hear more about today. votes are likely tomorrow. and now live coverage of the u.s. senate here on c-span2. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. today's opening prayer will be offered by dr. daniel mcclure, american legion national chaplain. the chaplain: let us pray. our heavenly father, creator and sustainer of all that we are or will be, thank you for your care in our daily and national concerns. history has revealed your hand in our national affairs and how much our lawmakers need your wisdom, courage and grace. we ask a special endowment of mental strength and physical endurance in these dangerous but exciting times.

grant them the insight to know the path to follow, the road of righteousness and the ethics others can admire. we pray in your holy name. amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington d.c., march 26, 2014. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable edward j. markey, a senator from the commonwealth of

massachusetts, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president, i now move to proceed to calendar number 333. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: motion to proceed to calendar number 333, h.r. 3979, an act to amend the internal revenue code of 1986, and so forth. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i would be happy to yield to my friend, the senior senator from iowa. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i appreciate the majority leader yielding. it's been a tradition in the united states senate, usually this time of the year, when various veterans' organizations come to washington, d.c., to testify for their membership before congress about the issues dealing with the veterans of all of our wars. for a person that's national chaplain to be guest chaplain.

so this year, it's my privilege that that person for the american legion be from the state of iowa. you have heard dr. daniel a. mcclure give his prayer this morning. he was appointed to the post of national chaplain of the american legion august 29, 2013, during the closing of the 95th annual national convention in houston, texas. he is a veteran of over 40 years of military service in the u.s. army. he was ordained in 1979, and he lives in iowa now but he has pastored churches in other states and lives in yarmouth, iowa -- washington, iowa, but attends church in yarmouth, iowa. i will put a complete statement in the record, but i'm glad to have the privilege of an iowan serving as a national chaplain of a great veterans' organization, the american

legion. thank you. mr. reid: and i would say to my friend from iowa, he is a champion also. mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following my remarks and those of the republican leader, the senate will be in a period of morning business until 11:00 a.m. the republicans will control the first half and the majority the final half. following that morning business, the senate will proceed to executive session. at 11:00 a.m., there will be a series of votes on district court judges. we'll have four votes before lunch, and we'll have four more votes or thereabouts starting at 2:30 on confirmation of these nominations. we'll debate the ukraine bill during today's session and vote on that legislation tomorrow. mr. president, s. 2157 is at the desk and is due for a second

reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the bill for the second time. the clerk: s. 2157, a bill to amend titles 18 and 19 of the social security act to repeal the medicare sustainable growth rate and to improve medicare and medicaid payments, and for other purposes. mr. reid: i would object to any further proceedings at this time on this legislation. the presiding officer: objection having been heard, the bill will be placed upon the calendar. mr. reid: mr. president, the senate took a step in the right direction yesterday in response to russia's destabilizing actions in ukraine. my colleagues and i came to an agreement to vote on the bipartisan senate foreign relations bill tomorrow. this important measure not only aids ukraine but it also punishes president putin and his cronies for their unlawful aggression. but it also sends a message to the world -- we, the american

people, stand with the ukraine. i was happy to hear yesterday the assistant republican leader, the senior senator from texas, talk about the need to do more, and i agree. we need to do more. i of course was a fan as was senator menendez, the aim of the committee, the ranking member, senator corker, and our senior policy mentor around here, senator mccain, on having i.m.f. funding. so i hope we can move beyond what we are going to do tomorrow for the ukranian people. i think that based on what i heard on the sunday shows, we have bipartisan support to do more for the ukraine. so i would invite my friend, the senior senator from texas, to work with democrats to try to come up with a package of things we can do in the next few weeks so that we can give the people

of the ukraine the understanding and the basis for the fact that america will stand with them. what president putin did is wrong, it is a violation of international law, and i think it's too bad that he is homesick over the soviet union. he is one of the few that looks back with joy at what took place to build the soviet union. tens of millions of russians were killed purposely by the viciousness of the leaders prior to putin. so let's hope that he does not look back on all that as being good. we all know that he was part of the k.g.b., and we would hope that he would return to having russia a civilized nation rather than what the soviet union used to be. mr. president, as the senate finishes its work on the

ukranian issue, we'll soon have the opportunity to show millions of american families that we also stand by them. it's my hope, my sincere hope, that the bipartisan progress we have just made on the ukraine legislation will also carry us over to work on unemployment insurance, because certainly we have bipartisan -- a bipartisan bill that we have been working on for a long time. president lyndon johnson said -- quote -- "the duty of government is to help people who are caught in the tentacles of circumstance." end of quote. and that is certainly where we have -- that's certainly what we have. in nevada, 26,000 people around the country more than two million people are caught in those circumstances. usually a little bit above 50. they have lost their job because of the recession and they can't find a job and they need help, and that's what this legislation is all about.

in our country today, you will find no greater example of people at the mercy of unfortunate circumstances than the long-term unemployed. in the three months since republicans first filibustered a bill to restore emergency benefits, more than a million americans have lost their benefits. consider that in the time that was wasted by a republican filibuster, almost a million people in america in dire need of help have been told that no help is coming. we're here to deliver a message on a bipartisan basis that help is coming. people have worked hard all their lives, worrying about how to pay their rent, put gas in the car, buy groceries while they search for a new job can be demoralizing, especially when they see nothing good over the horizon. for the long-term unemployed, losing a $300 a week unemployment benefit can be the difference between going out of business as a family, literally,

keeping a roof over their children's head. and as we have heard and i have read into the record on a number of occasions letters from nevadans that they are going to become homeless. here is what one nevada man wrote to me to beg us for this act. his wife had been out of work for months. with resources scarce, the family had been forced to across between paying rent and paying for cancer treatments for their 2-year-old son. here's what he wrote -- quote - "we keep praying you will do everything in your power to bring back emergency benefits to help us in our most difficult time." close quote. this father and millions of americans just like him wait too long for action, but the senate has another thing to do to help struggling americans. in the up coming days, the senate will consider an agreement negotiated in good-faith by a bipartisan group of senators, including my colleague from nevada, senator heller. this agreement will restore benefits to millions of long-term unemployed americans

looking for work. so, mr. president, i urge all my colleagues to put philosophical differences aside in helping struggling families get the support they need and deserve. all we have to do is work together, democrats and republicans, to do what is right for our constituents in their hour of need. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: here on the senate floor, we often speak about numbers of great magnitude , whether we are speaking of the national debt, jobs or tax dollars, the numbers

can be in the thousands, millions or even billions. sometimes these numbers are enough to numb even the most policy-minded to the sheer volume of the amount of people and resources that go into running the nation's capital city. but today as i bid farewell to rochelle eubanks, a diligent, beloved and loyal staffer for 25 years, there is one number in particular i want to bring to my colleagues' attention. that number is 1,807, 181. for a quarter of a century, rochelle has been the backbone of my office, in charge of the one critical task that all of us honored enough to be elected to congress are charged with. to listen, to respond to and to

act on behalf of our constituents. first is my correspondence mail system or c.m.s. operator and since 1994 as my c.m.s. production manager, rochelle has been at the front lines of communicating with kentuckians. c.m.s. is the computerized system senate offices use to keep track of their letters to constituents. and that number, 1,807,181, is the number of letters to the bluegrass state that rochelle has sent out in her 25 years of service. it's truly remarkable. if every letter were to go to a different person, then rochelle has mailed a letter to nearly half the state. no one else on my staff has had more contact with the voters back home than she has.

and after her retirement on april 4, she will be very much missed by myself and by all of her colleagues in my office. rochelle started back in march of 1989, but her senate service extends back to april of 1982 when she began work as a mail manager for the republican conference. she also worked for senators john east and jim broyhill, both of north carolina, before moving to the house side in 1987. i'm very glad we were able to lure her back other to the senate side to work in my office beginning in 1989. now, most offices have two or three staffers working on c.m.s., but for the majority of her tenure with my office, rochelle has handled c.m.s. duties just on her own. how in the world does she do it?

well, i just do what i do, rochelle says in her usual modest fashion. perhaps the key to how she does it is that rochelle is always the first to arrive in the office, often by 5:30 in the morning. i know for a fact she can be counted on as the first to arrive at work because i recall a time or two she had to let me in my own office. i knew i could always count on as i have always called her the early bird. that's how i introduced her to my wife elaine. this is my early bird. rochelle could always be counted on to be there. because of her long tenure, rochelle has become almost a den mother to the younger staff members and interns in my office. rochelle has been with us in three different office locations, all in the russell building and every time her desk has been located near the mail room and the office interns. when new interns or mail room

staffers start their first day, they already know who to look for. and who is looking out for them. you must be rochelle, many have been heard to say. i've heard so much about you. one of my longtime staffers who worked with hoe roe shell for nearly 20 years remembers her fondly. she interacted with me the same day i came as the staff assistant to the day i left as chief of staff, he says. it was the same way she treated everybody. he didn't -- it didn't matter if you were a senator or an intern, she was always sweet and pleasant and positive. rochelle has long been the master of mass mail. another longtime staffer recalls regardless of how many bends i brought her, she always had a bright smile, a kind word, a listening ear, and a delightful laugh. all the things that make a colleague a dear friend, that's what rochelle is truly the master of.

yet another former longtime staffer says in tribute to her, rochelle, you were always the sounding board, the moral compass, tanld reality check for the people you worked with, some of who you may have forgotten but who will always count you as a friend. and while your work over the years was excellent, please know that those you have worked with will remember you for much more. the fidelity and loiltd rochelle has shown to my office is exceeded only by her fidelity and loyalty to her family. rochelle has two daughters, rochelle and india, six granddaughters, nela, albany, liberty, jeremy, melanie and little marlee, who was born just this march 9. everyone in the office knows show howe cute her granddaughters are because she proudly displays several pictures of them at her desk.

some former staffers recall years ago when rochelle would bring her then school age daughters in the office and they would show off their cartwheels. this tradition continues today with rochelle's granddaughters. granny, can we come work with you, they ask. family is also the reason that after 25 years, rochelle is taking her well-earned retirement and moving into the next phase of her life. i was thrilled to learn that rochelle will be marrying her fiance, kevin perry, they'll soon be moving to new york. of course, she'll be missed by her family here in the district as well as by everyone in the mcconnell office. but our loss is mr. perry's gain, and i wish the two of them great happiness in their marriage. kevin is a professional musician, he plays the combi gi tar and his -- guitar and his genre of choice is ranking member and funk music.

after 30 years, recently reconnected. now they're back in each others' lives and looking forward to starting a new life in queens -- not manhattan -- as rochelle is quick to point out. rochelle is a native washingtonian and of course her daughters, granddaughters and other family here will miss her terribly. but rochelle is reassuring. i'm only four hours away and we'll do a lot of skype, she says. they don't want me to stop working and they don't want me to leave the district, but i'm ready for a change. and quite a change it will be. it's hard to imagine the mcconnell office without rochelle. she is the fourth longest serving staffer in the history of my office. when she retires next fry she will have 9,140 days of continuous service. in fact the three longest serving staffers in my office today are all women who have more than 25 years of service each, sue that were, arc vis

ann moser and rochelle. forrochelle it comes down to family, her own family and the mcconnell family she has formed and grown close to cloas to in her time with us. so it is fitting that she is retiring to start a new chapter with her family. it's a very close-knit office, rochelle says of her tenure. everybody cares, everybody helps each other out. i'm glad rochelle feels that way, mr. president. i couldn't agree more. another longtime staffer and longtime friend of rochelle sums up the special place she holds in our hearts this way. for rochelle it comes down to family. to her, nationals that's the unifier. my nephew is 0 years old, she still asks what he's up to. she's that way with everybody. she's the glue. and now the mcconnell office is going to have to soldier on without the vital glue rochelle eubanks has provided for 25 years. it's a great loss not only for

us but for the people of kentucky. for all of my constituents she reached out to, for the recipients of 1,807,181 letters, each letter representing a vital link between them and their elected representative. so farewell, rochelle, my friend and thank you ever so much for two and a half decades of tireless service. it's going to be a very different office without your welcoming smile and easy laugh. congratulations and best wishes on your marriage and the wonderful new life you will begin with your husband. you certainly deserve every happiness. and it would be such a remarkable turn of events and a genuine pleasure to receive a letter from you for a change. i'd even settle for a postcard. i hope you'll send us one from new york. now, mr. president, on another

matter entirely. i'd like to start by acknowledging the majority leader's decision to remove extraneous i.m.f. provisions from the ukraine bill. as i noted yesterday, no legislation could have passed with those provisions included so i think that's a positive step forward. we're glad that he took our advice and now congress will be able to pass an effective bill on ukraine very soon. so on another matter, mr. president,, president obama and his washington democrat allies are well into their sixth year of presiding over our economy. and yet the jobs recovery they

keep promising us just never seems to materialize. you have to give washington democrats at least some credit, though. they've tried regulating, taxing, spending, stimulating, just about everything their ideology will allow. the problem is that their ideology is just -- just simply doesn't work. many of their policies just end up making things worse. and, of course, the best example of that is obamacare. they promised the sun and the moon to sell this thing, they said it would create jobs, they also said it would improve the economy, lower premiums, ensure the uninsured without causing americans to lose their insurance, their doctors, or their hospitals. the kind of claims that would have made billy mays blush. but now americans know better. evidence shows that not only will obamacare encourage less

job creation but that it's also making the economy worse, that it's driving premiums higher, that it won't come anywhere near insuring all the uninsured, and while causing millions of americans to lose the insurance and the doctors they were promised they could keep. it's also a law that's unraveling before our very eyes as we read this week the administration has now handed out so many waivers, special favors and exemptses -- exemptions to help democrats out that the hastert law, the individual mandate, may actually no longer even be viable. it's basically become the legal equivalent of swiss cheese. and there's a broader point here. if washington democrats think obamacare is so bad that they need to exempt that many people from its mandates, then why shouldn't we just remove the hardship for everyone? everyone. doesn't the middle class deserve a break, too? and why shouldn't we repeal the

30-hour workweek created by obamacare, a provision that reduces take-home pay for the middle class? why shouldn't we do away with obamacare's job-killer medical device tax, something even many democrats would vote to abolish if the majority leader would allow the vote. what i'm saying is if washington democrats are actually serious about job creation, then it's time to actually show it. and work with us to eliminate the things that hurt jobs, that hold americans back from real recovery, like these job-killing obamacare mandates and work with us to enact things that can actually create jobs, improving -- approving the keystone pipeline would create thousands of jobs right away. passing trade legislation, legislation president obama has already endorsed, would help create even more. but washington democrats need to work collaboratively with us to make those things happen yet this morning's "new york times" highlights their tragedy for

the -- strategy for the rest of the year. here it is. summed up in three words -- political show votes. get this. their plan is not to pass legislation but to time show votes to -- quote -- "coincide with campaign-style trips by president obama" -- end quote rather than take up house-passed jobs bill that would actually help middle-class americans they plan yet another year, yet another year, one more year of turning the senate floor into a campaign studio. so i'm asking washington democrats to put the ideology and the political show votes aside for once and finally join us, join us to give the american people what they've again been asking for all along, more jobs, more opportunity, and an economy that works for the middle class once again. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: morning business is closed.

under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of morning business until 10:00 10:00 a.m. -- 11:00 a.m. with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees with the republicans controlling the first half. the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: madam president, this past sunday was the fourth anniversary of president obama's health care law. four years ago, democrats in washington were confident that the law that they forced through congress would be extremely popular today. instead, the law has broken almost every significant promise that president obama made about the law itself. and americans regrettably have been left to deal with the consequences. the actual law doesn't even look the same as it did four years ago because president obama has lawlessly rewritten so much of it.

last night, word leaked about the latest change. now the administration is getting rid of the march 31 deadline for some people to sign up for insurance in the government exchange. according to this morning's "washington post," if people just check a box on the web site saying they're having trouble signing up, they'll get an extension until at least mid april. i wouldn't be surprised if another extension after that and then again beyond. remember, the obama administration said that seven million people would have to sign up buyer bye march 31 in order for this open enrollment period to be a success. that's the administration's words. but with less than a week to go, they were two million people short of their goal. that's why they're allowing this extension, because they are in a panic, a panic that not enough people are signing up. now the white house may come out and say that they've come close to their seven million target.

they may even claim that they were somehow able to find all of the two million people they needed to buy insurance on the exchanges. but looking at some of the dubious numbers the administration has released so far, we can predict that there will be many unanswered questions about the numbers, whatever numbers the white house claims to now be the new numbers. the first thing we should ask about the numbers is how many of the people signing up actually have insurance? apparently that doesn't seem to matter much to the administration, how many people who go to the web site actually have insurance. the obama administration released a report showing how many people actually went through the sign-up process on the web site through the exchanges, well, those people don't actually have insurance until they write a check, pay their premiums, make sure that they do have insurance. the secretary of health and human services, kathleen

sebelius said recently she had no idea in the world, no idea at all, about how many people had paid and how many had not paid. and she's the president's secretary of health and human services. no idea. now, insurance companies say that they've given washington plenty of information to know the answer to that question. but the person in charge, no idea. one industry official told politico, -- quote -- "if they have not processed those yet and compiled the data, that is the choice they are making. it is a choice they are making, but they have the data." so the white house can say whatever they want and they tend to do that. they have the data. they are not admitting the truth. why isn't the administration playing it straight with these numbers? well, the point of obamacare was to get people insurance, not just register them on a web site. a recent survey by mckinney

s.d.i. and company found that only 53% of the previously uninsured people who had selected a plan actually then went and paid the first month's premium. so only about half of the people that didn't have insurance before that signed up on the web site actually went to pay for and buy the insurance. that's question number 1. question number 2 is how many people are newly insured. that was the major goal of the obamacare health care legislation. washington democrats said time and time again that we needed a massive overhaul of the entire health care system in this country in order to cover the uninsured. well, many of the people signing up today with people who have signed up are doing so because of the insurance that they had, that they liked, that worked for them, that they could afford, that insurance under the health care law was canceled. the president's health care law forced them to switch. how many people? we don't know that either. one health and human services

official admitted as much. that's not a data point. they said we are really selecting of any sort of systematic way. government officials overseeing this part of the web site were not even collecting the data. the goal of the whole policy plan was to get people who didn't have insurance onto insurance. they are not collecting that data point at all. it turns out that the paper point for patients on obamacare included a question, reasonably so, as to whether that person already had insurance because it's information we want to know. but the bureaucrats and the contractors who apparently were overseen by the president of the united states who created the healthcare.gov web site, the web site that the president said was going to be easier to use than amazon, for insurance cheaper than your cell phone bill, well, apparently they just dropped the question. why did they do that? why did they drop the question that was on the paper form and leave it off of the web site to ask if somebody had insurance before?

that's what they did. isn't it something the obama administration would want to know if they wanted to be honest with the american people? the best estimate has been from this mckinney -- mckenzie survey. they figured by february only about a quarter of the people who signed up for the obama insurance were actually insured. 3/4 of them were changing out insurance. if that number holds, the exchanges might end up covering fewer than two million previously uninsured americans this year. fewer than two million people who didn't have insurance before covered on the exchange. now, think of how much simpler, how much more cost-effective health care reform could have been while still covering that same number of people. here's the third important question -- who exactly is signing up? the administration is pushing young adults between the ages of 18-34 to buy insurance. it is not happening the way the

administration wants it to happen. through february, less than 10%, less than one in ten of the young adults who potentially could enroll have actually done so. just 10%, one out of ten. insurance companies need lots of young, healthy people to pay premiums, pay for premiums and then not use much care in return. that's the only way that this works. unless more of those young people sign up by the beginning of next week, theoretically now extended by checking a box, premiums are going to jump. here's the final question -- when people buy insurance through the obamacare exchanges, what kind of care will it provide? just remember what the president said. if you like what you have, you can keep it. you can keep your doctor. easier than amazon, cheap as your cell phone. people are losing access to doctors that they have known and trusted for years. we have heard from people around the country that that's happened

to. but for some people, having a doctor won't mean they can actually see the doctor. according to the association of american medical colleges, we're facing a shortage of about 900,000 physicians by the end of this decade. some patients may be able to get to see a doctor but maybe not the one that they need. according to an associated press survey that was reported last week, only four of 19 leading cancer hospitals, only 14 of 19 leading cancer hospitals said that they accept the plans from all of the insurance plans in their states' exchanges. well, for many other patients, their doctor is going to be spending more time looking at the computer instead of looking at them, even though they are in the same office together, because of the burdensome new rules and record-keeping requirements in the law. maybe you can keep your doctor, maybe you can't. you need special cancer care. worrisome about whether you're going to be able to get that and

is the doctor going to be able to look at you and interact or is the doctor going to be staring at his computer screen instead of you in the limited time that they have because of the burdensome requirements? it is going to be bad for patients. so patients are going to be getting less care, and many will be paying a lot more than they were paying before. secretary sebelius finally conceded that the rates will continue to rise in 2015. now, "the hill" newspaper that's around, this is what they said wednesday, march 25 --" obamacare premiums are about to skyrocket." "obamacare premiums are about to skyrocket." the president said cheaper than your cell phone. about to skyrocket. reuters ran a headline that said insurers see double-digit obamacare price rises in many states next year. bloomberg headline yesterday was almost the same -- "obamacare insurer wellpoint sees

double-digit rate rise." the president said recently that the law, he said, is working the way it should. is working the way it should. the president of the united states looked into the camera, said it's working the way it should. what does he think about the people on the other side who are watching him on tv? does he realize how he is losing credibility with the american people when he makes blatant statements like that when they see how poorly it's working? i believe actually the president has no idea how the law is working, how poorly it is working or what's going to happen next. does he really think the law is working or is it just a line that somebody wrote for him and that he read? it's hard to know. does he think that double-digit premium increases are a sign that the law is working? i heard from one of my constituents the other day as we were away for the week, talking to people around wyoming, i heard from one of my constituents. he put it in writing.

he said senator barrasso -- he is from western wyoming. he said i'm sorry for the united subject of our email, but the truth hurts. i know i am preaching to the choir, but i just wanted to share my story and my frustration. i know that the majority leader has been to the floor and said all of these stories that we tell, that they are all lies. this is a person that lives in wyoming. this is what's happening in that person's life. he said we have finally just finished applying for health care through the exchange and found out that our health insurance will double if we sign up. the cost will double if we sign up. fortunately for us, we are covered under our own insurance and company until this december. our current plan is $505 a month. it has a, he says, high double, $15,000 deductible, after which it's an 80/20 split. the rub for us is the following -- under the construct of the subsidy plan, we would theoretically qualify based on our family's size -- we have

five girls -- and our income. but since our employer offers health insurance for me and my family, we don't qualify, so we're stuck in limbo. nevertheless, if we go on my employer's health insurance, we will be paying over $1,000 more per each month. if we go on the health care marketplace plan, the least expensive is 1,054 a month. so this is a significant increase for our middle-class family. he said i thought the affordable care act was supposed to help us, not hurt us. the affordable health care act was supposed to help us, he said, not hurt us. we are panicked. we are panicked on how we are going to pay for this in december. we will be taking all of the money that was going into savings to pay for a terrible insurance plan. please help us and share our story with people who say this act is helping the middle class.

i wish the majority leader were here to hear this. please share this story, our story, a true story about a family in wyoming with those who say the act is helping the middle class. madam president, it clearly is not. does it sound like the law is working for this man and his family? president obama said it's working just the way it is supposed to work. it's not working for this man and his family. our health care system needed reform, it needs it now more than ever. we all know that. what americans got with the obama health care law was a monstrous new bureaucracy. it is raising costs for millions of people. it's leading to worse care and other unintended consequences. now, these questions are just a small part of what the american people want to know. in fact, as of last night, i can think of another question -- how does the obama administration define the word deadline?

kathleen sebelius in the house the other day said hey, the deadline is march 31, not going to extend it. it's the deadline. we are not under any circumstances going to extend it. the white house press secretary said the same. are there any deadlines at all for anything in this administration? is it all on the honor system? as we start to get answers to these questions, we're going to see even more clearly that this health care law has failed patients, it has failed health care providers and it has failed taxpayers. the president needs to admit that his law is not working. he needs to accept republican ideas to repays it. americans need better access to quality, affordable health care, not just broken promises, tired excuses and unanswered questions. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from washington. ms. murray: i ask the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: madam president, our work force has changed a lot in the last few decades. 30 years ago, the majority of families with children had only one parent working outside the home. more of the country's low-wage workers were teenagers earning some extra spending money. but today, today two-thirds of

families with children rely on earnings from both parents. and the millions of low-wage workers in our country are far less likely to be teens supplementing this allowance and far more likely to be adults struggling to support their family. it's also gotten a lot harder for young people just starting out to find work that puts them on a strong path, and there is a very concerning pattern of young people dropping out of the labor force rather than keeping up their search. madam president, these are the kinds of trends that we need to be thinking about as we look for ways to help today's work force succeed in today's economy and there are many steps we can and absolutely should take to tackle the barriers our workers and our families are facing. we should start with raising the minimum wage because no one working full-time in the united states senate -- in the united states today should live in

poverty. and because the low-wage workers in today's economy who are putting in very long hours while raising their children, paying taxes and trying to pay the bills deserve a better shot at success. but that's not the last step we should take. madam president, as we are looking for ways to expand opportunity for struggling workers and families, we should be using every tool in the box, including our tax code. policies like the earned income tax credit have succeeded in helping millions of households lift themselves out of poverty which is why republicans and democrats have come together to strengthen the eitc so many times in the past. but today too many struggling workers and families are left behind under our outdated tax code. it's time to build on these efforts, to support work, including the critical expansions of the eitc in 2009

which should be made permanent, and update our tax code so it reflects the needs of today's work force. that is why i'm proud to be here today to introduce the 21st century worker tax cut act. it's a bill that would complement critical reforms like raising the minimum wage by providing targeted tax cuts designed for today's work force. paid for by closing wasteful loopholes that both democrats and republicans have proposed eliminating. madam president, the 21st century worker tax cut act would put in place a new tax deduction to help struggling families with two workers keep more of what they earn. the way our tax code is currently structured, the second earner in a household often pays a higher tax rate on his or her earnings than the first. making matters worse, when a second earner decides to enter the work force, the family

usually faces many new costs like child care or transportation. the family can lose eligibility for credits like eitc and other benefits. add it all up and many struggling two-earner families today end up taking home a smaller percentage of their paycheck than many of the wealthiest households in america do. these realities often discourage a potential second earner like a mother who is considering reentering the work force, from returning to her professional career. struggling families face a lot of challenges to getting ahead today, the very least we can do is keep our tax code from forcing families to take a half step backward for every step forward. and that's exactly the problem that the 21st century worker tax cut act will help to solve. this bill will give our working families a 20% deduction on the second earner's income.

a mom or dad who goes back in the work force and brings home an extra, say, $25,000 would get a $5,000 deduction. for a family in the 25% bracket, that means $1,250 back in their pocket for groceries or child care or transportation or retirement savings. madam president, the bill also reflects the reality that workers without dependent children and young workers who are just starting out are being left behind under the current eitc. my colleague, senator brown, has been a leader on this issue. he is a cosponsor of the bill i'm introducing today. unlike low-income workers with kids at home, workers without dependent children receive little or nothing from this credit. as workers file their 2013 tax returns this spring, a single worker with no dependent children is eligible for a max credit of only $487.

she's entirely phased out of the credit once her income reaches just $14,000 -- $14,340 which is about what a full-time minimum wage worker would earn in a year. and young childless workers under 25 who are starting out in a tough labor market, they aren't eligible at all. in an economy today where more low-wage earners are middle aged and where young people are struggling to gain a toe hold in the job market, it doesn't make any sense. our bill, the 21st century worker tax cut act, would increase the eitc for workers without dependent children to about $1,400 next year and expand the income range over which workers are eligible for the credit. and it would also lure the -- lower the eligibility age for the childless worker to qualify for the eitc from 25 years old to 21 so that young workers without dependents get the same

incentives that have helped so many others get on their feet. now, the treasury department estimated that these eitc changes similar to these would help more than 13 million struggling workers climb the economic ladder. so as we expand the eitc, madam president, we have a responsibility to do everything we can to make sure this credit is going straight to the workers and families who need it. and part of that responsibility is to make sure that the eitc claims are filed correctly. professional tax return preparers complete 70% of these eitc claims. under our bill, the 21st century worker tax cut, they would receive twice the current penalty if they don't follow due diligence requirements that we're putting in place by the i.r.s. madam president, workers and families are playing fair, and the biggest corporations should, too. that's why this bill would be

paid for by closing loopholes the biggest corporations take advantage of. the 21st century worker tax cut would draw on a proposal from my colleague, senator reed of rhode island, who is also a cosponsor of this bill. his proposal closes a loophole that lets corporations claim outsized tax breaks by paying their executives in stock options instead of regular paychecks. this bill would also stop multinational corporations have shifting profits into tax havens like bermuda and the cayman islands to avoid paying their fair share. madam president, there is bipartisan support for closing loopholes. house ways and means chairman dave camp proposed eliminating each of them. up giving tweaks to our

struggling workers is the right thing to do. as we continue this important debate how to expand opportunity to those who are struggling today we need to make sure we are giving today's work force the best shot in today's economy. we should increase our outdated minimum wage to give millions of workers a raise and then democrats and republicans need to come together to update our tax code and give today's struggling workers the tax relief they deserve. the 21st century worker tax cut would be a strong fiscally responsible step towards that bipartisan goal and i am really hope thankful we can get this done for our workers as quickly as possible. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mrs. murray: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. m.s. murray: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. morning business is closed. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the nomination of christopher cooper of the district of columbia to be united states district judge of the district of columbia. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is is it the sins of the senate that debate on the nomination of christopher reid cooper of the district of columbia to be the united states district judge for the district

of columbia shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the rule. vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, 9 ayes are 56, the nays are 43, and cloture is agreed to. the clerk will report the mo motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of m. douglas harpool of missouri to be united states district judge for the western district of missouri, signed by 1 senators. -- signed by 17 senators. mr. reid: madam president, [inaudible] the presiding officer: without objection, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of m. douglas harpool of mo to be united states district judge for

the weather district of missouri shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or wishing to change their vote? if not the ayes are 56. the nays are 42. three and the cloture is agreed to. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion. we the undersigned senators in tphorpbs with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate move to bring to a close debate on the nomination

of mchugh jr. signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: the question is is it debate on the senate that debate on the nomination of gerald austin mchugh jr. of pennsylvania to be the united states district judge for the eastern district of pennsylvania shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll.

vote: