if you talk to the veterans all over the country come if you talk to their organizations, the vietnam veterans and all of the other organizations what they will tell you is once people are in, the quality of care is good. the quality of care is good so to my mind what we ought to do is provide better management but we also want to make sure every facility in the country has the staff they need to drive the quality care that our veterans deserve. i think implicit in the problems we are seeing right now is because of iraq and afghanistan and the aging population you have a lot of healt healthcare problems, complicated problems. we've seen in the last four years 2 million people coming into the system and that has overburdened the system and it appears parts of the country we don't have the resources. >> our guest, 205-3881,

(202)585-3880 for democrats in the (202)585-3882 for independence. (202)585-3883. c-span wj and e-mail the journal@c-span.org. shreveport louisiana on the line for senator sanders. >> caller: good morning. mr. zander resigned from shreveport louisiana, i am a republican and i admire you so much. you tell it like it is. i appreciate your honesty i would like you to run for president. this is the only time i voted for a democrat but i think you are very smart and i think you care about people and i want somebody new in their. >> guest: thank you very much. i'm an independent by the way, not a democrat or republican but thank you very much. >> host: woodstock virginia you are up next.

>> caller: good morning, senator sanders. i'm an independent also. my father was 26 year navy veteran disabled. one of my uncles is a 100% disabled vet and the korean war and my brother a core man for 20 years and i spent years with various agencies. my comments are brief. one, my father got excellent care at the naval hospital and i know that your bill expands efforts to the veterans, some qualified and some not. and that the dod facilities service the needs of some of our veterans. my aunt who was a disabled

korean veteran and two years ago yesterday he passed away. she was just at bethesda and was one of only three patients on the in the facility. i don't want to go into my background in supporting all kinds of things that other viewers may no not, but i agree with you there has been much lip service over the numerous administrations as to how they have to better serve our veterans. and unfortunately many of the loudest voices including your cosponsor senator mccain who has been going through much trauma but as you said put the money where your mouth is. >> guest: thank you for your service to the country.

i think you hit the nail on the head. the war does terrible things to people. i remember 25 years ago we had a meeting with some veterans from world war ii and korea and they were telling us they still wake up in the middle of the night with terrible nightmares about what they've experienced and many don't even talk about it and that leads to alcohol and so forth. so, if we send people off to the war and some of them never return and some of them turned wounded in body or spirit, some people, let's not talk about not having the money to take care of those people. if we have the money to send them off we have to understand it is a cost of war. and if we can't do that and we

are not much of a country. >> host: who is responsible for monitoring the facilities? >> guest: the va itself. you have the committee in the house and the senate. >> guest: >> host: as far as changes going forward will they make sure the wait times and other things are considered? >> guest: absolutely. if i'm not mistaken they fall ready done away with the standard. it couldn't be reached and incentivized so that's gone but what we do want to do is pick sure that veterans whether it's 20 days or 1 18 days whatever it may be and again in my state as i understand 98% of people are getting care within a month which is good. >> host: the director cleveland pulled his name from consideration as the next secretary. what were your thoughts on him becoming a candidate? >> guest: here's what i worry about. if you look at all of the

attention and the difficulties involved i hope that we will have somebody fight for the courage to come into that where there is so much criticism so i look forward to working with the president. >> host: courage in terms of what? >> guest: it's a very controversial area. most people walk in here and we have two congressional committees and everybody in the world so it is going to take somebody that has a whole lot of knowledge, has a whole lot of concerned for the veterans in the country willing to take the heat. >> host: is there an ideal candidate that you would say should take the position? >> guest: if i mentioned them on tv they would no longer be the ideal candidate. >> host: no indication you want to share with the audience? next call thomas. >> caller: good morning,

general. i am a marine corps veteran and i served in camp regime back in the 1950s and the water has been contaminated since the early 1940s and it was kept secret by the marine corps until the 1980s. for 30 years now they have done study after study after study and now they are trying to use a law. we try not to do anything about this contaminated what are. now, i am dying from theresa marsenbural s. we are dyingever0 years now and any help that you could give us, sir, i would appreciate it. thank you very much.

>> thank you very much. this is an issue that we have discussed in the committee and i absolutely agree we have to be as aggressive as we can to address that. >> host: evelyn from vermont and she is from speed [inaudible] >> caller: first of all my husband is a retired veteran. he served both in iraq and afghanistan. i think i would have realized then what was going on, but when you're i in the very spells all you care about is your husband coming home. he got a job right out of the gates started working for three months and one day he came walking in the house and he said i'm sorry i let you down but i lost my job today.

i asked him what happened. my husband is a hard working man. most veterans are. but he said he was a mechanic said he was driving these cars and he said it's like i wasn't there. i knew immediately. i took into the va hospital and i told the nurse you will see my husband today and they did. since then he's gotten the best care. we decided to retire here in vermont which wasn't our first choice. we didn't know where we were going to retire to be honest about the have a lovely home and we are here now. i want to know with all of these people and all of the problems that we have going on, my father was in the service, i was in the service if i married a servicemen for my entire life that is all that i've ever known. but one thing that is consistent that i have seen is the lack of

care and the va hospital is not just the administration. i think what it is is people get so comfortable in their job there is no recourse it's like i can sit here like the gentleman earlier today said it's like i walk in and he's sitting here drinking coffee reading a newspaper when he should be working. >> guest: first i'm glad that your husband got good and prompt care. it's an excellent facility. i think most veterans would conquer with you. currently we have 300,000 employees. no one suggested every single one of them is doing all that they showed that on the other hand but i would say is that many of those employees are veterans themselves. and many of them see what they do is not just a nine to five

job but it's a mission. they understand what the veterans have gone through and many of them go above and beyond the call of duty. and i think sometimes you get really exceptional care but i won't argue with that. as in every area of life. >> host: some of the viewers this morning talked about patient advocate. is there need of improvement as far as the go-between that patient and the doctor? >> guest: the answer is maybe. and many of the service organizations play that role in the american legion and the vietnam veterans to play that role so they will come in and say to somebody, you know what, he didn't get the care that he needed or there is a problem here and you'll hav you will hay directors meeting on a regular basis with the service organizations but i think they should be open to new ideas. >> host: you asked if you and senator mccain's bill would be

voted on before the congress goes on a break. >> guest: i certainly hope so. the staff have been working tirelessly on this and we managed to get it to the floor last night. the majority leader wants to push it as quickly as possible so i hope that we would have a vote on it. >> host: from jupiter florida this is aubrey on the democrats line. go ahead. >> caller: i wanted to ask you a while back i read a bit of a petition going around for a single-payer system, and i notice about the veterans and i want to say that my dad died in a veteran hospital in boston from cancer. six kids in the family. if he hadn't had the va, i don't know what we would have done because he was sick for a long time and my father was also a vietnam veteran so we have world war ii and vietnam. the single repair thing i'm hoping that the aca is going to

lead to this because there is a lot of redundant in the system. in so many places you have to find a way to use it and people say -- >> guest: i think your point is well taken. as a nation, we end up spending almost twice as much as other countries and yet we still have some 40 million people that have no health insurance and many more that have high deductibles and high copayments. the reason for that is in many ways let's be frank about it. the function of health care isn't to provide quality care to all permits for insurance companies and drug companies and suppliers in many cases to make a lot of money and that creates a very, very bureaucratic and wasteful system. so i am a strong advocate of the medicare for all and a single-payer program and i hope

that vermont leads the nation in that area. i happen to believe from the bottom of my heart that healthcare is a right whether you are rich or poor everybody in our country should have access to good quality health care and i believe we should do that without spending any more than right now. >> host: joe from rockville maryland on the independence line. >> caller: good morning. senator, you have nothing to be proud about. your oversight role with the va is a scandal. people are dying and are miserable. what i want to talk about in particular are the union workplace rules. and i heard a very casually the union doesn't allow any surgeries after 3 p.m.. how wasteful -- >> guest: who told you that? >> caller: >> guest: don't believe that's true. >> caller: do they help you get reelected? what is your relationship to the

unions? we know about the workplace rules. >> guest: do i believe in trade unions the answer is yes. if you are interested in how ie raise money for my campaign that is unique. i raised more individual contradictions than anybody else. my average contribution is $47 so i don't get money from the brothers and other billionaires. the vast majority of my money comes from small independent people who are -- >> washington journal live everyday at 7 a.m. eastern. we'll leave this portion now as the senate is returning following their weekly party meetings. live coverage on c-span2 afnlgt i urge my colleagues to work with us to brighten our nation's future by turning the tide against the growing student loan debt burdens that threaten to hold back this generation of americans. since 2003, student loan debt has quadrupled. it has surpassed credit card

debt and is second to only mortgage debt for households. we know that borrowers are struggling with this debt. delinquency rates are higher for student loans than other types of detect. default rates have risen. the national association of realtors, the consumer financial protection bureau, the pew research center and others have begun to sound the alarm about the broader impacts of student loan debt on our economy. homeownership among young people has fallen. young households with student loan debt has accumulated seven times less wealth than the debt-free peers. the student loan rate was 3.68% this year yet many borrowers locked into loans at 6.8% with no way to refinance. the government accountability office estimated the federal government would earn an estimated $66 billion from student loans originated between

2007 and 2012. surely we can afford to give these borrowers a break and reduce their interest rates to at least what was agreed to in the bipartisan student loan certainty act that was signed in to law last year, which still sets rates too high in light of the fact that the congressional budget office estimates show that student loans will still generate revenue for the government, even at this lower rate of 3.68%. that is the simple premise behind the bank on student emergency loan r refinancing ac. and i am a proud cosponsor with senator warren. i want to is lieutenant her for her leadership, insight, and advocacy for students and families across 24 country. on the othethe other side may dt this requires urgent senate action. but for estimated 25 million americans who would benefit from refinancing, including 88,000 in

my home state of rhode island, that is cold company. we can provide relief for student loan borrowers. looking forward, we need to work together to tackle the student loan debt, rapidly rising college costs and the rollback of state investment in higher education in public colleges throughout this country. we need to renew our commitment to the core principle of higher education act that no american should be dinned the ability -- denied the ability to go to college because th because theiy lacks the means to pavement we have a shared spojts at the federal, state, local, institutional and individual levels for investing in our people. my generation benefited from this kind of investment. this and 2350u67 generations should have similar opportunities to develop their

talents and pursue their dreams in order to secure a brighter future for them and for our country. tomorrow we begin voting to move forward on legislation that could provide relief to as many as 25 million americans struggling under the weight of student loan debt. for these people, this is not a political stunt. the legislation will enable student loan borrowers to real estate duce their interest rates, reducing their payments. when rates go down, you can refinancial other types of debt. student loans should not be an exception. this student loan debt relief is fully paid for by addressing an inequity in our tax code a louse millionaires and billionaires to pay lower rates than regular middle-class americans. student loans are supposed to help people get ahead, not serve as a ball and chain that weighs them down. i urge my colleagues to support

this legislation. with that, madam chairwoman, i would yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: without objection, the clerk will report the 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 lael brainard of the district of columbia to be a member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, signed by ^17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of lael brainard of the district of columbia to be a member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture cloture. the clerk: cloture motion. we the undersigned senators in according to with the provisions of rule 22 hereby move to bring

to close debate on the nomination of jerome h. powell of maryland to be a member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. kwet is, the question is: is it the sense of the senate that the nomination of jerome h. powell of maryland to be a member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays have been ordered. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

# the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? if not the vote is 58 ayes, 36 nays, the cloture motion does pass -- is agreed to. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion.

we, the undersigned senators, hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the nomination of stanley fischer of new york to be vice chairman of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, the yeas are 56, the nays are 38. the motion is agreed to. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. begich: i ask unanimous consent that the senate now resume legislative session and proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. begich: mr. president, thank you very much. i'm pleased to be here today with my friend and colleague, senator murray, to talk about social security.

i'm going to spend a few moments discussing the bill we introduced yesterday and then turn it over to senator murray. as you know, social security is one of the most important programs ever established in this country. after 75 years, social security continues to deliver as intended. it is a promise to americans. the promise is simple -- if you work hard all your life and contribute to the system, then social security will be there to help make ends meet when you retire. or help out the family if a worker dies or disabled. let me be clear, despite the naysayers, social security is not a handout. social security benefits are linked directly to the amount that retirees pay into the system through a lifetime of hard work. but times have changed and we need to make sure that the promise of social security continues in a meaningful way. that's why senator murray and i introduced the retirement and income security act yesterday

which will call -- which we like to call the raise act. it is a commonsense bill to update, enhance and protect social security in a fiscally responsible way. when it comes to fairness, this bill is a small but important step for seniors, for older women and for families of deceased or disabled workers. it makes sure that the modest benefits of social security will go in -- go to everyone who deserves them. the raise act has three major components. it will first improve social security benefits for divorced spouses. under current law, the divorced spouse only gets benefits from a former spouse's earnings if they were married for at least 10 years. under our bill, eligibility rules would be phased in beginning at five years of marriage. the spouse would be entitled to 60% of the benefits after six years of marriage, 70% after seven years, and so on. second, our bill would enhance benefits for widows and

widowers. it establishes a new enhanced benefit for widows and way todayers where both spouses have -- widowers where both spouses have retired. an alternative calculation in the bill will use both spouses' benefits, deceased and surviving, rather than just the survivors' benefits. the surviving spouse will receive either the current benefit or the new alternative, whichever is greater. the third component of the raise act extends eligibility for children of retired, disabled or deceased workers. this provision would apply if the child is still in high school, college or vocational schools or career schools. under current law, minors and high school students under age of 19 can get social security benefits if their parent has retired, disabled or deceased. beginning in 2016, this provision extends benefits for full-time students up to the age

of 23. now even though social security continues to fully pay for itself and has never added a dime to the deficit, i know some of our colleagues will complain that we can't afford these small enhancements. that's why our bill asks -- excuse me. that's why our bill asks those americans who can most afford it to pay their fair share towards strengthening the social security trust fund. beginning in 2015, the raise act would apply a 2% payroll tax on annual earnings of $400,000. this means that for future generations, social security will continue to be fully funded. in future years, that threshold will increase under an indexing formula built into the bill. i'm a proud sponsor of this bill with senator murray. it was an easy decision for me since my commitment to bolster social security started from day one i was in the senate. i've already introduced two bills on social security and i just want to mention them briefly before i turn over to senator murray.

the first bill is my protecting and preserving social security afnlgt it would extend the solvency of social security by lifting the cap on high-income contributions which this year is $117,000. not everyone knows this but once your annual income hits that threshold, you no longer have to contribute to social security for the rest of your calendar year. this seems unfair to me. my bill would lift the cap and phase out what is effectively -- what effectively has become a tax loophole. higher-income americans would pay in to social security all year long, just like everyone else. this provision would add generations of financial certainty to social security. the bill would also improve benefits for seniors and others by establishing a new cost-of-living adjustment based on reality. the formula would better reflect seniors' financial needs by basing at justments on items like prescription drugs -- adjustments on items like prescription drugs and housing, which seniors pay for, instead of on electronics and new cars. my second bill is the social

security fairness act. it would repeal unfair reductions to social security benefits for people who have worked part of their career in a noncovered jobs. often state or local government or civil servants jobs. congress passed the windfall elimination provision and government pension offset in the 1980's because of fears workers who retire under other pensions would be double covered and social security couldn't afford it. but, in effect, those old laws are punishing people by reducing benefits that they rightfully have earned. today these provisions affect more than 2 million people nationwide and the number is growing. it's not just about getting back what you paid into the system. removing these penalties would also encourage people willing to work in public service as a second career, like police officers or teachers. if you're considering such a move today but you know that your social security benefit would be reduced or penalized because you had stepped forward and worked in public service,

why would you do it? let's remember one thing all these bills do. the two i introduced earlier and the raise act we're discussing today, social security benefits are vitally important. but also are very modest nationally. on an average, $13,500 a year for recipients. it is very important to my sta state. more than 71,000 people in my state of alaska rely on social security. that's roughly 1-10. social security lifts tens of thousands of alaskans out of poverty. the elderly, especially elderly women. and it pumps more than $1 billion into our economy every single year. no one's getting rich off of social security but it does provide an important foundation and it does so in a truly american way. you work, you contribute and you get something back. and as long as i'm in congress, i will fight to make sure social security is solvent and there for not only this generation but for generations to come. senator murray has been a longtime champion for social

security and i'm proud to stand with her on the floor today. our raise act is another modest improvement. i hope our colleagues will join us in standing up for this critically important program. mr. president, our social security system reflects the best of america -- hardworking, personal responsibility, human dignity and caring for our parents, our children, our spouses and our neighbors and ourselves. let's come together in this chamber and do all we can to make sure social security is working for all americans. with that, i'll yield the floor and turn it over to my colleague, senator murray. mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent following my remarks that the senator from texas, senator cornyn, be recognized. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i want to thank the senator from alaska, senator begich, for coming and joining today because i know he is deeply committed to strengthening and protecting social security for current and future seniors, so i'm very,

very pleased to join him today in introducing the raise act, which will be a very critical step forward in this effort. over the last several decades, middle-class families have been increasingly squeezed by rising prices for everything from college tuition to health care. wages have stayed flat or even declined for some people and fewer companies today are offering the kinds of generous pension plans that used to help so many workers stay financially secure. with all of that in mind, it's not surprising that as families have struggled to stretch their dollars further and further in order to get the bills paid and raise their children, it has become harder and harder to save for retirement. in fact, a recent study showed that more than a third of today's workers have been unable to save even a dollar for retirement, and even those who do have savings don't have very

much. the same study found that 60% of the respondents had less than $25,000 in total assets and investments, excluding their home. the numbers are even more pronounced when you look at women in the work force because women on average earn less than men, they accumulate less in savings, they receive smaller pensions, and nearly 3-10 women over 65 depend only on social security for income in their later years. mr. president, it's clear that now more than ever social security is a lifeline for millions of seniors, so it's especially important for us to make sure that this critical system is meeting the needs of today's beneficiaries. for 75 years, our social security system has offered millions of seniors and their families a foundation of financial security, but a lot has changed in those 75 years. today most families have two

earners because social security was actually designed for single-earner families, surviving spouses and families where both adults work may receive less in benefits than they deserve. social security also supports children whose parents retired, became disabled or passed away, but those benefits end at the age of 18 or 19. so that's right, when young adults should be thinking about continuing their education, a necessity in today's economy, they're worried about having nowhere to go. at a time when social security is an increasingly critical source of support for so many, the raise act would make some commonsense updates to ensure our social security system is doing everything possible to help today's seniors and their families. as the senator from alaska described, the raise act would establish a new alternative benefit to make sure that widows

and widowers from two-earner families don't receive less in survivor benefits than those from single-earner families. the raise act would enable spouses who were married for less than 10 years to receive spousal and survival benefits. and it would extend benefits for young adults under 23 who are enrolled in school full time. crucially, to make sure social security is there for future generations, the raise act would shore up the social security trust fund in a fiscally responsible way that protects middle-class families. mr. president, i believe that strengthening and protecting social security benefits through the raise act would do an enormous amount of help to our workers and families and their ability to stay financially secure. but i also want to note that there is a much broader challenge. there isn't just one solution. we should absolutely make these critical makes to help make sure

our social security system is meeting the needs of today's workers and families. but we also have to look at ways to help workers save for retirement. and encourage companies to offer high retirement plans, and that's not all, we need to make sure women get equal pay for equal work so they have the same shot at a secure retirement as their male workers. we need to invest in education and training and get college costs down so our workers are able to compete for high skills skilled jobs and we need to continue fighting to strengthen and protect programs like medicare which senior men and women rely on. democrats care deeply about taking these steps to make sure our workers have the secure, dignified retirement they deserve. mr. president, there is absolutely no reason why after working hard all of her life, a retiree should have to worry about how she and her family will make ends meet. i believe we can do better.

i know senator begich does as well. so i urge our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to take a close look at our raise act and i hope we can pass it to offer seniors and their families additional relief and then i hope we can build on this with other policies to create more opportunity and more financial security for our workers. thank you, mr. president, and i yield the floor. mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senior senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, in recent weeks it's become impossible to deny the fact that we have a full-blown humanitarian crisis along the u.s.-mexican border. sadly, this crisis is directly the result of president obama's own policies and it involves tens of thousands of young

children, some reportedly as young as 3 years old, risking their lives. indeed, young children are traveling through extreme extremely dangerous territory run by brutal drug cartels that prey on the week in the form of human trafficking, rape and even murder. this year alone tens of thousands of unaccompanied more than children have been detained while crossing illegally into the united states and a large percentage have been found in the rio grande valley of south texas. just to give the senate an idea of what has happened in the timeline here, as recently as 2011, there were 6,560 unaccompanied minors detained at the border between the united states and mexico. then in 2012 the president announced that he was taking administrative action to defer

can deportation of a certain class of minors, most of whom had come here as young children but had since grown up. sometimes called the dreamers. but this action in 2012 sent a message, apparently, to other people who were anxious to come to the united states and so you see in 2013 there were 24,000 unaccompanied minors, and it's projected, although the number is not known, that it will rise to 60,000 or the senator from arizona has said he's heard as high as 90,000 potentially of these unaccompanied -- mr. mccain: would the senator yield for a question? mr. cornyn: i will. mr. mccain: how does the senator from texas explain to the american people how we've gone in 2011, 6,000, to now

the projected three years later of over 60,000 and some say as much as 90,000? but let's say it's 60,000. how in the world -- doesn't have this have to be some kind of orchestrated, organized effort to account for this dramatic increase, and if it is, who's doing it? mr. cornyn: i would say to the senator from arizona, he knows a lot about this topic, living in arizona, but i think it's a combination of factors. it's, one, the message that was sent by the unilateral deferred action that the president ordered in 2012 saying even children who come here meeting certain criteria, they would be low priorities for deportation so the message was if you can come to america and you get here, then you're basically -- you're not going to be sent back home. but i think it's also a

combination, as the senator knows of the violence and the failed state status, nearly, of some of the central american countries where most of these kids come from. but it's creating, as the senator knows, a humanitarian crisis because we do not have the facilities to take care of this many more than children. and here again, these are just the ones who made it. the senator knows how dangerous the trek is from central america up through mexico, through areas controlled by the drug cartels amend of these children, some reportedly as young as 5 or 3 years old are obviously very vulnerable to being preyed upon by unscrupulous characters. mr. mccain: additionally, though, these children when you say very, very young ones, there has to be some kind of organized effort that's bringing them. the average 5- or 6-year-old

doesn't decide to leave home one day and come across the u.s.-texas border. mr. cornyn: the senator is exactly right. i didn't answer his question earlier. let me try to do a better job. as the senator knows, in years past the migrants that came across the border were typically people looking for work. but now with the domination of large swaths of mexico and central america with drug cartels, they basically are trafficking in people, in drugs, in guns, and anything that will make them a buck. and, unfortunately, they have no scriewms whatsoever and -- scruples whatsoever and no concern for vulnerable children. they recognize their parents are willing to pay money to them to transport them from central america up to the united states. but the problem is they have no control over what happens to these children when they're in the hands of the drug cartels and these transnational gangs as they bring them all the way from

guatemala, for example, which is 1,200 miles away from mcallen, texas and many suffer from exposure, in addition to being preyed upon by a variety of unscrupulous characters. mr. mccain: could i ask again. so these children now, once because of the numbers and overwhelming our facilities, are in really terrible conditions for someone, a human being in the united states of america. no facilities, no even bathing, diet, overcrowding, being put on transportation and taken to arizona and dropped off at a bus stop, and yet not only is that a terrific problem and at least once they're there, they're not prey to some of the things that they are prey to on the 1,200-mile trip which are

horrible in many circumstances, given the nature of these people that are the drug smugglers and the human smugglers at the same time. so the dimensions -- is it true the dimensions of this humanitarian tragedy slash crisis is something that deserves the attention of all of us? and does the senator -- i'm surprised it hasn't gotten a lot more attention than it has up to now. mr. cornyn: i would say to the senator from arizona that i'm a little surprised it hasn't gotten more attention, either, and one reason that motivated me to come to the floor today to highlight this. tomorrow before the senate judiciary committee, secretary jeh johnson of the department of homeland security will be testifying and i hope he can provide some answers because what we need is a comprehensive look at what is the incentives that would convince parents to

send their unaccompanied children up through this horrific trip up through mexico, some 1,200 miles from central america, to such an uncertainty -- uncertain fate here in the united states, much less along the way. and we need to know what the president's plan is to deal with this. i know the senator spent a lot of time in places like jordan and turkey and -- that i've had the occasion to visit. one of our colleagues pointed out this is like being refugee camps here in the united states, something nobody thought we would have. mr. mccain: i just have one more question for my colleagues. do you know of any plan or any idea what our department of homeland security and border patrol are having to do, any idea what they have to address this issue besides transporting children from texas to tucson,

arizona and dropping them off at a bus stop? mr. cornyn: by say to the senator some of it entails warehousing children at lackland air force base, at last report about 5,000 of them are located. i'm not sure what the plan is going forward. i'm sure it week within to reunite them with family members here in the united states but if they don't have family members they'll basically become wards of the state. so this -- i'm not aware of any plan and the reason why i came to the floor today to express the very concerns the senator from arizona has expressed about the causes and the effects of such a poorly thoughtout policy, which basically sends the message that anybody who can make it here, particularly minors, can come to the united states and we are totally unprepared in my view to deal with this humanitarian crisis and we need to be prepared.

mr. mccain: so, in other words, by making the decision that the president of the united states made on deferred action, that -- if you believe those numbers and they are accurate, that triggered a mass movement into the united states of america. so it's not an accident that these numbers have gone from 13,000 up to 60,000 or 90,000, depending on who you talk to. it's not an accident. so if it's a matter of policy, then that policy needs to be reviewed and the rather than cure the symptom, which we have to do because it's a humanitarian crisis but the humanitarian crisis is not going to be over until we address the root of the problem. is that correct? mr. cornyn: i agree with the senator from arizona and i think this is not a coincidence. there is in my view very much a cause and effect relationship between these poorly thought out

unilateral action by the president that without really much knowledge or thought given as to the consequences of that. so as the senator from arizona knows because he's certainly fought the fight to fix our broken immigration laws, and i've been involved in many of those myself, this is i think a direct result of the president basically trying to go it alone. and basically trying to send a message, a political message, but one that gives very little thought to the real-world human consequences of his political actions. so the senator from arizona was talking a little bit about this trip from central america, and i would just show my colleagues. as we know, many -- mexico has had a lot of security issues that have been dealt with by the last administration, president caulder own's administration

and -- calderon's administration and is now being dealt with by the current administration. but the hardest core of the drug cartels essentially control large portions of this region of eastern mexico. and if you look from guatemala, from central america right at the bottom of mexico here, the pathway that these children would have to make all the way up through mexico into south texas into the rio grande valley, essentially it's through territory gold by the zetas, the drug cartel. so one question that is really horrible to contemplate is how many of the children who started this long 1,200-mile or so trek actually made it to tend of their journey and how many were -- fell out along the way

as a result of illness, as a result of criminal activity, like kidnapping, how many were assaulted along the way. this is a crisis that needs to be addressed. i would just point tout my colleagues -- i have in my hand, and i'll ask consent ask unanimous consent that this document be made part of the record following my remarks. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: i would just read from it, mr. president. iit -- this is a release from te u.s. customs and border protection dated may 12, 2014. "as of may 12, 2014, nearly 180 sex offenders were arrested in the rio grande valley sector alone." that's so far in 12014678 in 20. amidst the 47,000 children that