new hampshire. we have many of our national guard and reserve who have returned from duty overseas and that yellow ribbon program is critical. the legislation before us also funds the complete activation of the berlin prison, just as it funds the bureau of prisons. in new hampshire, that funding is going to allow us to get to a full complement of about 340 local jobs in northern new hampshire, very critical to the northern part of our state. it's going to provide a $40 million annual boost to the economy in northern new hampshire. and i'm especially appreciative to the chairwoman of the committee and all of the members for the effort to help the fishing men and women in new hampshire who have just been devastated by declining fish populations. the bill authorizes $75 million

in disaster relief for those members of our fishing community, so many of whom have had their whole livelihoods taken away from them. and this disaster relief money is going to help them during these difficult times, help them to recover, to rebuild what i believe is one of the most critical economic sack ters still in new england. it's one of the oldest, certainly. i'm also pleased that this bill reverses some of the reckless cuts from sequestration and instead it makes important investments in the friewrt of this country, in our education, infrastructure, in science and innovation, and yet it also makes strategic cuts. for example, one of my favorites in the bill is that it prohibits taxpayer-funded expenditures on oil paintings for public officials. this is an idea that senator coburn and i have been work on over the last year and i think

it's exactly the kind of government spending that we need to get rid of. it seppedz sends a message, a . even though it's not a lot of money, it's symbolic for the public to know that we're trying to address anything that we can and this is one piece that we can agree on and hopefully it will lead to others. the bill also requires all federal agencies to become better stewards of taxpayer dollars because it invests in inspectors general in agencies across the federal government. and inspectors general help those agencies better identify waste and cut spending. now, while making smart cuts, the bill also invests in priorities like science and innovation. it provides more funding for medical and energy research and development. very important efforts that are underway at the national

institutes of health. they're finally going to see some relief in this bill. and it supports education, including funding programs like head start that have been cut under sequestration. head start has been cut in new hampshire and it's particularly important because the more we learn about the importance of how children learn, the more we understand how critical early childhood education programs like head start, are to their future development. the bill also makes infrastructure investments, something that we have been too far behind on in this country so it's going to help us as we look at rebuilding our nation's deficits in creating roads and bridges and creating new jobs. as we all know, and i know the chairwoman would readily admit, this bill isn't a perfect bill but the legislation before us is a product of the kind of bipartisan compromise that we've

got to have more of in washington these days. and while i'm very pleased that the bill addresses military retirement cuts for some retirees, for viefer widows and for the -- survivor widows and for the survivor and disabled. but we need to keep working until the cuts are he peele repn for all military retirees. it's something i've been work on and we're going to continue to work on. there's a commitment from so many of us here in this chamber to address that. i also am going to continue working to provide full funding for the low income home energy assistance program, liheap, which helps seniors and low-income new hampshire families pay their heating bills, especially during these cold winter months. this bill makes a small increase in that program but unfortunately it's not enough to

address the challenges so many families in new hampshire and in the equally divided and controlled partand inthe cold py are facing as we continue through this very cold winter. now, small businesses in new hampshire have not forgotten that during the shutdown, they faced uncertainty and declining revenues. federal employees in new hampshire struggled to make ends meet while being furlough. and that shutdown, completely manufactured, unnecessary cris crisis, cost this economy $24 bill quoon. $24 billion. well, i think in talking to business people around new hampshire, around the country, that one of the most important things that this bill does is it takes the prospect of another manufactured crisis off the table. it puts in place a responsible plan to grow this economy, to create jobs, and it takes away

the uncertainty that has so plagued families and businesses across this country. i had the opportunity this week to meet with the head of the business roundtable and one of the things he pointed out to me is that we are seeing right now the lowest percentage of private investment in our economy than we've seen in a very long time, in decades. and that one of the most important things we can do in washington is to provide the business community some certainty so that they will make those investments, because that's how we create jobs. we need -- we need to put people back to work and i think this legislation goes a long way to creating that certainty, to helping say to the business community, to helping say to those people who are unemployed, we're going to keep working on your behalf, we're going to try

and make those investments and make sure we can create the jobs to put you back to work, to keep this economy strong and growing and to keep this country competitive. so in closing, i just to want say to my colleagues that now is the time for us to build on this bipartisan success that we've seen that the chairwoman has been able to accomplish with all of her other negotiators. we have this opportunity to build on that to further promote job creation and economic growth and our country needs us to work together on behalf of small businesses, on behalf of the middle class, on behalf of families. we need to pass this bill. we need to keep working together and address the challenges this country faces. so i urge all of my colleagues in the senate to support this bill. i yield the floor and again thank the chairwoman for her efforts.

ms. mikulski: the gentlelady from new hampshire is really generous with her remarks. and i want to just respond by saying a few things. first of all, in the way you speak about new hampshire is the way i also speak about maryland. and when people think about government spending, they think it just goes out in the ethers and doesn't generate anything. as the gentlelady has said, what is spent by the federal government really creates jobs in the private sector. you spoke about the prison. first of all, we appreciate new hampshire's willingness to accept a prison. many states don't want them, shy away from them or are afraid of them. new hampshire has really met a national need and we know that the staffing that will be provided by the exceptional patriotic work ethic of the

people of new hampshire will keep our country safe. but those same guards, the same admin staff will be out in there community spending money on housing, at the local grocery store, maybe needing a wedding planner, whatever. and so that's one area. and the other in terms of new england fisheries, for those of us who are coastal senators, we know what that means. fishing and seafood is part of our history and it's actually part of our state's identity. i think for we in the senate, the coastal senators have kind of an affinity with each other for it. but again, for what we do, it's those jobs in the private sect sector. so we want to thank you for what you've done and also i just wanted to commend that the subcommittee on legislative affairs that you've chaired also, you know, it's not like it funded legislators. it funds things like the capitol

police, who are standing sentry here doing their job. so thank you for your work and we're really so pleased to have you on the committee. mrs. shaheen: thank you very much. mr. nelson: would the senator yield, madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. nelson: i just want to take this opportunity, madam president, to thank the two senators present right the there. in america's space program that potentially was on a downward slope, the two of you-all have crafted a budget and appropriation that will keep us with a very robust american space program, including the first "a" in nasa, which is aeronautics. from science to the new big

rocket, its cap actual, orion, to the commercial, -- capsule, orion, to the commercial, to the unmanned space program exploring the heavens, you-all have got it right and i wanted to take this opportunity to express my profound thanks that on the authorization that we built on starting three years ago, you-all are continuing the dream. thank you very much. ms. mikulski: well, i thank the gentleman from florida. it's just wonderful for both my colleague, senator shelby, and i to -- you're an astronaut senator. and to come from an astronaut senator to say, we think you're doing the job right, means a lot to us. ththe senate has been blessed by having three astronaut senators.

senator jake garn, republican from utah, senator john glenn of ohio, and senator bill nelson. now, some of us have been in orbit a long time but you actually knew what you were doing. so thank you very much and we're trying to add gravity to this bill. mr. shelby: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. shelby: i just want to pick up on what senator mikulski was talking about. senator nelson has been not only an advocate for the space program for nasa, he, as most everybody knows, has been up there. and i was traveling with him one time and i believe we were over asia and he was showing me from the plane -- we couldn't see as well as he could from rotating the -- but i was very impressed. but he has been a stalwart in the space program, the advancement, and we've both worked hand-in-glove with him.

and i do believe this is pretty good appropriation considering where we are and i'm hoping we're going to get back to regular order, as senator mikulski has advocated and i have advocated, and this is a big step today. we're hoping later today maybe we can vote this bill out with a vote like the house did yesterday. thank you. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. ms. landrieu: madam president, i'm pleased to come to the floor today on following up on the very eloquent remarks and offer comments on the appropriations bill. but before i do, i want to thank the chairwoman and ranking member for really being a great inspiration to all of us. amidst all the controversy and dust-ups and toxic atmosphere and nonpartisanship that's going

on, it's -- or lack of cooperation that's going on, it's wonderful to see the two of them working so closely together on a bill that's so important to the country. and as the great senator from new hampshire said, this is a bill for the people, for jobs, for our economy. it sends very positive signals across a breadth of industries that the federal government is stepping up to be a more reliable partner in these public-private partnerships that are represented in the funding of this bill, whether it's building our highways, building our space program, funding our department of defense, sending money to cities and counties that are doing all sorts of innovative and remarkable things with community development block grant funding, with a lot of private partners. so contrary to popular belief and contrary to some things you

might hear on the radio and television these days, the federal budget does a lot more than fund the government. it does a lot more than funding government employees. it's sending out millions, literally millions of green lights to small business contractors, to large businesses saying, let's go. the yellow light was blinking a few days ago. the red light has been on for the last couple of years. this bill literally sends out millions of blinking green lights saying, get to work, let's go to business, let's build highways, let's build levies, let's build the space program, let's invest in the middle classes. and, in addition, i want to say how proud i am of senator mikulski's leadership that she has managed to do this within

budget constraints. this is not a free spending bill. this is a smart spending bill within constraints so that we're also mindful of reducing our debt over time, mindful about paying down our bills, so that's what's so really remarkable about this and why i'm going to be so proud to support it, and i hope we can get a strong a vote as the house did on this bill to show strong bipartisan support, because while it does address our debt and our deficit, it does so in a smart way with investments in things that we have agreed on really make a difference to the private sector. and i can tell you in louisiana, this is going to have immediately positive effects, io i want to highlight a few of those now in terms of the homeland security bill which i am proud and happy to be the chair of the homeland security appropriations bill.

and i want to also say that i have worked very closely with senator carper, my colleague who is the chair of the authorizing committee, and our ranking members, senator coburn and senator coats as we authorize stronger parts of homeland security and then fund some of those initiatives, and i'm going to hit the highlights of just three or four. one of them is the coast guard. the coast guard is in our homeland security bill. it is a very important component of our government. it's one of the most popular components of our government, popular broadly by business and by people. of course, very popular with the people that the coast guard has saved from drowning or from wrecks in our open seas, but also for the hundreds of companies and businesses that have contracts with the coast guard to provide some really

cutting edge shipbuilding that needs to go on in this country, and the senator from alabama knows this, the senators from mississippi know this, the senators from maine, the senators from louisiana. we have lost a great deal of shipbuilding in our country to other countries. it is important that we keep as much shipbuilding here through the homeland security bill and through the defense bill here in america. ships made in america. ships serving americans providing really good, solid jobs. and i am proud, along with senator cochran's tremendous support, who is a member of my committee, and senator begich, particularly from alaska, who fought very hard for a good outcome on the coast guard budget, which is above the administration's request and has a modest increase and will be supporting so many important

projects for our coast guard and the men and women of our coast guard. it provides $10.2 billion overall, which is a significant increase, and we did so within our budget constraints. another piece i want to highlight is our enforcement of immigration and custom laws. we are in a big debate about immigration reform and the importance of finding common ground on immigration reform for the benefit of our businesses and our economy here in america that depend on clear rules of the road, clear processes for people to become citizens who have paid their taxes that have come here legally and for people without the current legal papers to give them a path to citizenship once taxes are paid, once they get in line behind people that have come here legally, and protecting our borders is an important

component of that. and in our bill, we have put the resources necessary behind enforcing those tough immigration standards and requirements. so we are protecting our border, providing resources for the bill, and that is important to many people in this country as well as people in louisiana, both to have a -- an immigration system that makes sense but to also provide appropriate jobs and labor to come in and help with so many of the jobs that we have in louisiana today. we also had a focus in our bill, madam chair, i think you will be happy to hear this, about stepping up an additional 2,000 customs officers at our airports. now, we have got an international airport in new orleans, we have a lot of international travel. we may be a little city but we fight way above our weight and

our state does when it comes to international travel, because we are a very sought-after destination, and we're very happy about that, but there are other states like new york and nevada and chicago that have international travel and even to your state, north dakota, which is a smaller state, but you're seeing a tremendous amount of business coming into your state both domestic and international because of your oil and gas jobs and your energy sector jobs. well, what a howdy-do it is to arrive at our airports, coming to spend money in our country, to hire people here or to work with businesses here or to partner with businesses here to create jobs and you have to wait in line in customs for five hours. that is no way to greet business men and women bearing gifts of investment and money for our country. so i have taken a really strong leadership position on this with

the travel and trade organizations, both in hospitality and in international business. i want to thank their coalition for fighting really hard to make sure that this bill reflects the fact that business is global, it's international. our business people are out and in all the time, building wealth for america and hopefully the world but for america, and business people come in here to help create wealth and help our middle class to grow, and having customs agents that operate, lines that are shorter most certainly help that and keep our country safe but also keep it open for business. and people in louisiana, as a trading state, we're a big port state, we understand trade, we understand international business, and i'm happy to be able to fight hard for those priorities. i want to mention just two other

issues. many committees are working on cybersecurity. homeland security does not take the lead on cyber. overall, the department of defense and national security agency does. but when it comes to securing our government and our government private sector partners, homeland security does take the lead, and we have stepped up some investments in cybersecurity, as the senator from alabama most certainly understands in his leadership role. this is a real threat, not only to our government, to the department of defense, to the government as a whole, but to many businesses in america, private, large businesses, medium and small that are feeling the effects of these saboteurs and attackers, and the government has to stay focused and well invested, working with the private sector to make sure that our defenses and our security is up and our bill

recognized that. and finally, something close to my heart and close to my home is the funding for disaster relief. i hope no one ever has to go through what we went through along the gulf coast for hurricanes katrina and rita. i know everybody has had terrible storms and floods, but there has never been a storm or disaster like this, and i pray to the lord there will never be another one after it, before it or after it. the damage that was done in dollar amounts, the damage that was done across a vast stretch of land from alabama to texas, the devastation that it caused in numbers of homes and businesses lost is just unparalleled. now, sandy was a terrible super storm, and because the northeast is more dense than we are down south, they lost more homes technically than we did, but the

dollar damage is still far exceeding in the aftermath of katrina and rita. but whether it's sandy on the east or whether it's floods in north dakota, which you all have had your share of or colorado or whether it's storms on the gulf coast, we have to be ready with money to send immediately when people need help. now, i'm going to say this because it's been a matter of argument between some here. when a disaster strikes, i am not going to look for an offset. i am going to look for the coast guard and fema to show up with the equipment they have to help people who are either drowning, on their roofs or watching their houses burn to the ground. i'm not going to look for an offset. so as long as i'm chairman of this bill, we will have money in this bill to use on an emergency

basis when emergencies occur, as they do fairly regularly, unfortunately in the states we represent down in the gulf coast. just because we're right in the middle of that hurricane alley, these storms are getting bigger and more fierce, and we have got to be at the ready. now, we helped maryland, we have money in for sandy recovery, and there is money in here still for the ongoing recovery -- it's phasing out now in the gulf coast, but there are still some projects that are working through even nine years after katrina and rita. so let me just say that it's been a pleasure to work with my colleagues. i want to thank the members of my committee, particularly my ranking member, dan coats, from indiana, and i really want to thank senators begich and senator cochran for their great work with the coast guard and helping me negotiate this through the process, and again, i think these are just some of

the highlights of our bill. nothing would have been possible without senator mikulski and her determination to get the green light on because people in my town, in my state are tired of yellow and red. they want to work, they want to go to work. they want to build buildings and build roads and get projects under way. we have got lots of permits pending that the money in this bill will allow to be released and to go. so i am proud to vote for it. this is all about jobs, economic competitiveness for america and good jobs for louisiana, and i'm sure every senator or almost every senator will say the same thing about this bill because it was well done, job well done, and i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. enzi: i rise to express my great disappointment about a matter of importance to wyoming and many other public lands states that have not been properly addressed by this

omnibus bill in the senate. instead of producing a legislative solution based on discussions between our colleagues, debate and consideration in committee and a fair and complete process on the floor, we have a bill before us that was put together by making another deal. simply put, the senate fails to do its job when we refuse to allow a fair, fee and open debate about an issue that's of such great concern to the people who will be affected by the decision. it's no secret anyone who has seen the senate in operation as we take up this legislation will know that the backroom deal does not include critical funding that nearly 1900 counties in 49 states, 49 states, that's all but one, and three u.s. territories rely on. you would think this kind of participation would draw an extraordinary amount of interest by us all to make sure this bill was written with the best interests of all the states and all our constituents in mind. unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be the case. so what program is it that draws

such interest from 1,900 counties, three territories, 49 states and concern from such a widespread portion of our nation? i'm speaking, of course, of payments in lieu of taxes. it's a program that's been in place for decades. it's not an issue that's new to the senate. that's why i recently led an effort by several of my senate colleagues urging the appropriators include this critical funding in the interior appropriations bill. if they had done that, we would have already completed the work to produce a well-reasoned, well-thought-out answer to the issue of such importance to the states. unfortunately, our efforts seem to have fallen on deaf ears, so here i am before you, hoping with all my heart that i can make the senate understand how crucial this funding is to almost every state in the union. this body often overlooks the important role of local government in the lives of our constituents. i know this because before i came to the senate, i served as a mayor, as did another handful

of people in this body, and i know there are several others that have been county officials. communities and counties are responsible for providing fire protection, law enforcement, sanitation, public health and education, just to name a few. they provide these services largely by raising revenue. one common source is through property taxes. in states where there is little federally owned land, local communities have a large number of private homeowners to provide these services. however, there are states where the federal government decided to retain most if not a majority of the ownership of the land. the problem is these federal lands cannot be taxed yet local governments must still provide critical fire, law enforcement and health services in these areas and for the people who work on them. in order to make up this shortfall, congress created payment in lieu of taxes to compensate local governments to offset the losses caused by having nontaxable federal lands

within their boundaries. for decades, the payment in lieu of taxes program has provided counties and local governments with funding to help meet critical community needs. one of the reasons that the payment in lieu of taxes program was instituted was because of the creation of the federal land policy and management act which prohibited the the federal government from disposing of public lands. in place of the the federal government's ability to move land from federal to private ownership which was establish in the homestead act, congress decided to reimburse county and local governments with payments that would replace the revenue lost from the property taxes they would have received if those federal lands had been transferred to private ownership. it seemed like the only fair thing to do back then, and it's still only fair to live up to the obligations as a nation to provide the states with the revenue they're losing because the laws we have enacted. i got to tell you, talking about 1,900 counties in the senate, 49 states, some of

those counties it's 40% to 80% of their total revenue. that's a big cut to make. in one year. no transition, just boom, gone. how do you adjust to that if you're those local government people trying to figure out how to balance your budget? after all, i'm not aware of anybody that lives at the federal level. they all live at the local level. so it's the local folks that have to take care of the people. if we fail to adequately address this issue we're forcing our communities to make do with less, a lot less, because we're breaking a promise we've made. by doing so, we're forcing them to reduce or even eliminate the vital resources upon which their citizens rely. i want to emphasize and make it clear this is not an additional source of revenue, not a bonus. county and local governments depend on this revenue when they plan their budgets each year. it's part of the law. they count on it. without it, their budgets are stretched and strained and they

will be bankrupt. the decision by the appropriations committee did not include the vital payment in lieu of taxes funding in the omnibus will place counties across the country in very difficult positions and great financial hardship for them all. especially so there's no transition, there was no warning. it was just done. we need to stop playing games with the payment in lieu of taxes program and find a way to ensure its adequately and fairly funded now. and for years to come. we could learn a lesson from local government and as i remind you that's where everyone lives. many are obligated to have a balanced budget. that forces communities to budget in advance, to debate priorities, to stick to considering spending measures through the normal legislative process. as we look for ways to adequately fund payment in lieu of taxes, we also need to be sure that we're not robbing peter to pay paul. i was really extremely

disappointed about the provision in the conference report -- a conference report comes to us for an up-or-down vote, we don't have any chance to debate that on the floor, don't have a chance to amend it, but the conference report for highway reauthorization in 2012 robbed the abandoned mine land trust fund -- trust fund -- to pay for the payment in lieu of taxes obligation that time. they got paid, though. but we stole from a trust fund to do it and, again, it was a conference report so there was no opportunity for amendments on it. state and local government just like this -- just like this omnibus. state and local governments rely on those funds to clean up high-priority abandoned mines. we shouldn't pit those funds against each other. yes, the federal government is out of money. we're going to have to prioritize, move things around, we're going to have to bring down the deficit so have a that eventually a we can hopefully bring down the debt and this isn't the only time we've been doing this sort of

thing. twice now we have robbed the pension benefit guarantee corporation. where do they get their money? any private company -- private company, not federal company -- any private company that has a pension fund has to pay a tax into this pension benefit guaranty corporation so in case they go out of business the people will be compensated that were promised a retirement, they'll get compensated 60% of what they were promised. just 60%. but we've raised that amount dramatically twice now on private corporations who were providing retirement for their workers. now, that's all voluntary. they don't have to provide retirement for their workers. and if we keep raising that amount and it doesn't go to provide assurance that their employees will get their retirement, why would they keep their retirement going? people are going to lose retirement in the united states, nobody's starting

defined benefit plans right now. because of the extra taxes that we're putting on it. and twice now we've raised that price and we've put it to something other than it was promised for. and here's the real kicker -- we said that for the next eight years we're going to steal that money, so that we can spend that amount this year. i'm not sure that's legal. how do we force future congresses to be sure to pay the money -- no, we will have already spent the money so we're asking them to pay back the money and we're asking them to steal it out of a trust fund. we've got to quit stealing from the trust funds. that's the same thing with the abandoned mine land. that was stealing for ten years to pay for two years. you can't keep doing that. somehow we've got to have the kind of budgeting that we're expecting these local governments, these towns and cities and counties, to do,

where they have to balance their budget. we don't have to balance our budget. we just steal the money. but there's a point at which you can't steal the money anymore. what do we do now next time on the transportation bill when we've already obligated eight more years of pension benefit guaranty corporation to the current highways? we won't have collected that yet. where do we steal it from next time? infrastructure is extremely important. we are going to have to eventually prioritize around here. we're going to have to do the same thing we expect those towns and counties that we're stealing the payment in lieu of taxes money from in order to keep this business afloat. the payment in lieu of taxes program represents a promise we made to counties and local governments all across the nation. they're looking to us to see how we'll act and see how we'll keep that promise. if we fail to do so, it will have an impact on almost every one of us who will surely hear about the repercussions when we

go back home to meet with our constituents. i encourage and urge the senate in the strongest terms to reconsider the payment in lieu of taxes program and the impact in bringing people to across the nation by failing to include it in this legislation. now, these are governments that -- they have property taxes on the private process property ached. and what happens if the people with the private property don't pay their taxes? the local government gets to put a lien on it and gets to put it on the market. maybe that's what we ought to do with this federal land. put a lien on it. put it on the market. it's a debt that the federal government said they would pay and they're not paying. it's payment in lieu of property taxes. if the property taxes aren't paid, there is a way that the local government can make up for it, but there isn't if the federal government just decides to quit paying. and that's kind of what we did.

we said mmm, taxes are hard to pay. if everybody in america said taxes are hard to pay and quit paying them, we'd be in one heck of a fix. well, we can't do that to the towns and counties, either. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. ms. landrieu: before the senator from wyoming leaves i wanted to comment about some of the things he said about pilt and assure him that should the ambassadorship go forward for china, should ron wyden become the chair of the finance committee, i will become the chair of the energy committee and he has my commitment now to help him work on that. i am very well aware, having served on that committee for ten years, how important pilt is, payment in lieu of taxes, to some of the states in the west, primarily, less populated states and their tax base is very affected by the fact that the federal government owns a

great deal of land. the senator knows through the chair that in my state we only have 1.5% of federal land. i'd like to ask the senator what percent of your state is federal land through the chair. mr. enzi: madam president -- the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. enzi: 49% of wyoming is federal land. we like having the federal land, we like the people that come to visit it, but there are a lot of expenses that go with it and to just jerk the money away, right away in the committee that you're talking about with senator wyden, what we've always talked about is a transition to do anything. and there are a number of ways we could transition this that ayotte i don't think would hurt the federal government or hurt the local counties but requires flexibility, requires going 24r50u regular order in the committee and coming to the floor and making some decisions. this is just wrong to just steal it one time. ms. landrieu: if i could be recognized, i commit to work

with the senator and i'm sympathetic and understand his position and we'll be talking to the leadership on both sides to see what we can do. it's very hard for that money to come away at such an abrupt time, and there are some issues that i know that are pentagon before the committee would where that could potentially get resolved. i wanted to offer my help and support at the appropriate time. but i wanted to speak for just a minute in honor of national mentoring month. senator isakson and i have introduced the senate resolution to pay tribute to millions of men and women whose lives are enriched every day by mentors in our country. and i know that we're going to get right back on the discussion on the appropriations committee but i wanted to take just a point of personal privilege for two or three minutes to talk about the fact that this is the 13th anniversary of the national mentoring month, and

today is the thank you -- thank your mentor day. i want to acknowledge and i'm grateful to the following senators, senator baldwin, senator brown, senator carper, senator cochran, senator durbin, gillibrand, klobuchar, mikulski, murray, rubio, schumer, scott, warren, and wyden, who cosponsored our mentor resolution and have been real leaders in the mentorship movement. we can all identify hundreds of young people or people of all different ages that are stepping up and doing an act of support and mentoring for a young person that is making a real difference in their lives. i wanted to just point out four in louisiana today. one, la rita here is serving 20 hours a week as a foster

grandparent, working with special needs children at the james ward elementary school in lake charles, louisiana. with her loving guidance, the student mentee went from a 47% skill mastery in math to 80%. madam president, that's a pretty significant jump. that is a life-changing improvement for that child and opens up a real opportunity for future mentorship works. in one of my favorite programs, the national guard youth challenge program which started in 1993, the program opens its doors to young people between the ages of 16 and 18 that have dropped out of school, in many instances dropped out of their families. their families have given up on them. they've given up on their families. and they are headed nowhere but to either prison or to a homeless shelter or worse. our national guard steps up and besides doing all the amazing

things our national guard does here at home, in peacetime and in war, they're also mentoring mentoring -- they've mentored over 100,000 young people in the last 13 years, and we graduate from our three programs in louisiana about 2,400 kids a year, each one with a mentor. so i wanted to give a shoutout to the national guard and the national guard youth challenge program. of course, a program that we all support on both sides of the aisle, big brothers, big sisters, there are three big brother-big sister agencies serving 841 at-risk youth in the state of louisiana. these are youth that include children of single parents whose parents currently are maybe incarcerated and we've got a wonderful big brother-big sister mentor here, ernie is serving

in jennings, louisiana, proudly says that the most rewarding aspect is knowing, she says, i'm making a difference in the young person's life. and finally our big buddy program. big buddy is a leading community program in baton rouge, louisiana, it's national as well, supported broadly by members of congress and local officials. we in our program serve 700 disadvantaged youth each week. now i'm going to end by submitting the rest of my comments to the record but i do want to particularly say how proud i am of the million women mentors that was launched today. this is very exciting. as a woman leader, and i know, madam president, you will be thrilled to see the number of extraordinary businesses and organizations that are trying to identify 10 million mentors for girls in america to go into the fields of science, technology,

engineering and math, which is a game changer for little girls and young -- young women to think about careers like science, technology, engineering and math. there's such a need in our country for that skilled labor and so mentors are stepping up and filling in the gap. so i want everyone to just be proud that today is mentor month. i mean, a celebration of mentorship month, and i thank senator isakson for joining me in supporting this effort. and i know we need to get back on the appropriations committee so i yield the floor and i thank the point of personal privilege. mr. cornyn: madam president? the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. cornyn: madam president, four and a half years ago, the united states went through a terrible recession, what we now know as the great recession, but since that time we've had the slowest economic recovery since the great depression and our

labor force participation rate, which is number -- a fancy way of saying the number of people -- the percentage of people who are actually in the work force looking for work, is much lower than it was at the height of the recession. so even though the unemployment rate is coming down little by little, the main reason why that's true is because people -- many people are simply giving up looking for work. last month alone, 345,000 people dropped out of the work force. even when we look exclusively at workers between the age of 25 and 54, their participation rate is significantly lower than it was when president obama took office. meanwhile, 4 million people who are still in the work force have now been jobless for more than six months. as i mentioned, if the obama

economic recovery had been as strong as the reagan recovery in the 1980's, we'd currently have millions more of private-sector jobs. so what's the president's big idea for helping the economy getting back on track? well, last night, according to published news reports, he was drink martinis and plotting his 2014 political strategy with his fellow democrat party members. ' apparently told -- he apparently told the democrats' president, at least reportedly, that he would continue to go it alone if he couldn't get bipartisan support for his -- support by issuing more executive orders and he'd do that if republicans didn't cave in and give him every single thing that he wants on every issue. so rather than talking to republicans in bipartisan discussion about how we could come together on real solutions to the problems that face our economy and people out of work, the president instead has

defaulted in favor of poll-tested ideas and political gimmicks leading into the run-up to the 2014 election. now, sipping martinis and plotting politics while millions of americans are out of work shows just how out of touch the president has become and unfortunately so many of the folks who vote with him on each and every issue that comes before the senate. but putting last night's party aside for a moment, i'd like to ask my friends across the aisle just a few questions about the recent senate debate over unemployment insurance. the first question -- if extending unemployment insurance benefits for the long-term unemployed is so important, why didn't the majority leader schedule a vote last month before those benefits expired on december the 28th? that's the first question. the second question: why would

you want to add $6.4 billion to the annual -- to the -- to the national debt when the national debt is already $17.3 trillion? and why would you want to do that if you knew that the bill had no chance of passing because republicans were not going to agree to a bill that adds to the national debt? you might ask whether it's really hard to find $6.4 billion in a annual spending budget of $3.8 trillion. well, i'll do the math for you. $6.4 billion is roughly .0017% of what the federal government spends in a given year. seems to me that that would be relatively easy to do. and, in fact, republicans had amendments that would pay for the three-month extension as well as restore the pension benefits for the military that

was cut in the earlier budget deal. but the majority leader refused to allow an open amendment process that would have allowed a vote on either one of those. and i would like to ask the majority leader rhetorically -- he's not here in the chamber but i'm sure he has people listeni listening -- why is it that the -- that the majority leader refused to allow any pro-growth measures to the final bill? republicans had a number of amendments that would have improved the education and training component of our unemployment compensation syst system. if you look at the three major causes of long-term unemployme unemployment. one is education, we need to deal with that. the other is family choices, harder for government to make -- have an influence on. but the third is jobs and the job environment. but the majority leader bloblgdd

every single opportunity to address either education reforms or job training or to deal with a pro-growth -- pro-growth measures which have actually created more jobs and fewer people would have to be on unemployment and more people would be able to find work, as i know they would prefer to do. so if the majority leader and our democratic friends who joined in blocking every republican idea to either pay for it or to help improve job training or to improve the economic -- the private sector's ability to create jobs and allow people to go to work, i'd like to hear the answers to those. there's a much better way to fuel job creation, reduce unemployment, and promote upward mobility that doesn't involve playing politics while millions of americans are looking for work. for starters, let's pick some of the low-hanging fruit, and i get the presiding officer, based on some of the remarks i've seen attributed to her, would agree with this one.

the canadian government has spent years urging president obama to approve the keystone x.l. pipeline, which would create thousands of well-paying jobs, middle-class jobs right here in the united states. this administration -- this president actually promised republicans in a meeting he had with them last year that he would make a decision on this by the end of last year, 2013, and we're still waiting for his decision. and all we hear is the sound of crickets when it comes to the keystone x.l. pipeline. but this president and this white house, this administration could effectively create those jobs with the stroke of a pen by approving the examinee stone x.l. pipeline. so it doesn't get much easier than that. indeed, even if the president's own former national security -- even his own former national security advisor has said publicly he thinks the president ought to do this. because this is not just an economic issue, this isn't just

a jobs issue. every barrel of oil that we transport on the keystone x.l. pipeline from a friendly country like canada means less oil we have to import from volatile regions of the planet, like the middle east. but beyond the pipeline issue, which is the lowest of the low-hanging fruit in terms of creating jobs and getting the economy moving again, the obama administration should generally stop hindering our domestic energy production. we've had a renaissance in energy in america thanks to the innovation in the private sector, primarily the now some six decades old practice of fracking, which has gotten a bag rap in some quarters, but also horizontal drilling pioneered by none other than george mitchell of texas, who recently passed on. but this combination of fracking and horizontal drilling has led to a proliferation of domestic

energy supply, natural gas and oil right here at home. again, every barrel, every m.c.f. of gas that we produce here domestically means less energy we have to import from abroad. but we all know that nationwide the oil and gas industry represents a bright -- a rare bright spot in the u.s. economy. according to one study, by 2035, unconventional oil and gas resources alone will be supporting 3 1/2 million jobs and contributing $475 billion to our economy. why wouldn't the president and our democratic friends embrace something like that, that would create so many jobs right here at hom -- in the u.s. of a., ind of playing political games and plotting out the next election? and yet on top of that, to make

matters worse, the administration is proposing a proliferation of new regulations on fracking that occurs on federal lands. now, i think my friends who perhaps aren't familiar with this process should -- should listen. fracking has been going on for at least 60 years. in texas under the regulatory authority of the texas railroad commission and local -- local jurisdictions. but if you drill a well and you put the casing in and you cement it properly, there's absolutely zero threat to ground iwater or drinking water. because the target of the fracking is deep below the surface. and so using good drilling practices and cementing of casing, there is virtually zero threat to drinking water and the concerns that many people have expressed but which are not grounded in experience. but think of it this way. if the -- if the federal

government has made such a hash out of health care after obamacare by taking over one-sixth of the economy and our national health care, what i worry about is what they would do if the federal government decides to take over regulation of fracking, because it's been handled appropriately at the state and local level and i'm afraid they'll make a hash out of that as well. well, in addition to the other regulations that i'm concerned about, the administration's announced new regulations that would impose massive additional costs and deliver very little in the way of economic or environmental gains. more regulations are never a good idea if they put an additional burden on business and produce no tangible benefit to the environment. but they're especial harmful at a time when our economic recovery is so anemic and our

economic recovery remains so fragile. we simply need to stop placing an additional burden by additional regulations on the very vital sectors of our economy that we need in order to grow and prosper and create new jobs, especially when there's no demonstrable environmental benefit. for that matter, let's eliminate all new regulation as that don't pass the simple cost-benefit analysis. one new study shows that the obama administration has imposed more than $112 billion worth of net regulatory costs on the u.s. economy and added an equivalent of 158 million hours of additional paperwork on american businesses. my colleagues senator portman and senator roberts have each sponsored new regulations -- excuse me, new legislation that would introduce safeguards against unnecessary job-killing

regulations. which brings me to obamacare. one of the things that organized labor that was one of the biggest supporters of obamacare has now come back to the white house and complained about is the fact that the incentives for employers to take what was full-time work, 40-hour work week, and make it part-time work. and, indeed, the -- that's because the president's health care law defines full-time employment as a 30-hour work week. so people even working part time have to be provided the full benefits that those on full-time work ordinarily would qualify for. but as a result, as many of these labor leaders told the president just a few short months ago, many americans have had their full-time jobs reduced from full time to part time. and this trend will only get worse as the administration decides to enforce the employer

mandate. now, if the majority leader would allow, we have two bills on our side of the aisle that would address that. senator collins of maine, senator scott of south carolina have proposed defining full-time employment as a 40-hour work week that would provide some benefit and some relief to people who've seen their hours cut. now, one more example of low-hanging fruit. republicans and democrats both agree that education is a critical -- critical need to allowing for upward mobility. with that in mind, we should be doing everything possible to support successful education reform initiatives across the country. and yet the obama administration has frkly don frequently done je opposite. witness what's happened in louisiana where the administration is trying to derail louisiana' school voucher program, where parents get to choose where the money goes, not

the government. well, this is all pretty easy stuff. now, some things would be harder, like major tax reform, although i would point out that until recently members of both parties agreed that the goal of tax reform would be to lower marginal rates as we eliminate a lot of the tax expenditures or deductions or subsidies or the like. well, we want to adopt those kinds of pro-growth tax reform, but we're never going to make any real progress as long as our friends across the aisle insist on using this to raise more money for the federal government to spend and not reduce marginal rates. in other words, to basically undermine the benefit of pro-growth tax reform just in order to get an additional trillion -- or $2 to spend. the stalemate on tax reform reflects a broader problem here

in washington, madam president. despite the long-term unemployment crisis and despite the massive drop in people actually in the workforce and looking for work, the president has still failed to put forth any serious job-creation agenda. sure, he wants the government to take more of your hard-earned tax dollars and spend it, because he thinks that the government can do a better job than you can spending your own money. but it hasn't worked. jobs and the economy remain americans' top concerns. yet, unfortunately, the president has alread is alreadyl reelection mode, recognizing that his second term, his ability to get things done is going to be highly dependent on the mid-term elections in november 2012. rather than working with the republicans, the team meetings he has with the democrats.

americans deserve better than that. they deserve a comprehensive job-creation agenda that includes serious tax reform, serious regulatory reform, and serious health care reform, an agenda that makes it easier for businesses to hire workers and easier for families to pursue the american dream. we've done our best to propose such an agenda, but, unfortunately, we're still waiting for the majority leader and the president to take us up on that offer. madam president, i yield the floor. mr. merkley: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i'm going to

speak briefly. my colleague across the aisle has noted that he'd like to speak next. but i'd like to take a moment and talk about what has been unfolding here on capitol hill with the house and the senate, with the republican caucus, with the democratic caucus working together to produce an appropriations bill, a spending bill, a bill we refer to here as an omnibus, meepg tha meaning tt covers all 12 sections that are normally allocated within the appropriationappropriations or d bill. i'm a new member of the appropriations committee, and this is the first time that i can stand here and feel like i've gone through a process that's something similar to what our colleagues have done in a bipartisan way over many generations, but that bipartisan collaboration has been sorely missing in the time since i first came to the senate, and i'm glad to see this particular moment it is a ray of hope that

perhaps we can restore a rational budgeting and spending bill process to address the issues facing america. i was delighted that senator murray led the senate, working with congressman ryan, to produce a budget. it went through both chambers. and i'm very pleased that our two leaders here in the senate, the senator from maryland, and the senator from alabama, brought the two sides together to work with the house to produce this spending bill. because in the absence of a spending bill that has been deliberated on, what we have is a continuing resolution, which means we're going to keep spending the money we did in the past even though the needs of the present have diverged from the needs of the past. that is an inherently wasteful -- it is inherently wasteful to keep doing the same thing you do before when different challenges are presenting themselves to our

nation. so i wanted to note a few of the things that were done in the course of this bill that i think are very relevant to the challenges we face in oregon. let me start with the yellow ribbon immigration program. when i went over to visit oregon's men and women in uniform in iraq and afghanistan, they said, when we come home, we hope we will have a job, and we hope that our public leaders will work to try to help those jobs be there. and, indeed, when you come out of that theater of war and back into civil society, the structure of a job is really important to your sense of rhythm, purpose, your role in the family. so we have in oregon a robust yellow ribbon integration program to help bring employers

together with our men and women who were in uniform overseas but have now come overseas. we have so many who serve in the guard who go overseas. they don't come home to work on a military base and is it have a daily rhythm. they come home to civilian life. and so restoring and preserving this yellow ribbon integration program that was done in this bill is very important to many of our men and women who were in uniform overseas and have come home. it was zeroed out in the president's budget. it was restored in this process. i was delighted to be part of the effort to make sure that this happened. a second thing that's very important to oregon is hazardous fuels reduction in our national forests. now, our forests are drier than they were before. we have more lightning strikes due to the changing weather patterns. the and, therefore, we have had more -- and, therefore, we have had more acres, thousands of acres, burning. well, we need to invest not just

on the back end when there is a fire, we need to invest on the front end, to thin out the forest that's overgrown, to get rid of the fuels that are on the floor of the forest that increase its intensity and make it more likely that the fire will go from the ground of the forest to the can parliamentary inquir-- to the canopy andbe un. those funds were dramatically cut by the administration and largely restored in the appropriations process. we need more in that eamplet we need to do more 0 -- we need more in that area. we need to do more on the front end. a third issue affecting oregon are small ports. the last fiscal year there was no set-aside for small ports. i have many small ports on the pacific coast of oregon, as is know many states have ports on either coast. these small ports are very important to our comirks and they shouldn't be -- to our economy, and they shouldn't be

neglected. this set-aside is there to make sure they have the ability to dredge out the slips or to dredge the anchorage in general. so this is very good. and what about the debrees that have been float -- the debris that have been floating over from the tsunami in japan? the communities had to do this on their own because we had not yet acted here in this chamber. so that, too, is addressing an evolving issue. and i want to speak particularly to the investment in education, the extra billion dollars for head start and the extra billion dollars that will go to support idea and title 1 funding, large formula allocations. we have 200 school districts in oregon. those school districts are often way too small to have a grant

writer to compete in some new-fangled competition for x, y, or z. they need corresponden core fun. and this budget helps in that direction significantly. i want to say thank you again to the leadership that was displairksd the bipartisan -- that was displayed, the bipartisan leadership with the senator from alabama and the senator from maryland. well-done. i'm honored to be part of this process of trying to shape our senate spending plan, our congressional spending plan to address emerging challenges in america. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. mr. roberts: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. mr. roberts: madam president, earlier today, senators graham and mccain spoke to this

issue. i was to speak at that time. i had a conflict, so my remarks certainly are pertinent to the issue that they talked about. madam president, it has been an agonizing 16 months, but this week, through the investigation efforts of the house armed services committee, the senate intelligence committee, we have learned that circumstances surrounding the terrorist attacks on our u.s. consulate at benghazi and the murder of four americans, as told by this administration, simply are not factual. a year of news reporting and these congressional findings confirm an egregious disconnect between what the administration has alleged and the facts of what happened. as we say in kansas, simply put,

"it just doesn't add up." we now know this tragedy did not have to havmen happen, and most certainly the hard-to-understand actions and behaviors of those involved have added unneeded hubris, scandal, and conduct difficult to comprehend. this is a mess that still has to be cleaned up. it demands clarity, honesty, and simply owning up to the truth. i qom t come to the floor todaym president, to discuss this tragedy not so much as a republican, a republican senator from kansas, but as a marine. i fear our lack of truth and understanding has broken a bond, that those who risked their lives for our nation all share and believe in. the bond that if they come in harm's way, we have their back,

and we will be there for them. madam president, this is a speech i wish i never had to make. but i feel compelled to make my plea to this administration yet again and specifically to the president, president obama, to give the american people and the families whose lives were lost in benghazi a full accounting. it is long overdue. a month after the attacks, i wrote the president as a marine with the deepest concern regarding his personal handing and that have his administration of the benghazi attacks and the damages it continues to do to that sacred bond our men and women in uniform have of sacrifice for each oample other. and that extends to those who serve our country overseas in a civilian capacity as well. i am once again asking this president, our commander in chief, to actively restore the

trust and sincerity once made with that promise to never leave anybody behind. if he and others responsible for this tragedy do not restore this trust, i truly believe that the future morale and effectiveness of our military services are at stake. as i travel through kansas and speak with my constituents, regardless of their background, they want to know what really happened in benghazi and why. why has it taken so long to get the answers? many ask me directly, when will the president be forthright with the families of those killed and injured in the attacks? when will the president stop covering up the bad decisions made on september 11, 2012? most emphatically, they say, please ... please do not forget

about benghazi. however, the response has been a dogged all-too-familiar tactic of delay, nonresponse, and the hope that somehow tomorrow it will all just go away. well, this is not going away. i applaud my colleagues on the house armed services committee for the recent release of 450 pages documenting these classified hearings held over the past year. i applaud my colleagues on the senate intelligence committee for their report released yesterday detailing the events surrendering the attacks. the headlines of this report now read "benghazi could have been prevented." while the results of these investigations have brought more truth to light, they have also

brought more questions to mind. as a marine, i know there is no mission that our marines cannot accomplish or complete. and if press reports are accurate, i do not understand why our marines' rapid response unit was delayed by an hour, required to change out of their uniforms into plain civilian clothing and then ultimately simply turned away. our commanders have testified it was the state department that declined the marines at benghazi, yet they have been reluctant to point the finger at the state department. well, somebody made this call. someone gave this order. facts are stubborn things, and as morell srapbt facts are becoming public, the obvious questions increase. and the senate intelligence committee's report -- and i urge every member to read this report. it is a good report.

but in that report, it is made clear that individuals within the administration have continued to stonewall congress from the truth. i'm not going to go into every detail here on the floor. it's all here in this report, but enough is enough. congress has the constitutional duty to ensure the executive branch does not abuse its power. that power has been abused. no one who has played a role in this debacle has been held accountable. no one. let alone anybody brought to justice as promised by the president. in fact, just the opposite. we have released individuals who have returned to start working on the next terrorist attack. likewise, this report makes it clear u.s. personnel raised alarms for months before the attack. requests for additional security were made by the previous

ambassador, as early as february 2012. yet the state department's assistant secretary for international programs, charlene lamb, rejected the request because libya was -- quote -- "a political game" according to the report and the administration did not want to look bad according to senate intelligence committee's report. the absurdity and egregious behavior of putting politics before security is overwhelming. lives were at stake, and it has been confirmed that our top military leaders -- general ham, general demsey, secretary panetta -- knew immediately, immediately this was a terrorist attack and not a protest. and so did the president. we knew that aqim, aqap, the mohammed jamal network, ansar al

sharia, founded by a former detainee released by this administration were all involved. this just raises more questions. why were there no contingency plans in place? we had actionable intelligence. the british left. the red cross left. there certainly were no flags flying in benghazi by any western nation. and the consolate had already been attacked. why didn't we deploy immediately with the assumption that there would be follow-on attacks? why were those who paid the ultimate sacrifice left to their own devices that day on september 11 that anyone could anticipate would bring trouble? our generals have testified that the united states was not even looking at libya, but rather tunesia, egypt and the sudden dan. less than -- and the sudan. less than one year after qadhafi, and no one was

concerned about safety in libya? does anyone believe this assessment? given the turmoil and danger, did the state department really believe that we could -- quote -- "normalize libya" that the country was stable? this has been an incredible example of condescending arrogance and elitism putting politics ahead of protecting lives of americans. the insult is 16 months later we still can't get the truth. we now know without a shadow of doubt that there was actionable intelligence. we know that no action was taken. and i personally, as an individual senator and, yes, as a marine am fed up with the lack of accountability this administration has taken in response. i'm fed up with the stonewalling by several of those in the state department who have ignored requests from the intelligence community for testimony. the committee rules say in the intelligence committee that you

can issue subpoenas. i know that that is up to the chairperson and the ranking member and the members of the committee. when then-secretary clinton came before congress to testify, she replied, what difference does it make? the difference, our ambassador and three other patriots did not have to die. the families of ambassador stevens, sean smith, tyrone woods and glenn daugherty deserve better from this country. they deserve more from this president. and with that in mind, i think i just want to make a simple and very respectful request of the president. i simply ask that he take the opportunity during his state of the union speech on tuesday, january 28 to give those families and all americans the

whole story. mr. president, i simply ask that you be forthright with the american people. help us get beyond this tragedy. help us restore confidence and faith for our personnel living overseas, serving overseas and in harm's way that the sacred bond of always having their back is not gone. yesterday i had the opportunity to speak with 40 young marines, all second lieutenants who are just about to finish the basic school at quantico, virginia. they're going to be great officers. i hope someday some of them will be senators and congressmen. i looked each one of them in their eyes and let them know, because they needed to know, that a bipartisan majority in this senate has not forgotten about that promise, the same promise that was made to me when i joined the corps.

i say to president obama, i hope you can make that promise again soon too. i yield the floor. mr. johnson: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. johnson: the omnibus bill before the senate today is a remarkable accomplishment and a welcome reminder that congress can function effectively when members are willing to sit down and work through their differences together. the large margin by which the omnibus passed in the house is a testament to the bipartisan nature of the agreement and to the determination still in leadership of chairwoman mikulski and congressman rogers. with passage of this bill in the senate, the threat of another government shut down is avoided

and the crippling effects of the sequester will be reversed. america's vets are well served by this agreement. as chairman of the senate military construction and v.a. appropriations subcommittee, i work to provide the v.a. with robust funding and ensure our vets receive the benefits they have earned and deserve. the bill provides $63.2 billion for the v.a., $2.2 billion above last year. it fully funds a host of vital programs, including compensation, pensions and health care. and it targets funding for crucial initiatives for homeless

vets, rural health care, medical research, suicide prevention, and our iraq and afghanistan vets to name just a few. of major importance, the agreement also includes a comprehensive plan to address the massive backlog of vets' disability claims. in 2013, the backlog of competition claims for service-related disabilities soared to record levels. in march of 2013, the backlog of claims pending were more than 125 days had grown to over 630,000 claims. more than 70% of the total claims pending.

as of this week there are 400 intelligent claims in the backlog. the department has made substantial progress over the past several months, but thousands of vets continue to have lengthy delays in having their disability claims processed. in response to this problem, i included in the omnibus a 10-point action plan to give the v.a. additional tools to address the claims backlog and to strengthen training, oversight and accountability. this includes important upgrades to complete our hard wire in v.a. regional offices and $100 million in overtime and training money to work through the

backlog in processing vets' disability claims. it is critical that we do not sacrifice accuracy in the need of expediency. and my plan also includes quality review teams, spot audits and additional training for claims processors. especially important to south dakota, i worked hard to expand v.a. health care to rural vets. nationwide, nearly 30% of america's vets live in rural areas. they are often far. the omnibus appropriations bill builds on the rural health initiative i launched in fiscal year 2009 to close gaps in v.a. medical care in rural and remote areas. the bill provides $250 billion

for rural health care, including dental health and mobile clinics in rural areas, including native american populations. our vets serve the best and highest quality care from the v.a.. fiscal year year 2014 omnibus appropriations bill provides the v.a. with significant new tools in funding the current mission and i look forward to the bill's passage. i yield the floor. ms. mikulski: mr. president -- madam mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: i want to thank the senator from south dakota for all the great work he has done at the subcommittee level. he has an enormous responsibility in that

subcommittee. it's all of the military construction over there and here. many don't realize that our military bases are really towns, and they need roads and water supplies. i talk to garrison commanders like in maryland, they are small cities. fort meade employs over 35,000 people in maryland. that's a lot of people from working in the commissary to some of our most sensitive national security projects. so he's done a great job on that. but where he's really thrown his heart in is the veterans. he himself is a veteran. and one of the things early in my chairmanship we discussed was this issue of veterans with disability backlog. senator johnson led the way with senator mark kirk, his ranking

member, really on extensive hearings, due diligence, where we just don't throw money at the problem. we really were going to solve the problem. there are very specific line items here that should help really this review process, but as senator johnson has said, also keep accuracy. because if they're not accurate, then they will present other problems, either for the veteran or for the taxpayer. so he's just done a great job. and on another way, he chairs the banking committee as the authorizer, which the presiding officer is well aware in his wise counsel when many of the aspects that we needed to deal with with financial services was really very, very well -- was most welcome. senator, i must say to you you're a great member, and the

way that he and senator kirk worked was just outstanding. senator kirk himself is a veteran, was a naval reserve officer, and they knew just how to tackle the problem and tackle it they did, and i think veterans all over should know we're going to meet their health care needs, we're going to deal with the disability backlog area, we're also going to make a down payment on this working age military cola for both the disabled and the survivors, and we're going to say promises made, promises kept. so senator, thank you, and to his counterpart, senator kirk, we really appreciate what they have done. i think it has been an enrichment to the overall bill to have what's been done in military v.a. madam president, i yield the floor. and before i note the absence of a quorum, i have got to talk

about my own subcommittee. we're waiting for other senators to come to the floor. i know they will be here shortly. i chair the commerce-justice-science committee, and my ranking member is also my ranking member -- or vice chairman of the full committee, senator shelby. we worked very hard on this bill, and also with our counterparts in the house, chairman frank wolf and ranking member fatah. the c.j.s. bill that we agreed upon provides $61.1 billion in discretionary spending. it focused on community safety in our jobs and our economy. we used those priorities to guide funding decisions from federal law enforcement to space exploration. what could keep america safe, what could make america great.

we can't have vibrant communities unless they are safe, and the c.j.s. bill has money in here for key grants to help state and local police departments. the legislation we have worked on adds money to more of the cops programs that will put cops on the beat. but we also want to deal with the prevention of violence as well as the prevention of crime. this bill includes money for the violence against women. $29 million more than sequester. what it will mean is more help to local enforcement to prosecute, more money to help with prevention for those who are victims of domestic violence and to be able to provide life-saving shelters an then transitional housing. we're very proud of that. but we also want to look at as we add more police to the streets and neighborhoods in our

communities, we want to make sure that our police are safe and we were able to have the funding in here to provide a grant program to provide bulletproof vests. we're often disturbed as we talk to our local police chiefs that the crooks and the drug dealers and the bums have better equipment technology, better guns, more rapid guns or they have bulletproof vests, and our pliefers are out there depending us, so we wanted to make sure we have what we need. we have also included money in here to deal with prevention. we have money in here for youth mentoring programs but also to tackle gang violence in our communities, and this is where bipartisanship really worked. our college senator kirk of illinois, struggling with terrific gang problems in chicago, acknowledging that we

have gang problems in every city, really work very hard to present to the committee a gang violence program, and we were able to put money in that so that at the local level it can be local solutions. acknowledging the fact that schools indeed need to be safe, we have also helped create a grant program, modest in funds, that local police departments working with the department of education and the parents can come up with how to keep their schools safe. this bill also has a strong focus on cybersecurity where we have money in here to fund the department of justice to prevent attacks in case the criminals, particularly of organized crime behind the keyboard. before it was al capone raiding banks. now it's hackers, both in this country and around the world raiding credit cards, stealing our identity. over 46 million people at target

alone were taken -- were victimized by this. so this money provides money particularly to the f.b.i. and the national institutes of standards to develop the tools and techniques that actually i am -- and actually implement them to do it and to work with the private sector on advice and guidance on what steps they could take voluntarily to be able to protect themselves. we also funded the federal law enforcement. in this legislation, we have added more money for the f.b.i., the drug enforcement agency and the u.s. marshal. now, maybe you will say what is the u.s. marshal? is this the days of wyatt earp? do they ride the range? well, actually, they ride our roads, making sure they are going after the most wanted fugitives. you know when you have on tv the ten most wanted. it's the marshals that are in hot pursuit with the authority to go across state lines. they do it.

they also have the legislative mandate to implement the sexual predator laws, so they are the ones who are charged with actually finding, identifying to make sure they are following the registration and keeping our children safe. and then they are charged with the responsibility of keeping our courthouses safe. one might recall a few years ago the terrible shootout in atlanta. many of our courthouses themselves could be in danger because of -- of the violence that -- i mean when you have the type of prosecutions can also invite violence against the judges. these marshals do that job. so we feel that we -- while the high-profile agency might be f.b.i. and d.e.a. and we recognize that, there is also the marshal service.

in the area of science, senator shelby of alabama, my ranking member and i also funded america's space program. this total funding will be $7.6 billion. working with senator shelby, we wanted to have a balanced space program to ensure america's premier, premier leadership in human space and in space science and also in aeronautics. we work for the s.l.s. rocket, which will take human beings beyond the earth orbit. the bill has $1.6 billion for that development, but we also funded operations and research on the international space station. now, the gentlelady, the presiding officer might have

read recently that nasa has extended the duration and operation of the space station. it cost a lot of money to build it and there was a lot of risk of human lives to go up there and assemble it. gravity might win a set of academy awards, but we have real-life astronauts that put that space station together, keep that space station operating. and now that we have been able to accomplish it, it's time to really do the compelling research that could be done only by a lab in the sky and microgravity or no graft at all to be able -- no gravity at all to be able to do this. we look forward to being able to conduct the research and also because we are americans and we believe in the private sector, we now will have commercial crew vehicles going to the space station. it's going to be amazing. you know, we had the space

shuttle. what a workhorse the space shuttle was. it took astronauts, researchers up to the space station. that useful life came to an end. we depend on the russians through the soyuz to do that. we appreciate that, making the soyuz available, i might add, at a really hefty, hefty, hefty price. but we know we wanted to have our own way of getting up there, so thanks to the development of commercial crew, there is actual -- again, the american way, a competition for the best, most safe vehicle at the best price, and they are going to be able to do it. i'm very proud of the fact that a company based in virginia but hiring marylanders. orbital has got a rocket being

launched that now takes cargo -- an unmanned vehicle taking cargo, not risking the life of an astronaut, taking cargo to the station and bringing things back. so we also have help in here for space science to understand and protect the planet. so we think we've done a very good job in that. and in the area of also in science, yes, funding for the national science foundation and also in weather. what we have done in terms of weather, you know, most people think they get the weather from the weather channel. i bet if you're from boston like you, you are mesmerized by it. but the weather channel gets their weather from the weather service that's operated by noaa, the national oceanic and atmospheric administration, and we want to make sure that we have the best mathematical models and the best satellites working with international

partners to make sure we make the best weather forecast, because it saves lives and it also saves money. madam chair -- madam president, for every model that we can be accurate about in the prediction of a hurricane, we save $1 million in evacuation costs. now, in maryland, ocean city, we're hurricane vulnerable, so every model that we can save or the key west, all of us who are hurricane or who are nor'easter vulnerable understand this. so we put money in there, and we have also done other things to promote the economy. i'm really proud of what we have done in the commerce-justice. it's really to keep america safe, to do the jobs today and the jobs tomorrow. i'm going to ask unanimous consent that my full statement be in the record, and i note that the -- the presiding officer: without objection. ms. mikulski: that the subcommittee chairman on labor

and health and human services and education is here. i now yield the floor for such time as he might deem necessary.

a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: madam president, i come to the floor to speak in favor of the omnibus appropriations bill that we now have before us. i think first and foremost, it's noteworthy that this is a bill, not a continuing resolution. for the first time in two years, congress has returned to regular order in the appropriations process. senior members of the appropriations committee from both parties have come together to negotiate their priorities, program by program. as the chair -- chairman of the subcommittee on labor, health and human services, education and related agencies, i view this as a huge step onto a better path. the labor-h. bill, as it's sometimes called, has been in continuing resolution every other year since 2009. this is an irresponsible way to allocate $160 billion in

taxpayers' funds. i'm pleased that we're putting a stop to that kind of destructive trend here today. for the past year, i have had people come up to me and say, you know, there is no way you're going to get an agreement on labor-h. labor-h. will be left behind and it will be folded into a continuing resolution. i guess no one could imagine that democrats and republicans would be able to sit down and come to a fair agreement on health and education issues. but i think that attitude has sold our subcommittee short. i'm proud to have worked out a fair agreement with my ranking member, senator jerry moran from kansas as well as with my colleagues on the house side, including chairman jack kingston and ranking member congresswoman rosa delauro. no one got 100% of what they wanted in this bill which is often a sign of probably a pretty good deal. despite the fact that i wanted

to do more to alleviate the disastrous sequester cuts of 2013 i'd like to speak about a few of the essential investments in this bill that i hope my colleagues will join in supporting. first, the bill advances my long-standing priority of shifting the american health care system, so-called, from a sick care system to a genuine health care system, emphasizing prevention, wellness, and public health. it provides a $1 billion increase for the national institutes of health as well as major new funding for brain research and a new initiative to discover ways to prevent and cure alzheimer's disease. in addition, this bill allocates nearly $1 billion from the prevention and public health fund which i created it in the affordable care act, title 4, which i was in charge of

drafting. there's been some confusion about this fund in the news reports so let me correct the record. in the past years, resources from the fund have been diverted to other health care purposes. this year, however, this omnibus allocates 100% of the resources from the fund to prevention and wellness activities. now, it's being reported that the omnibus cuts or eliminates the fund. i read that in the paper this morning, that the prevention and wellness fund was cut by a billion dollars. well, that's just not so. that's just a misinterpretation. believe me, if it had cut a billion dollars from prevention and wellness, i wouldn't be here supporting the bill. section 218 of this bill allocates the money. that's what we did. far from eliminating the money, we identified -- we identify where that money is to go.

including $160 million for immunization programs, $104 million for cancer screenings, $105 million for smoking cessation programs, and on october 1, another appropriation of $1 billion will be deposited in the fund under the affordable care act and, again, i intend to allocate the fund then just as we did in this omnibus. if there's any doubt in anyone's mind that the fund is alive and well and fulfilling the purpose for which it was originally intended, consider this -- the american public health association has praised this omnibus bill specifically for allocating the prevention fund and they said -- and i quote -- "we are also pleased that the bill fully allocates available funds from the prevention and public health fund for the first time" -- end of quote. so again as the author of that fund i consider the alleaks -- allocation of these resources to prevention and wellness as a

major achievement in this bill. this bill also includes significant new investments to support early learning initiatives. we included an increase -- an increase -- of over $1 billion for head start. which will more than restore cuts from sequestration. nearly half of that increase will be used to expand early head start for kids from birth to age 3. in addition the bill provides $250 million which can be used to help states develop high quality early learning programs for low- and middle-income kids at 4 years old. both include access for children from birth to guarantee. and i truly believe that these investments lay the foundation for future prosperity by preparing america's next generation.

one of the reasons, madam president, it's important to reassess programs every year is to respond to current events and changing needs. so the nation was devastated by the tragic shootings that occurred last year in newtown, connecticut. so this bill provides increased resources for providing the mental health and school safety activities that we've been talking about for over a year. the bill includes $140 million, an increase of $29 million, for specific activities that support safe school environments. the bill also provides $1.13 billion, an increase of $213 million, for mental health programs such as mental health first aid training grants, the national child traumatic stress initiative, suicide prevention, and the mental health block grant. other highlights of this bill, it supports the economic

recovery by providing workers with job training, by protecting workers' rights, and education that makes possible for the maximum pell grant to rise by an estimated $85, to $5,730 this year. it allocates an additional $700 million for community health centers, so important to my state of iowa and, frankly, to every state in this nation. it provides higher funding for activities that support safe and healthy workplaces. as i said, school environments. now, most in washington know that the staff of the appropriations committee work diligently on this bill all through the holidays. we all appreciate and commend their excellent work, and i just want to thank these unsung heroes. for all of the long days and nights they put in and weekends, i first want to thank

my clerk, head of my group on labor-h., adrian hal it and her team, mark leash, lisa burnheart, robin giuliani, and terry curtain, on the minority side, laura friedel and jefferson castagna and joel p after k and on the full committee chuck kiefer for his diligence and sticking with us to make sure we got it done, on the minority side gabriel -- on our side and on the minority side bill danke on the minority side for all their hard work. let me thank the two principals who are here today, first let me thank a long-term friend, going back to our days in the house together, dick shelby, senator shelby from alabama.

these are long and tough negotiations, but the one thing i've always appreciated about my friend from alabama is he's fair-minded and willing to negotiate, understanding that it's a two-way highway around here. you know, you give a little and you take a little and we work these things out and i'm just, again, want to thank my friend for hanging in there and getting this thing hammered out. and there's just not enough accolades in my book or in any book i know that's written to say what a great job senator barbara mikulski did. she again just gave it her all, and really worked hard, i know with senator shelby, with her counterparts on the house side, to bring this bill to fruition. there were a lot of doubters who said no, it won't get done. you're just not going to bible able to hammer -- to be able to hammer it out.

but barbara mikulski never gave up, willing to stay there long hours, days on end to get this job done. so, again, i think a lot of us who served on the appropriations committee for a long time, 30 years for me, probably i guess in all the time i was on appropriations, we had three chairmen had in my time, john stennis from mississippi when i first got here, and then -- i'm sorry, we had four, john stennis, of course senator byrd, ted stevens from alaska, and dan inouye from hawaii. and we think of them as sort of the giants of the senate, well earned accolade or praise, i might say, and probably people wonder what's going to happen now that they're gone and with the sad passing a year ago of

dan inouye. well, i can tell you, no longer are they wondering who's going to take over the appropriations committee. senator mikulski has stepped in and has pulled us all together. i think on both sides, both sides of the aisle. and worked this out. so, again, just my highest compliments to senator mikulski for her hard work, her intellectual approach, her rigor in working with others to make sure we got to this point. most in washington as i said, know that these staff work very hard. there's just one other person i want to single out. he's not here, in fact, he's not even on the senate side, but i've worked with him for a long time going back to when congressman obey chaired the house committee on labor-h. back in the early 1990's. a longtime member of the house

appropriation staff, he's currently the minority clerk of labor-h., that's david risch. he's retiring once this bill has passed. he's spent his entire career working on the issues in this bill, been on or around the labor-h. committee since 1996, his collaborative nature, his insightful questions, his thoughtful questions to the drafting of this bill will be sincerely missed. so i wish david well and thank him for his dedicated public service to our country and especially to this committee. so, madam president, in light of the investments i've mentioned, plus many more that i simply don't have time to talk about, i urge all my colleagues to support the omnibus appropriation bill. given the tight budget, these are all remarkable achievements. i've always taken pride in the fact that the labor-h. bill as it's called, labor, health,

is a bill in which we invest in human infrastructure and that's what this bill does. we've had to make some tough choices but this new bill lives up to that high calling of investing in america's human infrastructure. and again i want to thank my friend and colleague from alabama. we were together on the labor-h. committee until he took this position of being the ranking member on the full appropriations committee, but we always had a good comity, c-o-m-i-t-y of working together and i appreciate it very much, senator shelby. with that, madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. shelby: i'd just take a couple of minutes and respond to some of the remarks of my colleague from iowa has said. i think he's right on point that this is the first time we've been able to bring the appropriation process, i hope, back to regular order, is what

we need, because no one wants to shut the government down, my goodness, neither side. the american people don't want it, and this is a good bipartisan effort. senator mikulski and other members of the appropriations committee have worked together on this. i've worked sometimes at odds, a lot of times together with senator harkin. i first met him 35 years ago when i first went to the house, he'd been there a couple of years, a veteran, and we worked together on a lot of issues and he's absolutely right. and i think we can't say enough about the leadership of the chairman, person of this committee, senator mikulski. she has reached out to both sides, she's wanting the process to work. so do most of us. and this is an example of this and i hope later this afternoon that we're going to get a good vote just like the house did on this bill because it's a big step to where we should be running the government up here.

i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: madam president, i appreciate the comments from my two dear friends, the senator from iowa and the senator from alabama. they've been friends of mine for decades. we've traveled together, we've conspired together, always conspiring for the good of the country, of course, and we have shared our thoughts and our philosophy and our plans, and we've often because we have joined together had better legislation. so, madam president, just a way of saying i want to add my voice to those who have spoken in support of the omnibus appropriation bill. i spoke about it earlier this morning so i won't repeat those, i want the american people to understand the importance of what we're doing.

only chairwoman mikulski could have said as well as she did, this compromise bill represents and hopefully for a long time, and i quote her, of "shutdown, slowdown, slamdown politics." i could go on for an hour. i would not say it as well as the senior senator from maryland. it shows that people here want to govern, that they've had enough of political stunts and they're no longer intimidated by extremists. they can work together to get it done. chairwoman mikulski, ranking member shelby, chairman rogers, ranking member lowey made it possible for the house and senate appropriations committees to do what we always do if given the chance. democrats and republicans come together and we forge