final vote is, whe

thank you madam chair. i yield the floor. mr. inhofe: madam chairman? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: let me thank my very good friend from iowa who graciously allowed me to make a statement here. i am concerned about this. several of us have amendments we've been trying to get up for a long period of time. i quite frankly don't know what the status of the amendments and the bill are right now, whether we'll be getting to votes sooner or later. but i have one amendment that is one that i thought would be so acceptable that there wouldn't be any opposition to it. let me just very briefly tell you what it is. my amendment addresses the 2001 united states supreme court decision in zavillas. the court held the immigrants admitted to the united states then ordered removed couldn't be detained for more than six months. four years later, the supreme court came along and extended the decision to people here illegally as well. that's what we're talking about right now. we're talking about illegals that come into this country. as a r

schatz: thank you, madam president. i was very encouraged by the president's speech today for a number of reasons. but the main thing that i found encouraging is that he's obviously done waiting. and there are three reasons to be done waiting. the first is it's very unlikely given the current composition of the congress that the congress will take action in the 113th. we have to recognize that political reality. the second is that from an ecological standpoint, we don't have the luxury of waiting. we don't have 5 or 8 or 12 years to wait and deliberate. we need to take action now in order to reverse global climate change. and the third is a matter of law. under the e.p.a. versus massachusetts, the supreme court didn't just give the authority to the e.p.a. to regulate carbon as a pollutant under the clean air act. it actually requires that the e.p.a. move forward. so even if this president didn't believe in the science, even if this president weren't as passionate as he is about combatting climate change, he would be req

madam president i yield the floor. mr. coburn: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: thank you. i appreciate my colleague from texas and his earnest desire to solve the problems in front of us. i would say at the outset, the recognition over the last eight and a half, nine years of become in the senate is that we have a problem wind to solve and -- that we need to solve and i don't think anybody disagrees with that. i think there's two important points that the american people expect us to pay attention to. one is what reagan described as the shiny city on a hill and that people coming here make us better. there's no question about that. and that what he described was -- what he wanted was in 1986 was not all walls like single payer people wants and not all doors, like some people wanted, but a wall with doors. so there's two basic facts that confront us. one is that the rule of law is the glue that holds us together, and when we hear talk about the american people having confidence on whether or not we're

thank you, madam president. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. udall: i'd ask unanimous consent to speak for ten minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. udall: thank you, madam president. i rise again to talk about the critical importance of passing comprehensive immigration reform like my good friend from arizona, senator mccain, has been an advocate for. when i look at my state, coloradoans from all walks of life -- business leaders, religious leaders, our agricultural community and our civic leaders, regardless of political party -- agree that our immigration system is broken. and now we've run out of excuses to sit on our hands. this problem -- by the way, i see this problem as an opportunity, and i want to discuss why i see it as an opportunity. it has touched every corner of our society, and this call for action has become too loud to ignore. but despite such widespread agreement on the need to move forward, there remains a vocal minority in our chamber and across the coun

thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. mr. hatch: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. hatch: madam president, i ask that my remarks be as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. hatch: madam president, the senate is so far -- has so far this year confirmed 26 judicial nominees, including six appeals court nominees. the majority was right on cue complaining about what they still insist is unprecedented confirmation obstruction and threatening to fundamentally change the confirmation process itself. now, the late senator from new york, daniel patrick moynihan, once said that you're entitled to your own opinion pn but not o your own facts. so let's look at the real confirmation facts. the senate confirmed a higher percentage of president obama's first-term appeals court nominees and did so faster than it had for president bush. the 111 judges confirmed in the previous congress was the highest total in more than 20 years. now, we are at the beginning of president obama's second term. the senate

udall: thank you, madam president. like many others, i'm deeply disturbed by the current situation in syria, the appalling atrocities, the tragic loss of life, the reported use of chemical weapons. this deserves the clear condemnation of the international community. but i am also concerned by the push for intervention in this war, by the rush to judgment for the united states to yet again become entangled in a civil war. the president has decided to send arms to the rebels to fight the government of bashar al-assad. the full scope of this intervention is not yet clear but this path is dangerous and unnecessary. the assad regime is cruel and corrupt. we can all agree on that point. but many of the groups fighting against him do not share our values and could be worse. they may pose long-term risks to us and to our allies. assad's enemies may very well be america's enemies. the fact is, we do not know. a number of experts, including our military brass, have sounded alarms warning that the options to intervene in syria ra

madam president, with that, i yield the floor. mr. mccain: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: madam president, i appreciate the opportunity for all members of this body to participate in a debate and amendments and discussion of the bill that was reported out through the judiciary committee in the regular order, and if my colleagues have any doubt about what i and my colleagues on this so-called group of eight, i want to assure them that we are continuing to look for ways to improve the legislation. in fact, i have a couple of amendments myself that i believe would help improve the legislation and make it better and stronger, but the fact is that this legislation is absolutely needed. it's needed for a whole variety of reasons, most of which i won't go into at this time, but right now i hope my colleagues and the american people understand and i think they do because recent polling overwhelmingly supports this legislation, i hope they understand that the status quo is totally unacceptable. the status quo is de facto

madam president i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. sessions: madam president i'd like to take a moment to do something special. this week, the senate community will say goodbye to marcus peacock, my staff director on the senate budget committee. during his tenure with the committee, he has been a constant warrior for sound finances for our country that he so loves and i'm going to miss his exemplary service and the nation will miss his service. marcus has been with me since i became ranking member on the budget committee and during that time he's helped my staff and me to negotiate and navigate the intricacies quirks of the budget processes which anyone with budget experience will tell you can be a most daunting and frequently frustrating task, even for the most savvy budgeteer, and he's approached every task, every challenge with his trademark sunny disposition remarkable unflappability and can-do attitude. dure his ten your with the committee, he was instrumental in crafting the h

. >> thank you, madam chairman. today we will hear from the attorney general of the united states, attorney general holder, about the department of justice and the its 2000 14 budget request. we will also hear from the inspector general, michael hurwitz, who has taken a very active oversight role within the department, as he should. first i want to take a moment to ofognize the men and women the department of justice who protect this country from crime and terrorism. they work hard to keep us safe in this country, and for that i think we all owe them a debt of gratitude. the 2014 budget request for the department of justice totals $28.4 billion. comes largely in the form of funding for new gun control measures, while the majority of law enforcement accounts basically remain flat. the budget also proposes a number of gimmicks to find additional so-called savings within the department. i believe this approach is misguided and look forward to working with chairman mikulski to put the department boss is on the right tra

frankly, madam president, the c.b.o. numbers negate any reasonable argument the opponents of this legislation have. every argument they have made is based on one thing and one thing only, that those people living in the shadows, those people trying to earn a living, those people trying to keep their families together are a symptom of american decline. and our history of immigration clearly con from tra dicts those arguments and the c.b.o. -- contradicts those arguments and the c.b.o. numbers confirm it. the opponents of this legislation couldn't be more wrong. giving 11 million people a pathway to citizenship while strengthening our enforcement efforts is not a symptom of decline. on the contrary, it is a symbol of america's hope, and a validation of american values. what we stand for as a nation and who we are as a people. and i believe a new generation of immigrants willing to work hard and contribute to the economy will help make this another century of american exceptionalism. i say to my friends on the other side, a

thank you, madam chair. i yield the floor. mr. lee: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mrs. mccaskill: i would ask that the quorum be vitiated, please. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. mccaskill: i ask to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. mccaskill: this afternoon, the senate armed services committee -- in fact, in less than an hour -- will convene and we will begin working on historic changes, unprecedented changes to the union formed road -- uniform code of military justice in response to a serious and significant problem of sexual assault in our military. i've come to the floor before we convene to explain why i am supporting significant changes as to how we handle sexual assaults in the military but also why i am not supporting completely removing the role senior military commanders play in orde

madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: one and a half minutes remains for the opponents. a senator: madam president? officer the senator from alabama. a senator: the senate's not in order. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. mr. sessions: madam president, this is not a vote on the corker-hoeven amendment. it's a vote on a complete substitute of over a thousand pages that includes all aspects of the bill before us. it includes the amnesty, include the failed entry-exit visa. and if we vote for cloture tonight, we will be transferring complete control of the entire process of this immigration bill to the majority leader, harry reid. you can hear the whistle in the distance right now as the train is arriving to the station. if senator reid and corker and hoeven are able to cut off debate today, the next vote will come in about 30 hours on another substitute vote in 30 hours after that. senator reid has filled the tree. there will be no amendments allowed. mr. leahy: regular order. the

the speaker pro tempore: madam secretary. the secretary: i'm directed by the president of the united states to deliver to the house of representatives a message in

madam president, i yield the floor. mr. leahy: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: madam president, the hoeven-corker a.m. is subject to a -- amendment is subject to a budget point of order. it increases on-budget deficit over both the five and ten-year periods and exceeds the judiciary committee's alloy indication for direct spending but on-budget effects do not take into account the significant off-budget savings. and last week the nonpartisan congressional budget office concluded the bill is going to especially help us achieve nearly $1 trillion in deficit reduction. and we also have learned that the hoeven-corker amendment would significantly increase our border security and would, as the c.b.o. said, i would say to my friends from tennessee and north dakota, the amendment would reduce both illegal entry into the country and the number of people who stay in the country beyond the end of their authorized period. so when we vote on the -- waiving the point of order, i will vote to waive it because the hoe

murray: thank you, madam president. madam president, senate democrats have been waiting a very long time to go to conference on our budget. in fact, it has now been 73 da days. and until recently, we've gotten pretty used to senate republicans just simply standing up and saying, "no." for months, republicans have been offering a lot of excuses for why they don't want to go to conference on the budget. they have said they want a preconference framework which, by the way, is what a budget is. they have said they wouldn't allow us to go to conference until we guaranteed that the wealthiest americans and biggest corporations would be protected from paying a penny more in taxes. they said they didn't want a bipartisan conference to take away the leverage they have on the debt ceiling. and then they called for a do-over, which actually my ranking member on the budget called for again this morning. to bring up the house budget, have 50 hours of debate, a whole new round of unlimited amendments, go through the process all over

thank you madame chair. >> senator johnson? >> thank you madame chair. speaking of the hangar general dempsey, i would like to talk about commanders and extremist forces. it's my understanding that these are units of 40 special ops from individuals there for rapid response, rapid deployment; is that correct? >> it's one of several key buildings like that. >> and we have the c110 it is called the you com sif. >> each combat and commander has one. >> there was a report on april 30th filed by adam howsley that they were in europe and deployed on a training operation, is that correct? >> are you talking about last september? >> yes during benghazi. >> it was on a training mission in bosnia. >> on the night of the terrorist attack in benghazi; connect? >> that's correct. >> what is the time of the planet of the us forces? what is their standing order? >> the response times are ratcheted up and down based on the threat. they can be anywhere from m plus one come notification plus one which means they are sitting on the tarmac up through about n plus 6 depending

>> thank you very much, madam chair, colleagues. about 40 years ago -- about four years ago, i think the supreme court sort of gave us an indication that today's esult could be what it is. i don't remember the case, it was a north carolina case, the court seem to signal at that time that the kind of history that we use in 2008 when we re-authorized the voting rights act, they considered to be outdated. and that something needed to be done to update the formula that we use. w we in the congress did a study, if my memory serves, it the ,000-page study, and vote in the senate was 98-0, and the vote in the house, i elieve was 390-33. and we decided that enough evidence was there in front of s to require a re-authorization of the voting rights act. that was just 2008. now, if we were to look, in my opinion, if we were to look at the reason that the supreme our gave in talking about failure to take into account the progress that had been made, i believe the best way to take into account the progress that's being made in this country, on a

sanders: thank you, madam president. let me congratulate the gang of eight who worked on this immigration bill so assiduously. senator pat leahy, the chairman of the committee, for doing a lot of good work. and there is much in this bill that i support. i support the pathway to citizenship. i support the dream act. i support providing legal status to foreign workers who are working in agriculture. we have to have strong border security and i support that effort. but let me tell you what i do not support. what i do not support is that at a time when nearly 14% of americans do not have a full-time job, at a time when youth unemployment is somewhere around 16% and kids from california to maine are desperately seeking employment, i do not support a huge expansion in the guest worker program that will allow hundreds of thousands of entry-level guest workers to come into this country. and this is important for at least two reasons. you have kids all over america who are wondering how they're going to afford to be able to go to

madam president, our concerns are not crop specific. a lot of discussion about this being something that is between the midwest and the south or regional. this is not a crop-specific concern. this is a policy-specific concern. an outdated target price program is not, is not what most producers in this country asked us for in a new farm bill. just the opposite. almost every member of the ag committee was told by our producers that a sound crop insurance program is a much higher priority. madam president, amendment number 1092 is simply a response to the wishes of most hearms in the united states. this amendment strikes the newly created amp program and places peanuts and rice back into the art program. or to put it simply, this amendment replaces the commodity title in the bill that we have before us and replaces it with a reform-minded market-oriented commodity title that was included in the farm bill that we passed last year. madam president, i do not believe that congress is capable of setting accurate fixed prices for the next five y

president, madame chancellor, first a question addressed to you, mr. president. there were a number of hopes in the world that were shattered because of your legislative term, for example, closing down guantanamo, stoming the death penalty, inall of the states, and as regards are you singling out germany because there is a big risk here? or, madam chancellor, the nobel prize winner obama is waging a drone war also via germany, and is he allowed to do that according to german law? >> let me see if i understood your question properly. first question was related to policies back home? related to guantanamo, the death penalty? then you wanted to talk about droughns? or did you just want to focus on the drone question? i want to make sure i respond to your question. >> i guess i ought to inform the germans and guantanamo i believe as addressed to you. a it continues to be my policy i want to close guantanamo. it has been more difficult than i had hoped in part because there's been significant resistance from congress on his, and on some issues i need congressional aut

well, i just know that, madam president,. >> this includes government employees and how it is signed. this is what the gentleman said. he is writing on behalf of the 7600 agents and officers. according to the national journal, we are working on an amendment with the bill. we are going to try to help pass the bill. and i am concerned that your amendment is outlined in the article, not only providing immediate legalization before enforcement, but also neglecting interior enforcement. drastically reducing the ability of i.c.e. options to do their job while providing legals.us including gang members and drunk drivers and sex offenders. i can assure you that these are not the types of reforms sought by the american public. in fact, these are not reforms at all. he has his offices blocked from enforcing the law by political directives from the supervisor. it is a plain fact. >> this does not include ice -- i.c.e. agents prosecutorial discretion by political appointees. there is some history to this. the i.c.e. options are just in an uproar. the morale of the officers was ranked near the bot

thank you, madam president, and i would yield the floor. mr. grassley: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: in the last three weeks i pointed out several flaws in the immigration bill. but in a couple days we'll have a bill through the senate, and i think i owe it to my colleagues and to my constituents, since i've been pointing out flaws, twald it take -- what would it take for me to vote for an immigration bill? i'm just like most everybody, and maybe everybody in the united states senate would tell you the status quo is not legitimate maintained, and that we have to reform the system. so there are, i'd like to say 100 senators who believe that the immigration system needs to be fixed. i can guarantee that there are also 100 different ways to fix it and nobody has a pebgt solution. but i bring a solution to the table few others have. my belief stems from the fact that in 1986. we allowed hraoelgzation that -- legalation that ignored the laws on the books. we allowed legalization without creating adequate avenues for people to ent

reid: madam president, i appreciate your patience and all the staff. i would have come here sooner had i been able to but they were still trying to work on this material so that we could close for the work period we're going to have at home. so the next roll call vote will be at 5:30 p.m. on monday, july 8. and if there's no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it adjourn under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until 12:15 p.m. tomorrow, unless the senate receives a message from the house that it has agreed to s. con. res. 19, in which case the senate stands adjourned until 2:00 p.m. on monday, july until 2:00 p.m. on monday, july >> my father had a rough childhood himself mother died four days shy his ninth birthday. a small catering company collapsed and he was forced to leave school and go to work. he would work virtually every day for the rest of his life. my mother's father was disabled by polio as a child and struggled to provide for his seven daughter. my parents met at a small store. he act

i also want to say to the deputy speaker, i would like to comment madam speaker. i was very, very happy the way she did the whole proceedings. this is the democracy. the way was a issue to have happened 60 years ago, that we have been wondering and we have not seen this then, before her. this is really delightful. during the last 12 years through in the last 10 bellemont allow any comment to go through undemocratic means. we will follow the democratic means. i am very happy that parliament has completed five years. we have also a role in all this, along with the comment and these are the steps that will take pakistan to its real shining destiny. i am very happy to watch and witness all those scenes as they strained to take things forward and even in parliament should be to reconstruct the discussion. mr. speaker i. will not take much time and again thank everyone. long live pakistan. >> in order to raise money, i thought an application at the iris in june or 2011 seeking to obtain 501 c-3 status as as an educational organization. as of today, i've been waiting for

madam president, we are going to read this amendment. we want to evaluate it fairly. it seems to me it does not come close to touching all the issues necessary to have a lawful system of immigration that serve the national interest in a way that americans can be proud of. we believe in immigration. we want to be compassionate and help the people who have been here a long time, but we have got to have a system we can count on in the future. i would yield the floor. >> in this week's radio address, president obama called on americans to urge members of congress to pass the bipartisan immigration bill. education and workforce committee chairman john kline of minnesota gave the republican address. he talked about the gop bill to keep student loan interest rates from doubling on july 1. >> hi, everybody. right now, the united states senate is debating a bipartisan, commonsense bill that would be an important step toward fixing our broken immigration system to it is a bill that would continue to strengthen security at our borders and hold employers more accountable if they

first, let me commend you, madam chair and the senator from new hampshire on your great works. this has gone on and on and it has been debated for a longer running debate. i very much support your leadership in this regard. >> this is a view that i very much share. outside the senate this is exactly the time for a long-term strategy. this is what it would provide us the ability to do. to look look at the 10 year window to tackle these issues. senator, i am laying out a medicare reform proposal. other colleagues indicate that we should have this like senator portman and others are making as far as a case goes. let me ask you and secretary hagel on the intelligence committee. the first question about the contract. what is striking is the inability to hone in on the numbers so that we can get a sense of how to tackle this issue. last you estimated was that we had about 300,000. according to an analysis last month, there were over 710,000 full-time contractors working for the department. so we will start with you, general dempsey on this point. how do you to explained the discrepan

. >> thank you, madam chairman. while i came here today basically to thank you for your service, i also want to thank senator feinstein for her kind of remarks about you. senator feinstein has done an excellent job on the intelligence community. up until i left a few years ago, i believe i was the longest serving person in history on the intelligence committee so i am fully aware of these matters and all i can say is i want to pay tribute to you, general alexander and others in the intelligence community and the fbi for the work that you've done to protect our country and these problems that really could have been very disastrous had we not had the of devotees that you have been describing here today. but i also interpersonally think you for the terrific service that you have given. i watch you very carefully kid i've been chairman of this committee and ranking member on this committee. i just have to say that i don't know that we have never had an fbi director as good as you are, and frankly every one of us has con