tv Key Capitol Hill Hearings CSPAN June 17, 2014 2:00pm-4:01pm EDT
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were not offset, as you point out. and we made the argument on the floor that this is a violation of the house rules and the house budget. but to no avail. but hopefully, people will come to their senses over the next couple months. >> all right. well, we're close to concluding when we wanted to. the senate increased our leaf time, but thank you -- leave, but thank you very much for coming. this was an example of the kind of bipartisanship that we really all hope, as americans, to see in congress. so, representative van hollen and senator portman, thank you very much, and we are adjourned. [inaudible conversations] >> the u.s. senate is back from their weekly party lunches at 2:15 eastern today. this afternoon we expect more work on 2015 spending bills and
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later a vote to confirm the assistant u.s. attorney general. live coverage of the senate when they return shortly here on c-span2. earlier today television host dr. oz testified before a senate commerce subcommittee on fraudulent weight loss ads. missouri senator claire mccaskill challenged the doctor, and she criticized him for what she called flowery language in promoting health care products. here is a look. >> now, here's three statements you made on your show. you may think magic is make believe, but in this little bean has scientists saying they found the magic weight loss cure for every body type. it's green coffee extract. quote: i've got the number one miracle in a bottle to burn your fat. it's raspberry ketone. quote: can [inaudible] it may be the simple solution you've been looking for to was your body -- to bust your body fat for good. i don't get why you need to say this stuff, because you know
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it's not true. so why when you have this amazing megaphone and this amazing ability to communicate, why would you cheapen your show by saying things like that? >> well, if i could disagree about whether they work or not, and i'll move on to the issue of the words that i used. and just with regard to whether they work or not, take green coffee extract as an example. i'm not going to argue that it would pass fda muster if it was a pharmaceutical drug seeking approval, but among the natural products that are out there, this is a product that has several clinical trials. there was one large one, a very good quality one that was done the year we talked about this, in 2012. listen, i -- >> what i want to know, i want to know about that clinical trial, because the only one i know is 16 people in india that was paid for by the company that was, in fact, at the point in time you initially talked about thissing with a miracle -- this being a miracle, the only study that was out there was the one with 16 people in india that was
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written up by somebody who was working for the company producing it. >> i have the four papers, five papers, actually, plus a series of basic science papers on it as well. but, senator mccaskill, we can spend a lot of time arguing the merits of whether it's worth trying or not worth trying. many of the things that we argue you do with regard to your diet are likewise criticize bl. a low-fat diet, a low-carb diet. we've come full circle in that argument now and no longer recommend that, many of us propractice med -- who practice medicine. so it is remarkably complex, as you know, to figure out what works for most people in a dietary program. in the practice of medicine we involve by looking at new ideas, changing orthodoxy -- challenging orthodoxy and evolving them. when i hold the papers, these are clinical papers. we can argue about the quality of them, very julyly.
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justifiably. in this case i gave it to members of my trial -- >> which wouldn't pass. the trial you did with your audience you would not say -- >> no, of course not. >> -- that would ever pass scientific muster. >> no, thatment thatment with be purpose of it. the purpose was to get a thumbnail sketch, was this worth talking to people about or not? but again, i don't think this ought to be a referendum on the use of alternative medical therapies. listen, i've been criticized for having folks come on my show talking about the power of prayer. now, again, as a practitioner, i can't help that prayer proves -- >> you don't have to buy prayer. >> it's hard to buy prayer. >> prayer's free. >> prayer's free. that's a very good point. [laughter] thankfully, prayer's free. but i see in the hospital when folks are feeling discomfort in their life and a lot of it's emotional. when they have people praying
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for them, it lightens their burden. so my show was about hope. and as you very kindly stated, we've engaged millions of people in program programs, including programs we do did with the cdc to get people to rethink their future. that their best years aren't behind them, they actually can lose weight. so if i can just get across the big message that i actually do personally believe in the items that i talk about in the show. i passionately study them. i recognize that often times they don't have the scientific muster to present as fact, but nevertheless, i would give my audience the advice i give my family all the time, and i have given my family these products, specifically the ones you mention. i'm comfortable with that part. where i, i do think i've made it more difficult for the ftc is an intent to engage viewers. i use flowery language, i used language that was passionate, but it ended up being incendiary. and it provided fodder for
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unscrupulous advertisers. and so that clip that you played, which is over two years old -- and i've done hundreds of segments since then -- we have specifically restricted our use of words. i literally am not speaking about things i would otherwise talk about. there's a product that i feel very strongly about because i know what will happen. i will say something very -- in fact, we did a show where yacon syrup. it is a south american root that had a big study published on it, i think a very high quality study where they showed it helped people lose weight and with their health. it was done by an academic center down there, it was not funded by industry, and we talked about it, and i used as careful language as i could, and still there was internet scam ads picking one or two supportive words. well, of course, i support it, i wouldn't be talking about otherwise. >> well, listen, i'm surprised that you are defending, i mean,
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i've tried to really do a lot of research in preparation for this trial, and the scientific community is almost monolistic against you in -- monolithic against you in terms of efficacy of the three products you called miracles. and when you call a product a miracle and it gives people false hope, i just don't understand why you need to go there. you've got so much you do on your show that makes it different and controversial enough that you get lots of views. i understand you're in a business of getting viewers. but i really implore you to look at the seven -- and i would ask you to look at the seven lists that the ftc put out on the gut check. the seven -- it's very simple. causes weight loss of two pound or more a month without dieting or exercise, causes substantial weight loss no matter how much you eat. if you just look at those seven, and if you spend time op your
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show -- on your show telling people that this is the seven things you should know, that there isn't magic in a bottle, that there isn't a magic pill, that there isn't some kind of magic root or acai berry that's going to all of a sudden make it not matter that you're not moving and eating a lot of sugar and carbohydrates. i mean, do you disagree with any of these seven? >> senator mccaskill, i know the seven, i say those things on my show all the time. >> well, then why would you say something is a miracle in a bottle? >> my job, i feel, on the show is to be a cheerleader for the audience, and when they don't think they can make it happen, i wallet to look -- and i do look everywhere -- for any evidence that might be supportive to them. so you're picking on green coffee extract. with the amount of information that i have on that, i still am comfortable telling folks that if you can buy a reputable version of it -- and i say this all the time, i don't sell it, and these are not for long-term
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use. it's one pound a week over the duration of the different trials that have been done. that happened to be the same amount of weight lost by the hundred or so folks on the show who came on, and half of them got a placebo. we got fake pills, gave it to half of the people. and it's sort of the same thumbnail. if you can lose a pound a week more than you would have lost doing the things you would have done already, if that trial data is mimicked in your life, it jump-starts you and gives you confidence to keep going, and then you start to follow the things we talk about every single day. including those seven items, i think it makes sense. >> a portion of that hearing held earlier today before a senate commerce subcommittee. you can see the entire hearing tonight at 5 eastern on c-span3. also coming up tonight, live remarks from president obama at a lgbt fundraiser in new york city. you can see those comments starting at 8 eastern here on c-span2. and then tomorrow ceo mary barra
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testifies on gm's defective ignition switch recall which some people say caused 13 deaths. she'll be speaking before a house oversight subcommittee. you can see it live tomorrow starting at 10 a.m. eastern on our companion network, c-span3. you can also join the conversation on facebook and twitter. >> the idea behind 250 and 250 is instead of trying to tell the entire history of st. louis as a timeline or sort of era by era, we would absolutely miss vitally important things. so instead of trying to do that and failing, we decided what if we just gave snapshots of st. louis history that would give people a glimpse of all the diverse things that have happened here, and they could use their imaginations to kind of fill in the rest. so we chose 50 people, 50 places, 50 moments, 50 images and 50 objects and tried to
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choose the most diverse selection we possibly could. we're standing in the 50 objects subject of the 250 and 250 exhibit right now, and this is what most people would call the real history. this is where the object is right in front of you. brewing is such a huge part of st. louis' history. it's an amazing story with lots of different breweries and, of course, the most famous became anheuser-busch when they were the largest in the world. and in the era of anheuser-busch talking about millions of barrels produced each year, you know, we think they're producing so much beer, this is from an era when things were a little bit simpler, and it's fun to show people this object and kind of gauge their response. in the days before they had cans or bottle caps, they put corks in the top of bottles, and somebody had to sit on this thing and do it by hand. you can see it's got foot pedals on the bottom. that's where the operator would
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push down with his feet to give the cork enough force to go into the bottle. and it's got three holes for three different size bottles. >> this weekend the history and literary life of st. louis, the grateway to the west. on c-span2's booktv of and c-span3's american history tv. gateway to the west. >> the senate returns in just under five minutes for a debate on federal spending bills and votes on a nominee for assistant attorney general. live coverage of the senate, again, 2:15 eastern here on c-span2. right now republican mitch mcconnell from this morning where he called on president obama to craft a strategy to face the insurgency in iraq and to assist the iraqi people. >> we hear the names of former
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battlefields in iraq and remember the hard-fought gains in places like fallujah and ramadi. and just as many americans hadn't heard of al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula before a terrorist attempted to detonate an explosive device on an airliner over detroit this -- in 2009, they are now learning of isil, a vicious, vicious terrorist organization that operates across portions of syria and iraq. like aqap, isil consists of an insurgency that threatens stability in the region where it trains and fights. and that presents a terrorist threat to the united states. iraqi security forces that wowerred in the face -- cowered in the face of isil advances are now less capable than when the president withdrew the entirety
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of our force without successfully negotiating a capable remaining u.s. presence. such a force would have preserved the gains made on the ground by mentoring our partners and assisting with command and control and intelligence sharing. now we must grapple with how best to help iraq meet this threat. isil is a lethal, violent terrorist force, and its activities in syria and iraq represent a grave threat to u.s. interests. the administration must act quickly to provide assistance to the maliki government before every gain made by the u.s. and allied troops is lost. and before isil expands its sanctuary from which it can eventually threaten the united states. now, several weeks ago the president spoke at west point. in that speech he vaguely described a new counterterrorism strategy that he said, quote: matches this diffuse threat, end
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quote, by expanding our reach without sending forces that stretch our military too thin or that stir up local resentments. and he said that we need partners to fight terrorists alongside us. so the president must quickly provide us with a strategy and a plan that address the threat posed by the insurgeon is city and the terrorist capabilities of isil. and he must explain that new strategy. >> minority leader mitch mcconnell from the senate floor this morning. casey hunt from nbc news just tweeted out that mitch mcconnell and nancy pelosi, house speaker john boehner and majority leader harry reid have been invited to the white house tomorrow to discuss iraq. now live to the senate floor as senators return from their weekly party lunches.
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senator from idaho. mr. risch: i rise to pay tribute to a legendary rancher leonard purdy. he passed away april 14 at the age of 96 at his home on silver creek in peekaboo, idaho. bud never called himself a cowboy but when i think of an idaho cowboy, bud comes to mind. as many said, he was the definition of the values we attribute to cowboys: hard work, common sense, persistence, determination, faith in others, honesty, and to me, a true friend. bud demonstrated these every day in life on the ranch. at the store and business he owned and especially among family and friends and in the community. i think the love of ranching was in his blood. after graduating from washington state university, bud went to work on his grandfather's ranch.
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he went to work managing the peekaboo ranch and then he bought it. he also bought the peekaboo store and silver creek supply, grain elevator and seed business. bud was known by all for his love of the cattle industry. he enjoyed moving cattle, riding the fences, moving and checking water, some of which he did long after most would have retired. he was a real idaho cowboy. bud helped get the idaho cattle association started where he served as president and was a longtime member of the board. bud was one of the larger-than-life idahoans who made the gem state a great place to live, work and place. bud recognized the value of conserving for future generations. some 20 years ago he donated a 3,500 acre conservation easement along silver creek to the nature conservancy, a contribution valued at $7 million. yet, bud, true to his character,
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did not even take the associated tax deduction. clearly, like he valued the land, bud valued idaho. he had natural leadership talent which was called on time and again in the community and industry organizations. serving on the idaho rangeland committee and the land management bureau advisory council bud gave time to foundations at the university of idaho and the county medical center. he helped raise funds for the new st. louis hospital. he helped establish the congress in industry. ayake, a group fostering business interests in idaho. bud found time for hunting, skiing, fishing and flying. among those who hosted, hunted and skied -- that he hunted and succeed with were ernest
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hemmingway and jimmy stuart. flying became a passion. he checked the ranch from the air and piloted to many meetings across the state and nation. as late as last year he and his sonic flew to california to attend a meeting. at the time of bud's passing he was the second oldest pilot in idaho. he once told me he hoped he could fly long enough to be the oldest pilot in idaho. unfortunately he didn't quite make it. but if there are planes in heaven, bud is definitely flying one today. among the many honors and awards bud received are an induction into the idaho hall of fame, an honorary doctorate in green science and serving as grand marshal of the 2013 wagons day parade. as busy as he was, bud was always a family man. he and his wife had three children.
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nick continues the legacy. in 1992 bud married ruth eckels. throughout the years bud hired other family members as well. idaho lost one of its most beloved and respected citizens, but idaho and our great nation are are better places for the accomplishments and contributions of bud purdy. the legacy he leaves the world is one we all would do well to emulate. bud, a grateful idaho and nation will miss you. thank you, madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from idaho.
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the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. cornyn: i'd ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be re-snded. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: madam president, i am returning to the senate floor to talk once again about the wave of migrant children who are coming across the u.s.-mexican border unaccompanied by adults. so far 47,000 unaccompanied miners have been detained at the border, most of them coming not from mexico, which obviously is closer to the united states, but from as far away from central america and beyond. just to put this in some context, from guatemala city, guatemala, to mcallen, texas, is roughly a trip of 1,200 miles. and i have spoken many times and will twill continue to speak toe who will listen about the dangerous and horrific conditions that these children
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and other migrant travel just to get to the united states. but thousands of migrant children -- almost all of whom who come from honduras, guatemala, and el salvador -- are currently being held in u.s. military bases while federal, state, and local officials try to figure out, number one, who they are, figure how the what they are identity is, because many of them show up without any identification. they try to figure out, well, do they have any relatives here in the united states, or possible legal guardians. then they have to decide what to do with them while their cases are being processed. obviously, since they come -- since the majority of whom come from countries other than mexico, they can't just be turned back, particularly in the cases of these miner children, some who have been reported to be as young as five years old. the average age is 14 years old.
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but when i described, as i will today and will continue to do, the conditions under which these children travel, no one -- no one -- in their right mind would want to have their children subjected to that sort of potential and reality of abuse and treatment -- mistreatment. i'm glad that the president has asked vice president joe biden to travel to central america, but i worry that so far i haven't heard any plan whatsoever that would stop the flow of these unaccompanied children from central america and mexico. as you can imagine, this is a bureaucratic nightmare, just trying to figure out, how do you deal with this massive humanity coming across the border? in fact, the border p patrol is spending so much time trying to take care of the humanitarian crisis, that they're neglecting some of their principal
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responsibilities, which are to stem the flow of illegal immigration and drugs across the border. so this is diverting law enforcement from their assigned role, just to deal with the temporary crisis. i hope it's temporary. the authorities in south texas and the rio grande valley do not have the resources or the manpower to handle such a massive influx of unaccompanied children. in terms of the children who've been released from u.s. custody, we still don't know how many of their -- quote -- "temporary guardians" are themselves illegal immigrants. we don't know, because we're not -- i assume there is not a background check conducted on them. i hope i'm wrong. but i hope we don't find out that some of these unaccompanied miners are being turned over to relatives who are themselves criminals or perhaps sex offenders. in other words, we have no idea because the president has not spoken out on this what kind of plan there is to make sure that
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the conditions these children are living in or what sort of potential abuse they might suffer. it is an awful situation, any way you look at it. and what makes it even more outrageous is that it is directly the result of the impression that president obama is uninterested in enforcing our immigration laws; specifically, his refusal to enforce and his granting of the so-called deferred action programs that he announced in the rose garden a few years ago. to be fair to the president and the senators who voted for the immigration bill would have granted deferred action for a certain class of minors, so-called dream act kids. but none of these children entering the country currently qualify -- would qualify for either the president's deferred
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action order that he issued unilaterally or the senate-passed dream act provisions. so we know they're entering in violation of american law, but there are no negative consequences associated with it, as long as they are basically accommodated in the united states. as a result, the number of children entering the country, together with many adults, is simply skyrocketing. as i said to start with, it's estimated that 47,000 have been detained so far this year. that this entire calendar year there will be as many as 60,000. next year the number is expected to double to 120,000 children. and the fact of the matter is, this is not just affecting states like texas, a border state, or even arizona and california. this is affecting states like virginia and maryland, oklahoma, and other places where the
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federal government is simply looking for a place to warehouse these children while it figures out what to do with them. of course, the ensuing crisis has prompted a fresh debate over security conditions at the u.s.-mexican border. as the debate goes forward, it's worth considering exactly what we mean when we talk about border security, because i fear it is a term that's often misunderstood. border security is not just about catching people along the rio grande or checkpoints in places like sirita. it's also about deterring potential i will aisle immigrants from starting out from their home country on such a dangerous journey in the first place. my friend congressman henry quejar from laredo said when you play football, you don't just start at the goal line. you start back at midfield on
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the other team's turf. so we need to make sure that we have a comprehensive approach and a plan to deal with illegal immigration into the country. and, as i said, hopefully with the goal, in large part, of deterring parents from turning their children over to the drug cartels and other transnational criminal gangs and sending them on this perilous and horrific journey north to the united states. this journey from central america to southern mexico to the u.s. border is one of the most dangerous journeys anywhere in the world. indeed, every single corridor is controlled by transnational criminal organizations including drug smugglers and cartels. and they prey on the weakest and most vulnerable people they can find. they will rob them, they will sexually assault them, they will
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kill them, if need be, in order to suit their purposes. not surprisingly, the ongoing surge of central american migrants has been an absolute gift to the mexican drug cartels and their gangland affiliates. as was told to "the l.a. times" recently, the smugglers are milking this situation for all its wog. this is money in the bank for the drug cartels and the human smuggle,the people who prey on the most vulnerable people smuggled in from central america to the united states. that's how they make their money. that's their business model, so to speak. now, president obama has often defended his immigration policies as a humane response to a broken system, and i'd be among the first to acknowledge that america's immigration system is indeed broken. but there's nothing humane about incentivizing people to riive their lives and -- risk their
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lives and their children's lives by traveling through the most dangerous smuggling corridors in the western hemisphere. there's nothing humane about incentivizing people to pay human traffickers for transportation through mexico. yet when the administration deliberately refuses to enforce our immigration laws and talks daily about its investigation into dangering repatriation policies, it effectively tells people in mexico and central america that if they make it across to the u.s. border, they'll almost certainly be allowed to stay. when the administration does those things, it's effectively encouraging poor, vulnerable immigrants to embark on a treacherous and often deadly journey. as i said, the journey is especially treacherous for young migrant women and children. the migrant women are frequently raped, kidnapped, and sold to sex traffickers.
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some experts believe that six out of ten of the migrant women who traverse this dangerous territory are sexually assaulted. it is truly appalling, and without question one of the most human rights nightmares anywhere in our hemisphere. for that matter, it is likely getting worse. a new congressional research service memo indicates that girls and children below the age of 13 represent a growing number of unaccompanied miners who are being apprehended at the southern border. needless to say, as more and more migrant children travel through mexico, more and more will be forced into sex slavery and prostitution. i think we all agree, madam president, that the status quo is simply intolerable and unacceptable. so what's the solution? wcialtion i'vwell, i've spent te
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of days urging the president to take a few basic steps that would help to curtail the endless flow of unaccompanied minors up through this smuggling corridor. the steps for outline reflect common sense. for starters, the president of the united states of the united states must make it abundantly clear to everyone that his deferred action program on deportation do not apply to the children who are now streaming across our border in floodlike proportions. right now central american newspapers, as well as the criminal cartels, are actively spreading the word that if you'll just turn yourselves over to us and pay our price to get smuggled into the united states, you can get free passage and stay, because they are saying that you will not be repatriated. if the president also worked with the mexican government to
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help secure its southern border with guatemala, that border is about 500 miles long and is currently the place that the migrants come from central america into mexico to begin that long, perilous journey, many on a train system that's become known as "the beast" or "the beast of death" that's been written about a lot. if the president were to provide -- help to provide mexico, in consultation with our mexican friends, a way to help secure that border, it would help stem more than half the flow of migrants, including these unaccompanied children from central america. and, if the president sent the message, contrary to what he's done recently, that he's committed to enforcing all of our immigration laws until congress and the president can engage in our constitutionally required process of amending those laws, then the tide of children flooding across south
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texas might soon be reversed. i wish i had confidence that president obama would take the actions that i've just described. his record on immigration and border security, unfortunately, inspires no confidence that he will. just to reiterate, once again, solving this crisis isn't simply a about securing america's southern border. it's not just about goal line defense, in the words of congressman cuellar. it is about enforcing our immigration laws, about saving mothers and daughters, fathers and sons from contact with some of the most brutal criminal organizations on the planet. i hope the president is listening. i am encouraged that vice president biden is traveling to the region, but, of course, we know that central america, the government there has deteriorated to the point that it has become an increasingly dangerous place. and that is another one of the
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arguments that's made is that people are simply fleeing from violence in those central american countries. well, i i certainly am sympathetic. but the fact of the matter is, the united states cannot absorb people from every part of the globe who want to come to the united states without imperilling our way of life. so what we need to do is find way to control immigration through legal channels and we need to send the message to other countries that you cannot come here with impunity and simply overwhelm our ability in the united states to take care of legal immigrants. the president can do a lot, sending vice president biden to central america is a start. but what wraoely need is a plan -- we really need is a plan in order to stem this humanitarian crisis that's occurring not just in south texas but is being spread to virginia, maryland, oklahoma, arizona and california, because
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that's where these children are being sent in the custody of the federal government, basically in warehouses or it occurs to me this is more like a refugee camp on american soil. this is not the way we would want our children to live and this is not the way we should want other parents' children to live. we'll take care of them to the best of our ability while they're here, but what we need is an unequivocal message that america does not have an open border and parents should not turn their children over to these dangerous drug cartels and human smugglers in order to come to the united states. madam president, i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:
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mr. sanders: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sanders: madam president, what the recent crisis at the veterans administration has taught us is that the cost of war does not end when the last shots are fired and the last missiles are launched. the cost of war continues until the last veteran receives the care and the benefits that he or she has earned on the battlefield.
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in other words, the cost of war is very expensive. it is expensive in terms of human life, in terms of human suffering, and in terms of of financial commitment. the cost of wars in iraq and afghanistan alone is almost 7,000 dead. the cost of war is some 200,000 men and women coming home from those wars with post traumatic stress disorder or with traumatic brain injury. the cost of war from iraq and afghanistan is that many of our veterans have come home without arms or legs or eyesight or without their hearing. the cost of war is tragic suicides taking place all over this country from people who have returned from war. the cost of war is veterans
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coming home unable to find jobs and get their feet back on the ground financially. the cost of war is high divorce rates and the impact that family stress has on kids. the cost of war is widows suddenly having to start their life anew without the person they married at their side. two weeks ago senator mccain and i hammered together a proposal to deal with the current crisis at the v.a. and i thank him very much for understanding the need to move forward expeditiously. last wednesday, this legislation passed the senate by a vote of 93-3, and i want to thank all of the members in both political parties for voting for this
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bill. and i want to thank them for understanding that we need to continue moving forward on this legislation as quickly as possible and in a nonpartisan way. a recent v.a. audit revealed that more than 57,000 veterans are waiting to be scheduled for medical appointments. they are in facilities where the waiting lists are much, much too long. that, to my mind, is an emergency situation. and i want to thank all of those senators who not only voted to pass this bill but perhaps, more importantly, voted to pay for this bill through emergency funding. i couldn't agree more with senator mccain when he said -- and i quote -- "if there is a definition of emergency, i would
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say that this legislation fits that. it is an emergency. it is an emergency what is happening to our veterans and the men and women who have served this country, and we need to pass this legislation and get it in conference with the house as soon as possible." end of quote from senator mccain. and i fully agree with that sentiment. 73 senators in a strong bipartisan showing agreed with senator mccain and me that this is an emergency, that veterans in this country must get the quality health care they need, and they must get it in a timely manner. and we need to provide the funding the v.a. needs, and do it in an expeditious way. needless to say, the bill that we passed in the senate is a compromise. it is not the bill i know that senator mccain would have written alone. it is surely not the bill that i
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would have written if i could have had the power to write it alone. it is a compromise hammered out in good faith, something which we need to see more of in this body. what this bill does is address the immediate crisis facing the v.a. of long waiting periods and make certain that as soon as possible, the veterans of our country get the high-quality care they need and that they get it in a timely way. that is what our veterans deserve and that is what this legislation provides. let me very briefly touch on some of the major provisions in the bill. this bill allows for 26 major medical facilities, facility leases, which means improved and expanded care for veterans in 17 states and puerto rico. there has been some disagreement about a 27th facility located in oklahoma.
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that facility was in the original bill that i introduced, and i support its inclusion in final passage. this bill also provides for the expedited hiring of v.a. doctors and nurses and $500 million targeted to hire those providers with unobligated funds. madam president, no medical program can provide quality care in a timely manner if those programs do not have adequate numbers of doctors, nurses, and other medical providers. this bill would provide an opportunity for v.a. to immediately increase capacity within their system. it would provide an expedited hiring authority to allow v.a. to quickly hire doctors and nurses which right now is not the case. one of the problems the v.a. has is they have a very complicated process. it takes a whole lot of time and they often lose their applicants
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because it takes such a long period of time. we need to change that, and this bill does that. right now, madam president, there are 741 vacancy announcements for physician positions at v.a. on u.s.a. jobs. my understanding is that that is a flaw. that in fact the real number of physicians needed is significantly greater than that. in phoenix alone, there have been estimates that up to 500 new providers -- 500 new providers -- in that one facility alone -- that is doctors, nurses, other health care providers -- are needed in that one facility if the veterans in phoenix are going to have timely care. further, what our legislation also does is say to veterans around the country that if you cannot get into a v.a. facility
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in a timely manner, you will be able to get the care you need outside of the v.a. in my view, what we need to do is hire those doctors, hire those nurses, hire that other staff so that veterans who come to the v.a. can get timely care there. but if they cannot, this legislation is very clear that they can go to private doctors. they can go to community health centers. they can go to department of defense bases or indian health services facilities. the goal here is to give veterans a wide option to access care in a timely manner through providers in their communities. so if the v.a. is unable to accommodate those veterans, they're going to go outside of the v.a. and get timely health care. and that is a very, very important provision in this bill. this bill also says to veterans who live 40 miles or more from a
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v.a. facility, that if they choose, they also have the option of seeking care outside of the v.a. for those veterans living in very rural areas -- and i talked to one senator who indicated that in some cases a veteran has to travel hundreds and hundreds of miles to get v.a. health care, for those veterans living in remote areas, this provision will also be very important. the bill also addresses a major crisis that we have seen in the military, and that is the tragedy and the outrage of sexual assault. our bill would increase significantly v.a. services for those veterans who experience sexual assault in the military. this bill also deals with an issue where there is widespread support across partisan lines. and that is the need to address in-state tuition investor all veterans at public colleges and
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universities. this bill supports openly, provides that surviving spouses, those mostly wives who have lost their husbands in battle, will also be eligible for the post-9/11 g.i. bill, and that is exactly the right thing to do. this bill also establishes commissions to provide help to give the v.a. in terms of approving schedule capabilities and capital planning. these are areas, frankly, where the v.a. has not been strong. they can use private sector help, expert help to guide them in improving their scheduling capabilities and their ability to do capital planning. further, this bill gives the secretary, and importantly, the authority to immediately fire incompetent employees and those who have falsified or manipulated data in terms of waiting periods. all of us are outraged by the reports that we have heard that
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people have intentionally manipulated data to make it appear veterans were getting timely care when that certainly was not the case. our legislation gives the secretary the ability to fire those employees and other incompetent employees, but it also provides due process. and i think that's important because i do not want to see the v.a. politicized. i don't want to see a president coming into office with a new secretary firing 300 or 400 top-level supervisors. we do not want to see the v.a. politicized. we want the best people regardless of their political views. madam president, the house of representatives passed legislation last week which covers a lot of the same ground that the sanders-mccain bill covers, and i am very confident that working with chairman jeff miller and ranking member mike
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michaud, we can bridge the differences and send the president a bill that he can sign in the very near future. i think that is what the american people want, that is what members of congress want. we don't want this to drag on and on and on. we want to get this bill done quickly. finally, madam president, i did want to say a word to the 300,000 employees who work at the v.a. this is a -- this last several months has been a tough time for many of them, and the truth of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of the people who work at the v.a. are hard-working, honest and serious people. in fact, many of them are veterans themselves, and i know that many others who work at the v.a. look at what they do as not a job, a 9:00 to 5:00 job, but they look at it as a mission. they feel very seriously that our veterans have got to get the
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best health care possible, and they are doing their best to make that happen, and i want to thank them very much for that. over and over again, madam president, i hear from my state of vermont and from across the country that once against get into the health care system, the v.a. system, the care is good, and that is not just my view. it is the view of virtually all of the major veterans' organizations and independent studies that compare v.a. health care with care in the private sector. in the state of vermont, some 98% of veterans get appointments into the system within 30 days. that is good, but it needs to be better in vermont and throughout this country. the goal must be the highest quality care possible in getting people their appointments in a timely manner. and let me just read, interestingly enough, madam president, a poll that
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just came out from gallup today. it was published today. it was sponsored by -- commissioned by market watch from the "wall street journal." and the interesting paragraph here, they polled some 42,000-plus americans regarding how they feel the satisfaction with health care in america, and let me quote what the article says -- quote -- "despite recent troubles with veterans not having access to prompt medical appointments, current and former military personnel are the most satisfied with their health care as 77% express contentment. that was the highest satisfaction rate among those broken out by method of coverage. so veterans obviously get their health care in other ways, not just through the v.a., but it is important to recognize that for many, many veterans, the health care that they are getting is good and they appreciate that.
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madam president, let me conclude by saying this -- our job right now -- and i think the american people are with us on this virtually 100% -- is to make sure that those men and women who put their lives on the line to defend us, they are now asking us to defend them, to make sure they get the health care and the benefits to which they are entitled. my goal is to see that we move this legislation as quickly as possible. i hope that by tomorrow, we will have named conferees to the conference committee, and my hope is that we can get this legislation onto the president's desk as soon as we possibly can. mr. president, it is one thing to give heartfelt speeches about how much we love and respect
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veterans. it is another thing to act, and now is the time for action. the senate and house committee staffs have already begun preliminary discussions. my understanding is that the house conferees will be named tomorrow. i believe we will do the same here in the senate. my job and what i intend to work as hard as i can on is to make sure that we pass strong legislation as soon as we possibly can and have the president sign that legislation, and with that, mr. president, i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:
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mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: i ask consent the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: just a few minutes ago when my friend from texas, senator john cornyn came to the floor and spoke about immigration and the situation on our border and it was a very moving statement that he's made before and needs to make again. he did it today and identified a serious issue that we are facing, not just one but several serious issues. and they're dramatized by the fact that we are seeing hundreds, hundreds of children
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who are being turned loose on america's border with mexico, crossing the border, being apprehended and being placed in a humane situation in america. children. some as early in age as 5, 6, and 7 years of age. not accompanied by adults. and you think to yourself, what is going on here? senator cornyn, of course, representing the state of texas knows this better than most because they're watching these children. 80% of these children come from three countries, mr. president. honduras, el salvador and guatemala. and in these countries there is a state of lawlessness at this point that is so desperate, so desperate that a family would turn over a child to someone who says i'll get him across the american border. some of these kids show up -- i don't know how many, i can't tell you -- with little slips of paper with a name and a telephone number of a relative
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in the united states. think about that for a second. how desperate would a family have to be to turn over a 5-year-old, a 6- or 7-year-old child to someone and say take them hundreds of miles and enter illegally into the the united states of america with my little girl or my little boy. i cannot even imagine the desperation that people are facing that they would do such a thing. that represents a major problem for the united states at several levels. first, we are a humane and caring nation. we will not see a child abandoned at the border and turn our backs. what we're doing is taking these children into protective custody, trying to find a way to link them up with some member of their family for their own good. imagine the trauma that these kids have gone through at that point and now what they might face. that's why we're stepping
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forward. senator cornyn came to the floor and rightfully said many of these children don't make these journeys unharmed. awful things happen to them. assaults and rapes and beatings and god only knows. and you think to yourself what kind of trauma, what impact will that trauma have on that child for such a long, long period of time. the lawlessness in these three countries is leading to this outmigration for safety. this desperation by many families and parents. the second aspect of this is one that we cannot ignore, either. many children come into the united states and some of them come in the most extreme situations for very basic human reason. children who were raised in other countries and their parents are in the united states. they haven't seen them, sometimes for years. they have received cash to keep them going under the care of
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another relative, gifts at christmas, gifts for their birthday, but some of these kids, these little kids will jump on these freight trains and go through central america toward the united states in the hope of finding a parent. i can't tell you the exact numbers. there's a book that won the pull pulitzer prize called "enrique's journey." a woman went down to central america, got on one of these trains with these kids who sit on top of freight cars as they go through the countries trying to get to the united states. many of them, she believes the majority of them, are simply trying to be reunited with their parents. listen to the tragedy in what i've just described. think about the desperation of families and the desperation of these children and where it puts us in the world today and reflect for a moment on a political reality that didn't come up in the earlier statement. the political reality is, it
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has been more than one year since the united states senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill with 68 votes, 14 republicans joining the democrats in a bipartisan effort. i know a little bit about this bill because i joined the group that wrote it. four democrats, four republicans, sitting across the table on our side chuck schumer of new york, bob menendez of new york, mike bennet of colorado. on the republican side, john mccain of arizona, jeff flake of arizona, lindsey graham of south carolina, marco rubio of florida. we sat in this room -- many rooms, i should say -- over a period of months and hammered out a bill. comprehensive bill that deals with many of the issues that are behind the tragedy i just described to you. that's something that we ought to acknowledge is part of our challenge today, that one year has gone by and the house of representatives has refused to even call this bill for
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consideration. now, i'm pretty proud of what we did and what we wrote and i don't think there are many pieces of legislation that bipartisan that have the support of business and labor and religious groups of every denomination. they all supported our bill. i'm proud of that fact. i served in the house. i know that they have some pride of authorship and they may want to do their version of the bill. that's okay. but doing nothing is not okay. it's not acceptable. we have a broken immigration system. senator cornyn of texas said as much himself. if we're going to deal with the problem today at the border with these children, with the problem of 11 million or more undocumented people in america, many of whom have been here for long periods of time, may live in a household where everyone else in the house is an american citizen, i know these cases in chicago, i've met them. people who are willing to come
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forward at this point in their lives, register with the government and tell the government where they live, where they work, have a background check so if they have any serious criminal issues, they're gone. stay in this country, pay their taxes, pay a fine for being undocumented, learn english and wait 13 years -- 13 years, at materialiest before they can become citizens. they go to the absolute back of the line. that's what our bill says. and that to me is a movement toward a solution of what we're facing today. what i hear, criticisms of this president, i will tell you this president has been fully support of comprehensive immigration reform. i cannot tell you how many hours i've spent with him and so many others trying to work toward this goal. i know because he used to be my
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junior senator from illinois and we're pretty close. i know when he was going through the transition to become president he invited senators mccain and graham to meet with him in chicago before he was sworn in and they talked about immigration. a that's how important it is to this president. those who would blame him or dismiss him for the current situation, it's not fair. he supports comprehensive immigration reform and he said to the house of representatives and the republican leadership that he will step back in terms of doing anything on an executive level and give them the opportunity to do what they're supposed to do, call this matter for a vote. we're praying they do it before the end of july, because we're running out of time, in just a few months there will be an election and then a lame-duck session between the election and the new congress and not much can get done in that period of time. the president has said to speaker boehner and the republicans, move the bill.
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when i hear the criticism of some of the terrible injustices in our current immigration system, i think we ought to be very honest that we have passed the bill, a bipartisan bill, a comprehensive bill in the senate and it has been sitting in the house for more than a year, more than a year. i come to this issue like most with family a family story. and my family story, i've said on the floor many times, but i'm proud of it so i'm going to repeat it. my mother was an immigrants to this country. she came to america, brought at the age of 2, brought from lithuania. my grandmother packed her up with my aunt and uncle and brought them over on a ship and got on a train to st. louis, they were meted to their opportunity in america, their land of opportunity, the town i was born in, east st. louis, illinois. that is where i came from. that's where they landed because the lithuanians were there, working in the packing houses
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and the steel mills and all the jobs that immigrants take. that's my story. that's my family's story but that's also america's story. those immigrants who come here and take the dirtiest, hardest jobs, work night and day trying to make sure their kids have another chance, create time and again generations of renewal in america. there is something in our darn, my friends, all -- d.n.a., my friends, all of us proud enough to say we're americans, nothing something about that immigrant spirit to think that my family and millions of others said we're leaving lithuania, going to america where we don't even speak the language. what an adventure. what courage. what americanism. that is what creates us. that is in our national d.n.a. and thank goodness it is. there's something else i want to note. it's been two years since president obama issued an executive order.
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it was known as the deferred action for childhood arrivals program. daca. here's the history. 13 years ago, i got a call in my chicago office from a korean mother who said she had a problem. she had brought her daughter to the united states at the age of 2 on a visitor's visa, her daughter was grown up, 18 years of age, and she had never filed any papers for her. technically, mom, who was here legally as a citizen, had an undocumented child in her house. and the problem was that this undocumented girl had turned out to be a spectacular pianist and had won an opportunity for scholarships to the juilliard school of music and the manhattan conservatory of music, she was that good. when they asked her for her citizenship, she turned to her mom and said what. i?
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mom said i don't know. so they called my office and we checked the law and the law was very clear. that little girl who had been in the united states for 16 or 17 years at that point in her life was undocumented, and under the law had to leave the united states for 10 years and apply to come back in. it's how the law was written. and i thought to myself, not fair. that little girl didn't have any say in her parents' moving here. she had nothing to say when they failed to file the necessary papers. and now she was the victim of our legal system and her parents' failure to file the papers so she could be here legally. so i introduced the dream act. i dream act i introduced 13 years ago said if you were in that circumstance, brought here as a child, by your parents, lived in the united states, finished high school, no serious criminal record, we'll give you a chance. you either enlist in our
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military or go at least two years to college and peel put you on the path to citizenship. that's the dream act. that bill has been around a long time, 13 years. it has passed in the senate as part of the comprehensive bill, it's passed in the house individual individually, never passed in both places which as you know is what's necessary to become a law. so i wrote to president obama with 22 of my colleagues, at one point it included senator lugar of indiana, my republican colleague then, and asked the president, create an executive order so these young people eligible for the dream act will not be deported while we debate. give them a chance to be here in a legally recognized status because they would qualify under this bill that continues to pa pass. the deferred action for childhood arrivals. and that, of course, did pass -- was enacted, i should say, by the president in executive order
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two years ago. two years ago. and after it was enacted, congressman luis gutierrez and i in chicago said we want to give all of those eligible to apply for this deferred action protection under the executive order a chance to sign up. so luis and i said, we're going to reserve navy pier -- if you've ever been out to chicago, there's a huge ballroom at the navy pier -- and we're going to invite any young people who want to sign up for daca so they won't be deported come in and sign up. and i said initially, i hope we get 200 people to come because we've got a big room here. in the end, over 10,000 showed up. overwhelmed us. we had volunteer lawyers there. we had lots of friends there, people helping. parents got in line midnight the night before, standing with
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their kids, waiting for a chance to give these kids a chance to be legally in the united states and not deported. that's how much it meant to them. some of these parents, sadly, didn't have the same protection but they wanted to do everything they could for their kids. well, time has passed and in the course of time, we've seen 560,000 children across america who've signed up for this protection under daca. 560,000. i've come to the floor here and give been 50 or 60 stories about these dreamers -- we call them "dreamers," -- these young kids. and each time i tell the story, i get responses from people saying, i can't believe that we still haven't resolved this problem. i want to tell you one of these stories today. i want to update you on one of the dreamers i've spoken about on the floor. this is erica endolia and her
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mother, gaudolepe endolia's. her husband abused her for 15 years so she fled to the united states. free threats of violence, she and her children made a life in this country. her daughter erica graduated with honors from arizona state university, bachelor's degree in psychology. she's the founder and president of the arizona dream act coalition, a group advocating for immigration reform. after receiving daca, her protection under the president's executive order, erica became the first dreamer to work for the united states congress. she could legally do it under the president's order. she served as district outreach director for congresswoman kristin cinema of arizona. i might add that congressman luis gutierrez also hired one of the earliest dreamers under daca on his staff as well. the same week that erica was
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hired to work for a member of congress, they received knee her mother was being placed in deportation proceedings. why were we trying to deport erica's mother, gaudalupe? because she was pulled over for a traffic violation and she had a deportation order that was over 15 years old. erica made a difficult decision and gave up her job and started focusing on helping her mom. she wrote me a letter -- her mother wrote me a letter and said, "i've always taught my children, there's no more important love tha than the lovr my families. i'm a human being just looking to protect my kids from a lieu full of violence." there are 11 undocumented immigrants in the united states like guadalupe. they have strong, strong family values and they make a real contribution to our country and other economy. they serve our food in the restaurants. they clean off the tables when
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we're finished eating. they take care of our small children in day care. and they watch our parents in nursing homes. that's who the undocumented are in america. they raise children like erica endriola and make contributions to our country. they want to being americans, but under current law there is no way for them to get in line and legalize. last week the secretary of department of homeland security, jeh johnson, was kind enough to come to chicago. i invited him. i wanted him to see the broad view processing -- broadview processing facility where those who are about to face deportation are held. it's a grim reminder of families that are being broken up right before our eyes. and i wanted him to also meet with people in the muslim community, in the syrian community, in the hispanic communities and talk about immigration in america today. he was kind enough to do that. along with my colleagues, congressman luis gutierrez and bill foster, we visited the center and we met in the detention cells of 51-year-old
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man who came to the united states at the age of 6. he has three kids who are u.s. citizens. one now serves in the united states army. another is a polic a police off. then in the visitation area outside, we met his mother, 80 years old, who was hoping to get a glimpse of her son before he was deported. this is the human impact of immigration laws and policies. mr. president, the house of representatives has a chance to fix this and many other proble problems. we can move together to stop this horrible humanitarian crisis at the border with children. we can move together to deal with the undocumented among us who will step forward, pay their taxes and their fines, learn english, go to the back of the line and wait their turns. we'll be a better country if we do. i hope the house republicans will take up this responsibili responsibility. if they have a better idea,
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the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. portman: i rise today to put the senate on record on something very important and that is speaking to the decision by the obama administration to release five top taliban leaders from guantanamo bay without consulting congress, as required by law.
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a decision that i believe endangers the lives of american personnel, not to mention the countless afghans and the success of our mission in afghanistan. it's been well reported in the press that this release was done without consulting congress or congressional leaders on either side of the aisle, republican or democrat, by the way. and this was in clear violation of a requirement to provide detailed notice to congress before such action is taken, a requirement that's contained both in an authorization bill called the 2004 national defense authorization act, and a spending bill, the consolidated appropriations act of 2014, both of which, by the way, mr. president, passed congress with big bipartisan majorities, both were bipartisan bills and there was a bipartisan consensus about having this notification. despite cephal chosed-door briefings and public comments from the administration since we learned of the release, the administration has been unable to provide any legitimate justification for violating the
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requirement and for failing to consult with congress. i believe the president's conduct raises a lot of questions and questions which should concern every member of this body, both sides of the aisle. it's not a partisan issue, nor is it about what kind of soldier sergeant bow bergdahl may have been. that's not what this is b i trus--that's not what this is a. i trust the army will handle that matter. this is about our role in the u.s. congress and about our national security. it is about protecting our men and women in afghanistan and iraq. it is about p makin making surer gains will not be kwa squanderes we're seeing today in the country of iraq. congress enacted the bipartisan notice requirement to secure those interests and prevent the release of dangerous terrorists who were hikely to rejoin -- likely to rejoin the fight. it requires the president to give a detailed justification
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for the release of detainees from guantanamo bay. why such a release is in the country's national security interests, what actions the administration will take to notify us and provide a justification for the release and the conditions of that release. i believe had the president followed the law, made the dangers -- maybe the dangers imposed by this decision may have been avoided altogether. concerns were made on both sides of the aisle. because make no mistake these five men who were released are dangerous. don't take my word for it. this is what the administration has said repeatedly. i was there in a hearing before the senate armed services committee in 2012.
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i was a member of the committee at that time. chairman levin, who is here with us today, ha asked some very god questions, including questions to james clapper. what did mr. clearp say? he reiterated a 2010 administration assessment that these five taliban leaders, these same five who were just released, posed a high risk of returning to the fight. on this very point, director clapper did not equivocate saying, "i do not think anyone harbors any illusions about these five taliban members whangdz they might do if they were transferred." this was sworn testimony before our committee. even if he president admits that there is, as he has said, "absolutely a risk that these men will return to the battlefield" -- the president says that now -- these men were senior members of the taliban. they include the taliban deputy defense minister, the deputy
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minister of the interior, some were closely associated with osama bin laden or al qaeda. two were wanted by the united nations for war crimes. yet despite these red flashings which according to reports in the press were reiterated during internal white house debates over the transfer, president obama released these men anyway without following the notice provided under the law. we need to know why. we need to know what security risks these five individuals pose. we need to know what measures were put in place to mitigate that risk. i don't know why any member of this body would oppose going on record saying that the law was violated and seeking answers to these good questions. i am going to ask for unanimous consent on a resolution that i have offered and that many of my colleagues have cosponsored calling on congress through regular order to investigate the decision to authorize this release. this resolution has a very narrow purpose. it only seeks to ensure that when congress speaks -- and i
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remind you, this provision on guantanamo passed in on overwhelming bipartisan manner -- that when the congress speaks, the president listens. no matter what party the president is from, our entire constitutional balance depends on adherence to the rule of law. but this is about more than the president ignoring congress. the american people are the ones who deserve these answers. we're their representatives. that's why that provision was put in place. so that we representing them could give the president better advice. but the american people deserve these answers. society do, by the way, our -- so do, by the way, our men and women in uniform who continue to thought their lives on the line every day. already since the release of these detainees eight american servicemen have lost their lives in afghanistan. we still have over 30,000 troops in the theater, 30,000 americans putting their lives on the line for us every day. i think a lot of them are
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wondering, what was the justification? why? what effect would it have on them and their safety? one can hardly doubt that the administration's decision to release these taliban leaders will put even more americans at risk. and we should be under no illusions. if we take no action, i do not believe this will be the last unlawful transfer of detainees from guantanamo bay. if we don't speak and go on the record and say, wait a minute, we have a law here, this is wrong, we need a justification, i think the wrong messages will be sent to the administration. congress didn't seem to care that we violated the appropriations bill, the authorization bill and went ahead. president obama has made it clear that closing guantanamo is one of his top priorities. i understand that. but he's provided no such clarity on what he intends to do with the dangerous men who are housed there. men like khalid sheikh mohammed, he's there. will he be released?
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into who's custody? the terrorist known as humbali. ram did i bin al shah about a, a high-ranking operative. we also need to remember why we went to afghanistan in the first place. of course, under 9/11, the country had become a haven for al qaeda, a power base for osama bin laden, and a place from which to plan and launch attacks against us, against the united states and our allies. we went to afghanistan to seek justice for those who died on september 11, but we also went to remove the taliban from power, to free the afghan people and make sure that it never become a base for terrorism. we must not be blind to the fact that the taliban aims to regain as much power as they can in afghanistan and pakistan. that means a return to the
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suppression of women's rights and most important throis and our national security, the complicit harboring of al qaeda. we have just returned to them the leadership team to help them achieve that goal. president obama tells us the war in afghanistan is coming to an end. we need to ensure that that end is one of sustainable victory, not defeat. the deteriorating situation we see unfolding before us on our tv sets in iraq today demonstrates what can happen with we rush to the exits without preparing for an appropriate exit. today the black flag of radical islam flies over the second-largest city in iraq and our mill at that points are advancing on baghdad, proclaiming victory in iraq did not make it so. many made it clear that if we failed to maintain appropriate forces in iraq to help the government transition and establish its authority, the long-term stability of iraq would be open to threats by radical groups. we chose not to complete a
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status of forces agreement with the maliki government. president obama did not heed the warpings from those who saw these threats and unfortunately we're seeing some of these predictions come true. whatever we do in afghanistan, i hope we learn from the lessons of iraq. the decisions to release high-rank members of the taliban while the fight against taliban continues to this day has shaken the trust of the american people, the trust. afghan peernlings an people, ane fact that what we're seeing in iraq may be a foreshadowing of afghanistan's future. congress has the responsibility to get to the bottom of how this release happened and to ensure that it doesn't happen again. hypocrite my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will support the resolution that i've introduced so that we can fulfill that responsibility. mr. president, i said that i was going to offer a unanimous
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consent resolution. i will do so now. i ask unanimous consent that the armed services committee be discharged from further consideration of s. res. 469, that the senate proceed to its consideration, that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is is there objection? the senator from michigan. mr. levin: mr. president, and i do intine t intefn to do intes resolution. it prejudges the very conclusion that the resolution says and wants an investigation to determine, calls for an investigation but then it already concludes that the president violated the law. that is not what i call an impartial investigation. that's a resolution which reaches a conclusion which is prejudging the very investigation that it calls for. now, there's other problems here
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as well. my good friend from ohio has said that the president violated the law because he didn't give 30 days notice to the congress. indeed, the national defense authorization act provides for 30 days notice. but it also as a matter of fact the president said when he signed the national defense authorization act that if there were necessary circumstances where there were negotiations going on with foreign countries or foreign people in terms of preserving or saving an american life, that he's not going to be bound by 30 days' notice. he said that at the signing ceremony. now, you can't change law of a signing ceremony. but what you can do at a signing ceremony is what this president did. at the very signing ceremony for the very act that the president is relying on, the president put us on notice that there might be circumstances under which he could not give 30 days' notice
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to the congress. now, when he did not give 30 days' notice in this circumstance, he did it on the advice of counsel, the department of justice told him that he has powers as commander in chief under article 2. that's part of the law of this land. the law of this land includes the national defense authorization act. as a matter of fact, the presiding officer is very much away of the fact that the national defense authorization act of which he is so important a part is part of the law of this land. so is article 2 of the constitution, which gives the commander in chief certain powers. and the department of justice said that he could use those powers to not give 30 days' notice because it could jeopardize the life of an american citizen. now, maybe there's those that argue that's okay. follow the authorization law instead of article 2 because the authorization law somehow or other has precedence over
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article 2, which it doesn't. article 2 is part of the constitution. but the authorization act itself was said to be subject to article 2 powers of the president when he signed the very act. and so what happened? the president decided, because of the ex-inch ensis of these circumstances, whether you agree to or don't agree with the details of the deal -- that's one issue. people with disagree with that all they want. once the president decided he was going to make that deal and save that life and not jeopardize that life by waiting 30 days, at that point the question is, was that illegal? that's what a court could decide, if it so chose, as to whether or not a president could use article 2 powers in order to act quickly to save an american life. and so i think that prejudging this kind of an issue with the
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kind of investigation that would prejudge it -- because that's part of the resolution itself -- is not what this senate should be doing. and, by the way, during that 30-day period, the president would have had to of not just waited 30 days, he would have also had to made all kinds of detailed and substantive classified noteifications. he would have had to have made certain kinds of findings, a detailed statement of the basis for the transfer of release, an explanation of why the transfers of release is in the national security interests of the united states, a description of any actions taken to mitigate the risks. he would have had to have done all of that before he was able to execute the transfer of an american citizen for the safety of this country. now, the president did do all of those things immediately after he made the decision to afnlgt
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so we got all of that notification. that is required by law. but we didn't get it 30 days in advance. because of the jeep dhai would have been created to an american life. and again people are going to disagree as to whether or not this agreement should have been reached. that's fair discussion, fair game for debate. but that's a very different issue as to whether or not we should prejudge as to whether or not the president, who acted under his article 2 powers and told us he might when he signed this bill, acted illegally. and that's what this resolution says happened. the president acted illegally and prejudges an investigation. and i think for a number of reasons it is inappropriate for us to adopt this resolution, and so i will object. mr. portman: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio.
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