consecutive week we've been in session to ask my colleagues to finally wake up to the threat of climate change. the evidence mounts of unprecedented and changeous changes from the latest -- and dangerous changes. from the latest inte intergovernmental report to the report from the academy for the advancement of science. congress continues to sleepwalk, lulled by special interest influence and polluter propaganda. the influence and propagandaer spread through an apratt us of -- apparatus of denial. this apparatus is big and artfully constructed.

phony-baloney organizations designed to look and feel like they're real. messages honed by public relations experts to sound like they're truthful. payroll scientists whom polluters can trot out when they need them. the whole thing is big and complicated enough that when you see its parts, you could be fooled into thinking i.t. not -t all connected. but it is just like the mythological hydra: many heads, same beast. and this denial beast pollutes our democracy just as surely as its sponsors pollute our atmosphere and oceans. some editorial pages spread the polluter party line so consistently that it appears they've gone over and actually joined the apparatus. the climate denial network

controls the political arm of the multinational corporations, the so-called u.s. chamber of commerce. polluter-funded super pacs target elected officials who don't fall in line. interestingly, often republicans -- in an effort to purify the party in a coal-fired crucible. the whole deniers' castle can look pretty daunting. but it is based on rejecting science and ignoring empirical evidence. that's a weak foundation. it won't stand. the castle is built on sand, and its fall is inevitable. remember from apcropha, "among all things, truth bearth the victory, and it will." there are cracks in the

foundation already. some leading news sources have begun to put climate denial into their policy against printing misinformation and discredited theories. they just won't print that nonsense. many executives recognize the significance of climate change and are distancing their companies from the policies and politics of climate denial. they don't want any part of that nonsense. and many local officials are doing all they can to protect their communities from the effects of climate change. they know climate denial is nonsense. it's been wrong that the climate change denial campaign has been so ignored by major media outlets. media matters found that all the major network sunday tv talk shows, in all of 2013, discussed

climate change for a grand total, all combined, of 27 minutes. nbc's "meet the press" never mentioned climate change once. when several of the sunday shows discussed climate change on february 16 this year for a grand total of 46 minutes combined, it was more climate coverage than the past three years. it's been wrong that polluters so often got their way on the editorial page, whether through a desire to appear fair and balanced or a willful effort to help polluters, newspapers still publish editorials or letters to the editor that dispute consensus science, disparage scientists or journalists who report the truth about climate change, and exage railt th exags

of taking action to stop it. often their authors have direct ties to coal and oil interests and rarely is the connection disclosed. as you can see from this chart, some papers do it more than others. the denier champ is the "wall street journal" editorial page, with eight denier letters in the first ten months of 2013. that's one every five weeks. i think they have actually joined the denier apparatus and are now a part of the scheme. but they are on the wrong side of history. on the right side is "the los angeles times," whose editorial pager last year released a note from editor paul thornton announcing they would no longer print climate denial letters.

thornton's note read -- i'll quote it here: "i do my best to keep errors of fact off the letters page. when one does run, a correction is published saying there's no sign humans have caused climate change is not stating an opini opinion. it's asserting a factual inaccuracy." end quote. readdireddit, the front page ofe internet, according to the pew research center, one in every 17 online american adults uses reddit. reddit science has 4 million subscribers. that's more than -- that's about twice, i should say -- about twice the circulation of "the new york times."

reddit science has banne banneds on climate denial, because as its moderator they'll nathan alan explained, "we require submissions to reddit science to be related to recent publications in reputable peer-reviewed journals which effectively excludes any climate denial." th"the l.a. times" and reddit science are not alone to see that the deniers' castle is built on lies. more and more american corporations are responding to the facts, understanding that they are ultimately responsible to their shareholders and customers. major utilities, for example -- pg & e, public service company of new mexico, excelon -- all quit the u.s. chamber of commerce after chamber officials

called for putting climate science on trial like the scope's monkey trial of 1925. the chamber may have been infiltrated and captured by the polluters, but major corporations get it. coke and pepsi, u.p.s. and fed fedex, goolg, apple, wal-mart -- you can go on and on. the denier castle is crumbling. many of the businesses getting serious about reducing carbon pollution are actually based in states that are represented in congress by members who won't take the problem seriously at all. coca-cola, headquartered in georgia, says this -- i quote: "we recognize climate change is a critical challenge facing our planet, with potential impacts on biodiversity and agriculture.

beyond the effects on the communities we serve, we view climate change as a potential business risk, understanding that it could likely have direct and indirect effects on our business." texas and maryland-based lockheed martin states, "from 2007 through 2011, lockheed are martin reduced its absolute carbon emissions by 30% and continues to focus on carbon-emission reductions by championing energy conservation and efficiency measures in our facilities." sprint, the mobile carrier headquartered in kansas, gets it. "we understand that climate change is a critical issue and that reducing greenhouse gas emissions is an important goal." because sprint is a large corporation with thousands of locations, millions of customers, and billions of dollars in operating costs, "we have many opportunities to

reduce global greenhouse gas emissions." the denier castle is crumbling at the local level, too. scores of local elected officials are fighting to slow climate change and protect their residents, even if in congress their congressmen won't listen. one of those local leaders is mayor frank county of des moines who i met on my recent trip to iowa. iowans are taking climate change seriously and the mayor is one of over 1,000 mayors represented on this map all across the country who've signed the u.s. conference of mayors climate protection agreement. their pledge is to meet or beat the kyoto promote to protocol en standards in that you are governments and press the federal government and state governments to improve

greenhouse gas emissions policies. with over 1,000 miles of coastline, florida is at serious risk from sea level rise. according to the world resources institute, of all the people and all the housing in america threatened by sea level rise, 40% is in florida. 31 former and current mayors from texas have also signed on to the climate agreement. texans are waking up to the threat of climate change. a recent poll showed that roughly 5 5% of texans say the united states should reduce greenhouse gas emissions regardless of whethe whether ort other countries do the same. kansas governor sam brownback, our former republican colleague from this chamber, understands the benefits of cleaner energy. he fought to keep in kansas his state's renewable portfolio

standard, which encourages utilities to ramp up generation of renewable electricity. the standard has already helped create thousands of kansas jobs. governor steve beshear of kentucky, a coal-producing state, has taken a commonsense steaningstance onclimate changee well-being of his state. "we have to acknowledge our commitment to address greenhouse gas emissions," he said. "while stressing the need forea rational, flexible regulatory approach." i have to say, i agree with him. and i stand ready and many of us stand ready on this side to work with coal-state colleagues to ease their transition away from a polluting fossil fuel economy. when you think of what the costs are going to be to all of us of failing to address this problem, the cost of easing the

transition for those who will suffer from it is easily worth undertaking. but to do any of that, madam president, we first got to break through the barricade of lies around congress here in washington. we can't keep pretending this isn't real. that's why once a week for over 60 weeks i come here to press this point. it's real. it's happening. it's not going to go away if we ignore it. there is one thing and one thing only that prevents our action, and that one thing is the politics of the republican party. and there is one thing and one thing only that makes this the

politics of the republican par party, and that one thing is the special influence of the polluters. but against the relentless facts and science, against mother nature's relentless truth, that castle is built on sand and will fall. above all things, truth bearth awabearth-- beareth away the vi. for the sake of our democracy, for the sake of our future, for the sake of our honor, it is time for us to wake up. i thank the presiding officer. i yield the floor. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call: the presiding officer: tropical storm alabama. -- the senator from alabama. mr. sessions: i would ask consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sessions: we are in the midst of a debate of extending

unemployment insurance for millions of people out of work, it's a problem for the country. according to the bureau of labor statistics the number of americans who want to work but who have stopped looking for a job is 3.1 million. over 91 million americans are outside the labor force entirely. according to a recent report in nnn money, -- quote -- "only about 63% of americans over the age of 16 participate in the job market meaning they either have a job or are just looking for one. that's nearly the lowest level since 1978, driven partly by baby boomers retiring but also by workers who had simply given up hope after long and fruitless job searches" -- close quote. as a matter of fact, we've -- we saw at our budget hearing this morning a chart that showed

that the decline in workers by age group is interesting. the younger workers had the biggest decline in percentage working, and the older, the 62 and above, are working at a greater rate than they were in previous years. so that's an interesting statistic. but we do have a problem, picture a lot of -- particularly with a lot of our young people finding work. at the same time this administration that we're having these difficulties has engaged in a systematic dismantling of the protections that our immigration laws provide to american workers producing for them, our workers, lower wages and higher unemployment. it just is. why are wages down, and wages are down as we heard from all witnesses, republican and democrat, in the budget

committee this morning. wages have declined significantly in the last five years. they've been declining at a lesser but -- rate since 1999. in fact, our review of immigration and custom enforcement published statistics for 2013 revealed under the guise of setting priorities for enforcement of our laws, this administration has determined that almost anyone in the world who can enter the united states then becomes free to illegally live, work, and claim benefits here. as long as they're not caught for committing some felony or serious crime. based on the president has said, the vice president has said, it would appear that an individual could come to america on a work visa, and one day after they -- the visa is up, just continue to stay in america, and would be able to

work and would have confidence that they would not be deported because the policy of this government is not to deport people unless they catch them at the border entering illegally or have committed a serious crime. and a recent report this week shows that even a serious crime issue is clouded. an independent report, report today, earlier this week said a third of those, 68,000 who have been involved with criminal activity in some way, not have been deported, or are not being deported. this applies not only to those who unlawfully enter the board but also those who enter on a legal visa and don't leave when that visa expires. and the president and members of congress are arguing, it appears, based on the bill that cleared the senate, for an historic surge in the legal amount of immigration into our

country at a time of high unemployment. the white house has preposterously claimed, amazingly, that an influx of new mostly lower skilled workers will raise wages, a conclusion not supported by any credible academic evidence or even the congressional budget office's own report analyzing the massive senate immigration bill. the c.b.o. concluded that the bill would add 46 million mostly lesser skilled legal immigrants by 2033, and that average wages would fall for a dozen years if it were to become law. and unemployment would increase. and per capita g.d.p., growth in america, would decline. i think for 20 years. so now the house is

considering, the house of representatives, proposals to bring in hundreds of thousands of guest workers, doubling the guest worker flow into america, at a time when we're talking about extending unemployment for americans who isn't get jobs -- can't get jobs, record length of extension of unemployment, well beyond anything we've done before. so dr. george borjas at harvard has found that a high immigration levels from 1980 to 2000 resulted in an 8% drop in wages for american workers without a high school degree. let me repeat that. this is professor borjas at harvard, raised in cuba, emigrated to america, perhaps the most authoritative student, academic, in the world on immigration and wages and that kind of thing.

he found that high immigration levels from 1980 to 2000 -- and he studied that carefully using cens us data and other data -- resulted in an 8% drop in wages for american workers without a high school degree. 8% is a lot. it's several hundred dollars a month for a person who didn't graduate from high school. actually it's about $250 a month. there's a reason why workers are earning $30,000 and less support -- if -- it's the reason why workers earning less than $30,000 support reduction in net immigration levels by a 3.1 margin. working people know what's happening out here. they know their wages are going down. they know particularly

lower-skilled people, some of young people who didn't get to graduate from high school or got in trouble, they're not having much success at all. average household income has fallen steadily since 1999 and only 59% of u.s. adults are now working. african-american youths looking for work cannot find jobs. don't want have a shortage of workers in this country. we do not have a shortage of workers in this country. we have a shortage of jobs. that's the fact. i would say how can you be so sure of that, senator? well, i believe in the free market. and i'll tell the chamber of commerce and the big hotel magnates if we have a shortage of workers, why aren't wages going up? wages are going down. we don't have a tight labor market. we have a loose labor market.

and it's impacting adversely american workers and the idea that we're going to double the number of guest workers that come into the country legally and the president of the united states is not going to enforce immigration laws and we won't use comprehensively the everify system, that indicates that we're going to continue to see a decline in wages for average americans out looking for jobs. and the president's own economic advisor, gene sperling, former director of the national economic council, recognizes this. this is his quote, "our economy still has three people looking for every job" -- close quote. three for every job. and so this senate passes a comprehensive immigration bill that doubles the number of guest workers. don't think these are workers that are going to work seasonal jobs in agriculture. they'll able to move throughout

this country and take jobs wherever. providing businesses with a ready source, a new source of additional labor that helps keep the labor market loose. majority leader reid has cited that statistic on the senate floor as well. he said my amendment, the accountability few threw electronic verification act is a proven way to help out-of-work americans. this legislation was introduced this congress by senator grassley and cosponsored by myself and senators boozman, corker, hatch, johanns, lee, vitter and wicker. so we've offered legislation to deal with this. the legislation -- and i've offered as a part of this unemployment insurance legislation, but i've been told we'll be blocked, we will not get a vote, we will -- the leader has filled the tree.

so what this proposal -- would this proposal of mine do? well, it would create some jobs for americans who are out of work. it absolutely would. it would work. and it would immediately help create jobs. and that's why the establishment doesn't want to see it happen. if you want to know the truth. so the legislation would permanently authorize and expand the everify program. that's a simple web--based tool that allows employers to maintain a legal work force by verifying the work eligibility of employees. everify works by checking data against records maintained by the department of homeland security and the social security administration. it's quick and easy an employer simply puts in a social security number and it runs bens a social security bank and comes back as

to whether or not this person appears to be a lawful applicant for a job. although in 1986 congress made it unlawful in 1986 for an employer to knowingly hire or employ illegal aliens, these laws have never really been effectively enforced. they just not have. they've gotten comfortable with this. not in having enforcement. under current law, if the documents provided by an applicant for a job to a boss reasonably appear to be genuine, then the boss, the employer, must take the application and cannot conduct an investigation or otherwise deny them a job. so incidentally, shortly after the 1986 amnesty was passed where it was promised amnesty

would not be granted again, the assistant -- the now assistant to president obama and the director of the domestic policy council, cecilia munoz was then a senior policy analyst at la raza in charge of work -- an effort to undue these enforcement provision. the person chosen by president obama today to be the director of the domestic policy council and who has been given the responsibility to deal with immigration, her history was at la raza she was given the job of undoing enforcement. she authored a report for la raza entitled "unfinished business, the immigration reform and control act of 1986." in that report she argued that congress had a moral obligation to -- quote -- "repeal employer

sanctions." and that workplace enforcement is inherently discriminatory. now, think about that. the person that the president has chosen, that's supposed to be helping us create a lawful system of immigration in the united states has as her prior effort written a paper that says basically it's a moral requirement of america to repeal any employer sanctions. this is the mentality that's running our government today. that it's morally wrong to say to on employer you should only hire people lawfully in our country. and she went on to say that any kind of workplace enforcement enforcement -- apparently which employers would be disciplined

or punished if they violate the law -- is inherently discriminatory. well, because identity theft and counterfeit documents became a thriving industry after 1986 and that amnesty, congress created the everify program in 1996. so -- so in 1996, after realizing that this was turning into a joke, nobody was really following the intent of congress, that anybody could produce false documents, congress passed a law that said we would end this game and create a system that would work, so employers were required to -- employers were required to use the everify system include the federal government, certain federal contractors and employers of certain immigrant students. that's all that's required to use it today, but the program

for other employers is voluntary and free to them, but they are free to use it and it has been successful throughout the country by any who use it. according to the u.s. citizenship and immigration service, in fiscal year 2012, 98% of inquiries resulted in a confirmation of work eligibility immediately or within 24 hours. most of them overwhelmingly immediately. you just access the computer system, you put in a social security number and other little data that they require, you hit the computer button and it quickly comes back. on a few occasions where there is a question, it may take up to 24 hours. so it is not slowing down employment and it's not a big burden on employers, and it protects them from being accused of deliberately hiring illegal

aliens if the report comes back that the social security number matches. according to a january, 2013, uscis for the overall federal government. really there is no objection to this problem. the only objection to it is by certain business lobbyist groups and certain activist immigration groups who don't want it to work. and they want to keep other businesses from using it. because it does in fact identify people in the country who are not allowed to take jobs and would keep them from receiving these jobs. so this legislation would make

the program mandatory. my amendment would make it mandatory for all employers within one year of enactment of the law. this legislation would also increase penalties for employers who do not use the system when it is mandated or continue to illegally hire undocumented workers. employers would be required to check the status of current employees but within three years, and would be permitted to run a check prior to offering someone a job. in other words, they could run the check before they actually offer the job and determine whether or not the person was lawfully able to take the job. this could help them a lot. employers would also be required to recheck those workers whose authorization is about to expire, such as those who come to the united states on temporary work visas. this legislation would require

employers to terminate the employment of those found unauthorized to work due to a check through everify and would reduce employers' potential liability for wrongful terminations if they have participated in everify. the legislation would establish a demonstration project in a rural area or an area without substantial internet capabilities, although there are not many left, to assist small businesses in complying. the legislation addresses identity theft concerns by ensuring that the social security administration catches multiple uses of social security numbers. people are using the same social security number. and that's how they have been able to get jobs, with a fake document and a false social security number. and for victims of identity theft, this legislation would amend the federal criminal code to clarify that identity fraud

is punishable regardless of whether the defendant had knowledge of the victim. this provision addresses a 2009 supreme court decision holding that identity theft requires proof that the individual knew the number being used belonged to an actual person. everify has been proven to deter employers from hiring illegal workers and will help put americans back on the payrolls. now, since i have seen the legislation move through congress, comprehensive reform legislation is going to fix our immigration policies, one of the things i have observed is that whatever works is what gets objected to. if you offer a bill that appears to work but doesn't work, that will be passed. everify has been proven and will work to deter employers

from hiring illegal workers and will help put americans back to work. so that's why we don't have any ability apparently bloomburg government study entitled "early evidence suggests everify law deter hiring of unauthorized workers" -- close quote. that's the headline. he went on to say this -- soon after everify laws were signed in arizona, mississippi, alabama, and south carolina, unauthorized workers in specific industries appear to drop off employer rolls. this prompted employers in many cases to fill positions with authorized workers. american workers.

who were here lawfully. maybe some young african-american, 22 years old, who needs a job. would like to get married, maybe raise a family. with respect to my state of alabama, the bloomberg study says -- quote -- "employment trended -- excuse me, employment trended lower immediately after the law was enacted. employers then added more crop production workers in the months before the law took effect when compared with the same period the year before. that growth in production jobs was among the largest in the nation. this study hypothesizes that authorized hires probably fill the jobs of unauthorized workers who had left the state" -- close quote. isn't that what we'd like to see when we ask people to come to

the country l.a.x.fully, we admit a million people a year to permanent residence -- residence, on a guerin teed path to citizenship absent criminal activity. we're generous about immigration, make no mistake about it but want to make sure the people that don't wait their turn, they shouldn't be able to come unlawfully and take jobs when americans are out of work in record numbers. regarding the south carolina law, the study found this -- quote -- "the number of crop production workers fell and then hiring surged as the law took effect in 2012. farmers say they added workers because their normal labor supply vanished. the study also found that -- quote -- "the state's commercial bakery industry has been losing workers and then gained them as

everify took effect." so people who were unlawfully there, couldn't get past everify, it exposed them as being unlawful, the businesses lost workers. but then they hired people back and the people they hired back were lawful workers. either here as immigrants lawfully or a native born. the study which is based on research from the pew hispanic center goes on to say this -- quote -- "the abrupt shifts in employment across multiple industries convey a similar soon after everify laws are adopted, workers drop off employer payrolls and in a number of industries new hires fill those vacant positions. the robustness of this effect reinforces the likelihood that this phenomenon is due to something other than chance." close quote. so our goal must be to help

struggling americans move from dependency to independence, to help them find good jobs, steady jobs with rising pay, not falling pay, and we need -- making everify permanent and requiring all employers to use it is one simple, easy thing that we can do to work towards that goal. and let me just say the everify system is already up. the computer system is in place. it can accommodate the increase in inquiries. it's all a computer system. it's all done instantly virtually. and so it's not as if we have got to create a new system or that we have got to add tens of thousands of people to make it work. the system's already working. it can handle larger numbers. so our policy cannot to be simply relegate more and more of our citizens to dependence on

the government for assistance while importing a steady stream of foreign workers to fill available jobs. that is not in the interest of this country or our people. so senators grassley, lee, vitter, enzi, boozman and hatch are cosponsors of this amendment. and look, we know what's being said out there. we are being told that americans want work, they are out looking for jobs and that businesses can't hire them. the bloomberg study of the everify system, how it's been implemented, would indicate quite different. but let me just share a few things here. syracuse.com had this report on january 8 of this year -- quote -- "in syracuse, new york,

thousands showed up for the destiny u.s.a. job fair on june june 14, 2012. more than 50 employers interviewed candidates for roughly 1,600 jobs. on january 29, a fox affiliate in atlanta reported northside hospital held a job fair wednesday but had to call it off early due to overwhelming number of people that showed up looking for work. the hospital was hoping to fill 500 jobs. on may 17, 2013, news outlets in philadelphia reported more than 3,700 job seekers overwhelmed municipal services building in center city for a job fair friday morning intended for ex-offenders. we need to help ex-offenders find jobs. i'm aware of a major corporation in alabama.

i was talking to a federal judge recently. and that corporation, it said they will start taking a chance on former offenders, and they found out that they are doing fine, properly examined and picking the right ones. we shouldn't be denying young people, particularly young men who may have gotten in trouble at a younger age ever from being ever being able to have a job. so one of the goals of this country -- one of the goals this country has to have is to help our ex-offenders in their employment. so the city anticipated that a big crowd and therefore they doubled the staff to handle the responses, but the crowd was still too big to handle, forcing the event to be canceled and leaving hundreds on the plaza outside. when they said they would have a job fair for former offenders, ex-offenders. on may 20, 2013, "the new york

times" reported an article entitled "camping out for five days in hopes of a union job," the men began arriving last wednesday. first a trickle, then dozens. by friday, there were hundreds of them, along with a few women. they set up their tents and mattresses on the sidewalk in long island city, queens, and settled in to wait as long as five days and nights for a slender chance at a union job as an elevator mechanic. there were more than 800 by sunup monday. the union accepted 750 applications for the 150-200 spots in the four-year apprentice program. well, there are more examples of that that i could go on, but i do believe that this idea that americans want work is not correct -- americans won't work is not correct. and if you take a person who has been unemployed for a while and place them in a position where labor is physical, it takes a

while to get in shape. if you're going to play ball, it takes a while to get in physical condition. people going into the army are not expected to meet the physical fitness test the first week. they build them up to it. so bu -- so businesses have to participate in this effort too. businesses need to understand that they're not entitled, can't expect that the government of the united states to produce perfectly fit, well-trained people for every single job that they'd like to fill. sometimes you have to hire people and train them to the job and let them work into it and learn the skills on the job. this is way it's always been in the past. it's some new idea apparently that businesses feel like they have to have so much training. and we certainly need to use the job-training programs in this country to more effectively train our workers for real jobs out there. it is a valid criticism of our

trade schools and our -- some of our community colleges for not focusing on reality. but i would say in my state, we're doing a great job of that, a far better job i think than in most states. and i saw a report recently about how mississippi is doing an excellent job with that. and i believe our program is at least as effective as theirs, if not better. so we're doing better about it but -- but businesses have always had to bring people into their work and train them and let them work into the ability to handle the physical challenges that some jobs require. madam president, i -- i thank the chair for the opportunity to share these remarks and i'm disappointed that when we're talking about unemployment in america, that we as a congress and as a senate are refusing to even allow this amendment to come up for a vote that would

without doubt work, would be fair and it would simply make it more difficult for people who are not here lawfully, who shouldn't be able to get jobs in america, it would help -- it would make it more difficult for them to get that job. freeing that position up for unemployed americans who need to get in the work force and off the welfare rolls. that's what the goal is. and we also have got huge number of welfare programs. we spend $750 billion a year, madam president, on means-tested programs to help people with lower income,

start a

quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. reid: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed -- first of all. the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. reid: ask consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid:: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to a period of morning business, senators during that time be allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that on wednesday, april 2, at a time to be determined by me, in consultation with senator mcconnell, the senate proceed to executive session to consider nominations numbered 520, 679, 705. there be two minutes for debate equally divided in the ural form on each -- usual form on each nomination, that the senate

proceed to vote in the order listed, that all roll call votes after the first be 10 minutes in length, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate, that no further motions be in order. that any related statements be printed in the record, that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action and the senate then resume legislative session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask consent the judiciary committee be discharged from further consideration of s. res. 371. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 371, honoring the legacy of jan karsky by designating april 24, 2014, as jan karsky day. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the menendez amendment to the resolution which is at the desk be agreed to, the resolution as amended be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the menendez amendment to the title which is at the desk be agreed to, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table and there be no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without

objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to seses.res. 408. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 408, supporting the designation of april as parkinson's awairnses month. -- parkinson's awareness month. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. reid: i ask the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table, there be no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m., that following the prayer and the pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved for date, time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day. following any leader remarks, the senate resume consideration of h.r. 3979, which is the vehicle for the unemployment insurance exextension, with the time until 10:00 a.m. equally divided and controlled between the two leaders their designees. that the filing dead-line for second-degree amendments be 9:30 a.m. tomorrow morning.

the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, there are two bills at the desk due for their first reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the titles of the bills for the first time. the clerk: s. 2198, a bill to direct the secretary of the interior, the secretary of commerce, and the administrator of the environmental protection agency to take actions to provide additional water supplies and disaster assistance to the state of california and other western states due to drought and for other purposes. s. 2199, a bill to amend the fair labor standards act of 1938 to provide more effective remedies to victims of discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex and for other purposes. mr. reid: i ask for a second

reading for both bills but object to my own request. the presiding officer: objection is heard. the bills will be read for the second time on the next legislative day. mr. reid: sorry about that. the presiding officer: that's quite all right. mr. reid: the first roll call vote will be at so:0 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning to invoke cloture on the unemployment bill. if there's no further business to come before the senate, i ask the senate stand adjourned under the previous order. meetings.

mr. president, as i went about my business here in the senate yesterday, i was informed the koch brothers are at it again. we know they're at it, but now they're at it in nevada, among other places. one of their puppet organizations is, i'm told, going to run commercials against me in nevada. that's quite interesting, mr. president. as i understand it, they have focused on places where there is an election. they may not know that, but i'm not running for anything this -- i have to wait a few years, until my six-year term is up. what is the issue that they raise in those ads that they say they're going to run in nevada? by my criticizing the koch brothers, i've attacked their freedom of speech. the gall of these two brothers is staggering, mr. president.

keep in mind they are the fifth-richest people not in whatever state they live in -- they have lots of different homes in america. they are the fifth-richest people in the world. in the world. these two mogul multibillionaires are so eager to force their will on the american people that they'll do it even in the face of their own hypocrisy, which we have already established some time ago. so, mr. president, i am beginning to think that april fool's day arrived a day early. you see, mr. president, it's a fool's errand for the koch brothers to think they can use their money to frighten me or to brain wash nevadans or the rest of the country. they are spending lots of money to try to do that. the people of this nation trace their freedom of speech back to the constitution, not a bank

account that has lots and lots of zeros at the end. the koch brothers are trying to use their immense wealth to buy their way around the laws and regulations of this nation to make themselves even richer. everything they do is so selfish, so self-centered in an effort to make them, i guess they want to be the sixth-richest is not good enough, fifth-richest is not good enough. fourth. they want to be the richest because that's what they are into and making as much money as they can. and there is nothing wrong with that except for what they're doing with their money. i know they say we gave money in, i think, new york city to cancer research. mr. president, what they have done to damage the national institutes of health is, it's not possible to measure that. here's the rules the multibillionaire koch brothers

want to play by. they should be allowed to say false and misleading things the false and misleading things the they should be allowed to say false misleading things about the affordable care act? but we are not allowed to criticize them for it. now mr. president yesterday i am told and this wasn't in the news and i haven't heard from the white house directly i'm told yesterday in one day more people signed up for obamacare than the previous three months. people are anxious to have health insurance. they are anxious to have health insurance. and i have been very satisfied with me and members of my caucus and people around the country standing up to these moguls and their false, misleading

fear-mongering ways. so it should be no surprise that these multimillionaire, billionaire really really rich fifth richest people in the world have decided we will try to fight in the race. mr. president there have been times in my life when i have been a little afraid but i'm not afraid of them. they can run. i understand they have spent 30,000. let them spend $300,000 in nevada. i don't care and i really don't. now these oil barons have commissioned a group of people, one of their many organizations. as i've said here on the floor mr. president most of the ads we see we think come from americans for prosperity. that is their name but they funnel money through many many

organizations. the chamber of commerce and what does the chamber do with those ads? run ads against democratic senators because the chamber of commerce is a republican oriented organization and its good to get money from the coke or others because they can hide it in the chamber of commerce. now this organization now that they are floating around that they are going to run these ads i'm told against me is called american encore. it was previously called quote the center to protect patients rights. i guess that didn't work so well with well more than 10 million people who have now signed up for obamacare. people who didn't have the opportunity before. i guess they decided to running ads against me is more important in protecting patients rights so they have come up with another catchy name, american encore.

no matter what they call their organization or the myriad of organizations they have one stated purpose, to make these oil barons even richer and if you need further proof and i'm not sure anyone does take a look at the legislation that has influenced how they have made their money. in recent years a tea party driven house of representatives has never missed a chance to funnel more tax cuts to the wealthy by raising taxes on the middle class. mr. president the vast majority of wealthy people in america today are willing to do more. they have spoken to my friend the presiding officer. there are a lot of rich people in the state of new jersey. and even though the presiding officer has worked with those people who are badly in need of help, people in new jersey have walked up to the presiding officer and said i'm willing to pay more.

the same in nevada mr. president. but every time we tried to do something here to get a few more resources to build roads bridges highways dams and systems the republicans here in congress they know. the republicans in congress do not represent mainstream republicans in america today. they don't even represent mainstream rich republicans in the country. they are driven and afraid of the tea party. now we have a budget proposal coming out today from the house of representatives. the person who ran for vice president the last go-round for the republican ticket is the chairman of the budget committee and he is coming out with a budget. it's a blueprint for a modern how would we say this? koch tobia. yeah that's it.

koch tobia. call it whatever you want, we might as well call it the koch budget because that is what they are protecting the koch or others. these proposals are called and i'm fascinated that this mr. president, the path to prosperity. well it is a path to prosperity for some people who are very rich. because that budget would end medicare as we know it. it's like the last budget that the chairman of the budget committee and the house came out with. it was slashed education funding by expending tax loopholes for the megarich. so who's prosperity has been plotted in the scheme's? today we are closer to the new ryan budget. we will have to see how much of the koch brothers agenda is reflected in this agenda and we will have plenty time to talk

about that. you don't have to be a fortunetellers to know that the areas are extensive so any and all groups wish to attack me on behalf of multibillionaires fire away mr. president. i am very happy and may be proud to be -- of those attacks and drawing attention to the unscrupulous acts of these two barons. don't expect americans to go along with their attempt to rid our democracy and handed over to a couple of power-hungry tycoons. i guess from kansas but i know they have homes in new york. watching but not fooled by the koch brothers attempts to purchase influence for whom? for the koch brothers.

>> our guest today is here because of an unspeakable personal tragedy. virginia senator creigh deeds lost his son gus to suicide in november and was seriously wounded himself in an attack why his son. this happened after senator deeds had tried unsuccessfully to get mental health care for his son only to be denied by a system he has since tried to fix and that system told him there were no beds available for care. since november senator deeds has recovered from his physical wounds and led the legislature to enactments of health reform legislation adding millions more dollars to try to prevent another family from experiencing the tragedy like his did.

the measure extends the amount of time and mentally ill person can be held in an emergency to eight hours in insures abed is available for that person unlike what happened with senator deeds ' son gus on november 19. before making mental health a signature issue senator deeds was accounting procedure known for authoring a lot of going public access to the virginia sex offender registry. he was elected to the virginia house of delegates in 1991 and left the house in 2001 to join the state senate representing bath county. he was a democratic nominee for governor virginian 2009. please help me give a warm national press club welcome to virginia state senator creigh deeds. [applause] [applause]

>> thank you for that generous introduction. i want to acknowledge my wife. she gave this up for her birthday. [applause] i also wanted knowledge so many friends and members of my extended political family some of whom have been with me since 1991. i appreciate your being here and i appreciate your support. they told me i could speak for 20 minutes and i will probably fill that up and i might scare some of you. i will do the best i can. thank you for allowing me to speak about a critically important get overt issue despite the warning signs of a system failure and despite the fact that as many as one in four americans suffer from some form of mental illness. mental health is routinely set aside by public policy discussions and in our private conversations as well. when i spoke on the floor the senator virginia i referenced

the confinement of beau radley and "to kill a mockingbird" is a good analogy for the way we deal us a society with mental illnesf mind. in order to effect change we have to bring mental health out into the daylight and have an open and honest discussion about the successes and failures of our mental health laws and services. our purpose today is not to rehash what happened on november november 18 and 19th of last year. i won't talk about the specific events of those days any more than a passing reference. the issue is much bigger than any one individual's experience and likewise i will not answer any questions about those days. when i decided to speak out publicly about mental ama said about my family's tragedy, i have three broad coals in mind. first i wanted to work to do stigmatize mental illness and do my part to bring about equity in the treatment of mental health. second that wanted to use the experience to change the law to make it less likely that others

would undergo similar heartbreak third i wanted to nature that my son is remembered more for his living than his dying. i intend to organize this talk generated around those three points. every sense of the words my son was his hero. ghosties came to this world on may 6, 1989. he was named austin creigh after his paternal great-grandfather but called gus after maternal great great uncle. from the beginning gus was bright and inquisitive and a little small for his age. in fact he really didn't grow into his brain to even average size until he was in his teen years. he was reading simple books by age three and is he grew would take volumes of the encyclopedia to bed reading. he makes people a church reciting the lord's prayer and apostles creed from memory before starting school.

that continued through high school. gus holds the record for the most perfect standardized tests as sowell scores in bath county. but gus did so much more than make good grades. he tore through it rum kidded 87 began trombone lessons of these later and taught himself to play the harmonica, piano, guitar banjo fiddle mandolin in practically any instrument he picked up. he wrote songs, entertained and perform throughout the area. in addition to his gift with music gospel could learn a new language pretty mastered spanish and could explain the differences of among the various latin american dialects. he could lecture you on the development of languages. he was learning arabic and cantonese. he had a lifelong interest in gaelic history language and culture. he was athletic. he played soccer. he started as a freshman for the bath county or city high school soccer team. he won numerous awards as a member of the high school band and was valedictorian of his class. he could sing and dance with the

best of them. he was handsome and bitty. he had it all going for him. gus and his sisters were raised in the country and at an early age he knew how to bait the hook, fire and cleaner rifle and build a fire. he loved the woods and he loved to garden. he spent many summers in the nature camp in vesuvius virginia and academic camp devoted to the natural world. he helped that camp poppy at half -- camper and a cousin. develop lifelong friendships and a deep appreciation for the outdoors and our natural resources through these camps. at an early age gust developed an intense religious interest. at the age of 20 on a one-man trip across the country he was baptized the second time born again. that prompted a renewed religious interest and zeal that his friends and family came to accept. when he returned from this trip gus and their family embarked on a new journey. our families experience with the mental health system in the care

of my son did or did not receive is a clear demonstration of the problems the society has in dealing with the issue. neither his mother nor i wanted to accept the fact that a brilliant beautiful precious son was sick. in 2010 after we divorced gus was out of school unemployed and living with his mother. she was concerned about his moodiness and his fixation on the knife he was building in the shed or that he was making in the shed. i talked him into let me hold the knife for him and is still under my truck seat. he went to the indiana dunes national park and worked there for a few months but he returned home. we still don't know what happened out there. sometime in the focus fall gus's mom went to the csp to enter a crisis center and near charlottesville. during one of my visits he spoke for the first time about going on disability. i couldn't believe my son was talking this way.

i didn't understand. he was my child but i was also an told him i wasn't privy to any of the information about his diagnosis or medication. when he came home i helped him obtain a job. he spent that winter washing dishes. my brilliant valedictorians and was a dishwasher but he was happy. the next year gus lost the job for reasons unknown and came to live with me. his behavior was even more erratic. he was manic and talked about suicide. it went to the magistrate in having committed. a short time later we went to the process again. both times gus was released from hospital with medication and put under the care of a psychiatrist. .. was bipolar, but not a classic case. he said the medication gus was on would be reduced. i kept hoping that gus would be all right.

old self when he got out of the hospital the second time, but he seemed more stable while on medication. he kept appointment with a psychiatrist and made plans to return to william and mary. i began to relax. the summerf 2012 in the summer of 2012 does returned to the nature camp. he was not as manic as he had been before. the continued the go to camp and take -- good to the psychiatrist because he managed his medication. that fall he even brought a friend, foreign exchange student, because the boy had no roast ago during the break. christmas was pretty much uneventful. he held around the property, went back in january. i went to a pharmacy, refilled his medication and left him with a prescription card and trusted him to keep it filled the bill sometime in the spring of 2013 he stopped taking his medicine. when he returned home after school while his grades continued to be good, it was

clear that his behavior and attitude changed. he went back to nature camp last summer. even in my son's illness, his heart and love was always evident. he was known that camp, even last summer, for his kindness down six campers. he always had time for lonely strangers. he was the guy that was always giving people on the street looking for a dime a dime. he was his brother's keeper, the good samaritan. as parents, we continue to believe that we continue -- can get our son back, the illness which has never been fully explained, at least not to me, has not taken over in the one -- and that's gus can lead a successful life. parents understand what to do when their child has a runny nose or a fever or even a more serious physical element. what about mental illness? and we as a society long to cure

or find treatment for physical illnesses such as cancer or heart disease, alzheimer's. we also look for cures, we ought to look for treatment. what about mental on this? as a society we treatments of a some us differently than we treat other illnesses. not only are we embarrassed by it, we act as if the brain and nervous system are not parts of the body. if my son had cancer or heart disease we would have known what to do and gone -- know how to pay for it. with no wellness there is no assurance. two generations ago we began the process of institutionalizing the mentally ill, closing the warehouse where people were kept. we decided that we could save money and protect an individual's civil rights by providing caring communities. some of our instincts were good. our implementation was a failure. men and women with one -- we have never accurately funded a system. the result has been the

community service boards in virginia sen so much focus on looking for money that the urgency for care is lost. not only is their lack of equity in insurance payments for mental illness, there is a desperate lack of services and some parts of the country. across the river from this building is one of the most affluent parts of virginia. there are many other reasons where unemployment is high and people are important. graduate students, medical school graduates to finish school with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt are not likely to want to practice in those areas. they want to go where they can make enough money to repay that debt and live well and who can blame them? and and those who rate -- complete the requirements certainly don't flock to rural virginia. so the travel that is bad enough places is worse in rural areas than in inner-city is. not only is it impossible sometimes pay for psychiatric care, but in many places the care is just not available.

last november as i tried to put my arms around my new reality, i began to wonder about the law and how to affect change, real change. decided on a two-pronged approach. we're interested in finding ways and progresses. moi that of a loved one is in crisis sickened petition a man to -- magistrate. law-enforcement well serve the order moi one-man they can be extended for another two hours was changes when we followed that virginia tech tragedy. the person is deemed to be a danger to himself or others the evaluator obtains a 48 hour detention order from a magistrate. several changes seemed obvious. the mental health professional conducting evaluation needs more time to make that evaluation. any better tools. rather than having to call each individual facility.

limited bed space throughout virginia should not result in a person in price is being denied treatment and sent back home. think about it. from under existing law the magistrate cannot issue a temporary detention order, a cbo, even if that person needs the criteria and tell a bed has been identified. that makes absolutely no sense. an emergency room cannot turn away a person because the er is full. police officer does not wait to arrest a murder suspect or bank robber until jail space. when a crisis emerges our system's response to protect the individual in the community. why should a mental health crisis be any different? the changes that we make to that process are simple, and i saw george barker and barbara bowl here. they were both part of it. first, we added a requirement for law enforcement to notify the local mental health agency tasked with completing the evaluation.

the community service boards upon the execution of emerging. mind by as a result hours may pass it will evaluate even lays out the personal crisis. that lack of notice is a tragic law allowing precious time and a life or death situation to be lost. second, we mandated that a real time psychiatric beds registry be developed and made available immediately for use in these situations says. working on a register for many years. it will go for now. in fact, and relievers and other as to when online. in evaluating will no longer waste time calling each individual facility looking for a bed. third, we would like the evaluation time to be eight hours, particularly in rural areas, traveling each of

valuable time. we require the provision of a state better hospital bed so up to that if a private debt cannot be identified. the state hospital as an additional four hours to find an appropriate facility and new if another place makes more sense. what all that means is that a person's determined to be in need of service will have a bed the end of eight hours. the practice of streaming where someone in crisis is a danger to himself or others is a release because beds cannot be found on the luggage a place in virginia. every one of these situations is life-and-death, and is critical change can save lives. among other changes that we may, we also extended a temporary detention order from 48-72 hours which will ensure there is sufficient time to properly begin treating and stabilizing the individual. after the 72 hours if additional treatment is needed a civil commitment hearing can be held before a judge in the person can

be committed for an additional 30 days. these changes were described by the "washington post" as modest. i would agree, but they are significantly changing. i am convinced it will save lives. the second prong of my approach was based on my belief that there are organic problems in the viejo system for delivery of mental health care services. finding fixes will not come quickly or in extensively. in the past small legislative victories diffuse the pressure for change in the sense of urgency. given the degree of success people lose focus despite significant problems that remain i hope and pray that will not be the case this time. when i went to the general assembly this past january there had been six weeks since the incident and it was the first time i had been publicly visible there were many people, some my friends, who were shocked. some even relieved by my parents. nobody lost sight of our

incredible needs in the area of mental health. not when i was there every day with stars in tears. i promise you i have not lost my focus. now the real work begins. we have done the easy things, best failures in the process that my situation exposed. to be clear, i am not saying that my situation occurred because of flaws in the law. i do not believe that for a minute. believe this sadness my family went through last november and continues to endure can be prevented, but with the changes in the law we have ensured that in the future families with similar sets of circumstances will not suffer as mine did. i know we prevented future tragedies, but we have some much more work to do. while legislation addressing crisis interventionists the -- receive the most attention the most significant legislative proposal that passed was the steady resolution. steady resolutions are introduced in killed every year

as a matter of course. the government is also often ridiculed for studying things to death. so the virginia legislature has typically avoided him but this year we made the case that our mental health system has such fundamental problems that a thorough, comprehensive, and collaborative examination would be needed in order to develop solutions some of which would be difficult to reach and some of which may be expensive. senate joint resolution 47 creates a 4-year legislative study commission to examine our mental health care delivery system. out of that process i am committed to making improvements to ensure the efficient delivery of servers at every corner and divine adequate funding for those services. we can start by reviewing the reports prepared by our inspector general. for example, one study expose is that our system has a shortage in psychiatric beds because state hospitals are slow to release patients. the study will serve as a way to

keep mental health policy at the forefront of our discussion, and i am hopeful the end result will be a model for other states. in the beginning of the study my mind is completely open. there are no sacred cows within the current system. everything is on the table. i do not buy into the argument, at least not yet, that we need to spend more money. nothing about my family's experience of our system in virginia expires confidence -- inspires confidence. i am reminded of the biblical story of a jewish teenager who ended up in the babylonian king souse as queen. he was faced with a moral dilemma that would require her life to be put at risk, she said the jewish people. she acted in response to questions. who knows but that you will come to your row position for a time such as this. i am not suggesting that my situation is as great, but through a loss of my son i was face-to-face with the efficiencies of the system that i and other legislators created.

phar-mor simply, i could either be lost in my grief or i could act him. i just act. one of the most heart wrenching response to my family's tragedy has been the letters, e-mails, phone calls, even facebook messages from people all over the country, frankly, who have gone through similar tragedies. i am a member of the state legislature. my name might be the easiest name, but i am fairly well known that this could happen to me and my family during a sitting in a lot of media attention. the reality is that people die and are heard frequently in very similar circumstances. back to miss some of the worst tragedies we have seen in this country have been because of persons not receiving proper care or treatment toward the ellis it being ignored or underestimated and tragic consequences pursued. even last fall took my son kamal but i survived. i hope the result of my survival is that my sun is remembered for

his living and not for his dying , that we improve our laws, prevent future tragedies demand that we finally do stigmatize mental-health illness and but mental health care on equal footing. virginia has an opportunity to lead that we cannot afford to pass up. we have a lot of work to do and go to the memories of my son and the other lost children, parents, siblings, france. thank you. [applause] [applause]

>> thank you, senator. you talked about how this is not something that is a 1-time issue that can be solved with one action and one piece of legislation. what can be done to keep mental health issues at the forefront of lawmakers mines in the subsequent years and how about in the minds of the general public? >> as i said, you know, this past session there were some people that did not think i was going to show up. these guys have supported me all these years, knew that i would show up, but there were people that did not think that would. so when i was there every day and when i was red knight and red-faced, that kept people in the forefront, but we have this study commission created. we actually -- it's a pretty strong commission that is going to be for four years. it has bipartisan support and my stars are not going away.

i can tell you that as long as i am there -- and there are others that are going to make sure is is there, at least in virginia, the number loon five vote of. when i the problems with the passes study resolutions of the past few years has been the majority. well, i went to the speaker and chairman of the appropriations committee, both of whom i've known for a long time. and let them in the eye and i did not get any knows. i got -- they were behind what we're doing. they understand that we might be doing something very big in virginia and that we might need to spend a lot of money to fix the situation. i can tell you that it just

takes determination. we have an opportunity now in virginia to lead. i hope we're going to. [applause] >> does the legislation in virginia go far enough or is it a first of toward something else ? >> you know, last november, you know, and i was in a hospital bed trying to think about what we do. believe me, not done, but in terms of the legislation i knew what we had to do was to address the question. and that's just incremental. that is the part that in my situation we could find ways to address that. honestly, there were not on my ideas. george parker, robert corolla,

and others are involved in developing those ideas, a democrat and republican developing those ideas, but because of the -- you know, i believe there are bigger problems in our system. our system is not unique. think there are problems in systems all over the country. that is why i pushed the study resolution. this was an incremental change. we changed an important piece of the middle of a picture of virginia power of care, but the real work, we have to perform the system. our work will be a failure. spend four years looking very hard and very intensely at the virginia process to see what works and what does not. we have to come back with real changes of the next four years. in virginia at least it's incremental, the change we have bad. did they go far enough? well, i think we changed the we could change this year.

politics, government is about compromise and it's about accomplishment of what you can. is not about what you wish. it's about what you can do. we want to do more. [applause] >> what about next year? you planning to wait for the results of the commission's work or do you plan on more legislation on this topic next year? >> the study resolution calls for a report at the end of the two years. in 2015 and 2017. we'll have legislation basically in 2016 and 2018, but ag good idea sprang up before then, we will introduce it. you know, my goal basically is to make the system into a system that works for every part of virginia. we might already have it in place. i don't know, but i won't know until we conduct the study.

the plan right now calls for legislation in 2016 and 2018. to get idea. we will go forward. >> can you comment on the handling of the ig investigation given the concerns that were voiced last week by the author of the report? >> sure. in no, i met with mr. bloch, the week after i got out of the hospital. i found him to be compassionate, knowledgeable, and determined to get to the bottom of this situation. i also, you know, once i found out about this to us to of report my embarrassed to say i did not know he had made a report in 2012 that would have addressed many of the issues that were exposed in my incident . i have looked at that report. i talked after mr. blogger

resigned in early march to late february. i met with the inspector general who assured me that there were differences of opinion about some of the opinions that he was only changing. all the recommendations would go forward. you know, the inspector general's are retired fbi guy. i kind of have faith in the law-enforcement community. i think his comments but and! as to the inspector general's report. makes clear that we have big problems in our mental health system. i wish him we had and the results of the inspector general report prior to the passage of all the legislation because i think that would have reinforced a lot of what we were trying to do and perhaps allow us to go a step to further.

>> the investigator, of course, resigned in protest. >> i'm okay with the report. obviously there were other investigations as well. state police conducted a pretty thorough investigation. i think the inspector general's report is consistent with the findings call with the investigation, i think he probably would have taken it a step further. i am not, i don't know that the inspector general's findings are inconsistent with the state police report. i think it's all out there. i'm not that concerned. >> one of the things the report recommends is decentralizing the virginia department of behavioral health into regional stories. do you think that more authority

on mental health treatment in virginia should move away from virginia? >> some of those guys that generally believes the government close to the people is the best and most responsive which would totally be an ideal that is on the table before the study commission. we have not even started the work of the study commission. it is premature to say that in the approach is going to be taken. >> the blame any individuals or organizations for possible failures are do you think that what happened is representative of a larger problem of mental health care in virginia or the nation? >> en no, some things are just not going -- i just want to talk about. i think that what happened with this is a system failure. both for the people at fault,

the organizations of fall, but it is representative of what can happen just about anywhere else and what does happen other places. that does not leave the individuals who are in positions to do something without responsibility for their actions . >> what was your opinion averaging is that the health system prior to an bachmann with your son? was the need for reform clear only once you got a close of you or was it something that you had paid attention to before that? >> that is a great question. as legislators, you know, my primary connection to the mental health systems was strokes from the sea is becoming to me in telling me that any more money, more funding. and i visited with the community service boards, gone to many functions greece various service boards in the area represented, but it was not really something

that was at the top of my agenda. my son for the last three years of his life, three, three and a half years of his life was pretty difficult. i was in constant contact, at least when he allowed me because when your children are over 18 you cannot make them go to the doctor. you can make and take the drugs to make them return phone calls or keep appointments. so i was pretty constant contact with the community service board folks or with not necessarily this esp people, but i was in contact with them. a psychiatrist would not talk to me. and i can't -- i can't -- i cannot tell you that reform was really on my mind before all this occurred. the only issue that really ever came to me was we need more money. you know, i want to point out, i think that there are c.s. be in

our state that function well. the ones that function the best are those that receive funding from local governments that we don't do a very good job of finding in virginia. but that does not excuse everything. that does not excuse what happened to my cyber. [applause] >> a couple of questions on patient privacy and family or parent access to information that you referred to a couple of times. what changes if any would you propose an confidentiality laws regarding mental health professionals communicating with families of the people they're serving? >> it is very difficult for me to talk about that at the state level. we are driven by a hit book, the federal law, and there is little that we can do with the state level to undercut some. now if i were the king and changing things and a big scale

i might reform pippa. young people with certain mental illnesses have a kind of curve between the ages of 18 and 35. perhaps parents need to be more involved in those years with young people. sometimes the only thing you know about is the bill is comes in a nasty paid. you are welcome to pay the bill. the kid might be 25 or 30 years old, but there are still your kid. that is very difficult. so i would probably make major changes if i were at the federal level, but not the federal level and have no desire to be. >> we have to remember two things, i think. first, we were there because we were attacked in new york city. 3,000 americans were murdered. that is why we went to afghanistan, to get those people who were killing us. second, president obama has

said, there is a limit to this. within two years we are not doing any more. i agree with you, julie. at some point you have to let them do it. but in our -- our first goal, if we get away from the afghans and look at what our first goal was, if i had told you or any of the listeners in 2001 none of us would have believed that. because at that point gus had more of an advantage. now we really have them on the defense's. and so we can, at this point, get out most of our forces from afghanistan. so i agree with you, but we have been successful in what we really wanted to do as a country which is to protect ourselves. >> of vietnam veteran, assisted the said -- assistant defense secretary during the reagan administration, analyst and

author will take your questions and then apply for three hours sunday on c-span2 book tv. >> at timber town. you would not know to look at it today, but timber qualities are almost completely removed. yes. it was a timber town to begin with. at the height of the timber industry, if you were to drop been in 1928 you would have smelled the mills, smiled sawdust if you went through certain parts of town you would get sawdust on their clothes. you would hear periodic will missiles from the two gigantic supermodels that were on the banks of the river. it would have permeated everything. would have been ten minutes off from the downtown corridor where all of the shops were, but you would see the smoke from the smokestacks and the burners and

smelled it and heard the whistles and known right away that you were in the middle of timber town, usa. ..