so you can ask and call for a job, do those things necessary to get by. it again is fiscally responsible. it was offset and we're waiting for an official score from c.b.o. but our intention is to make it a bill that's scali responsible. 3.1 million americans have lost these benefits, 72,000 a week. we can do better, we must do better. now, we're doing a lot to try to get people back to work and i again commend the authors of this legislation. it is an important step forward. because as so many of my colleagues have noticed, one of the things that's amazing in this recession and i've mentioned it previously, is to go into rhode island to companies where you have unemployment rate of 8% and have the owners say they're desperately looking for four or five workers, can't find them. why is that? well, the skills that 20 years ago got you a good job in rhode

island and for the last 20 years have kept you working, but this downturn closed your company or pushed you out, those skills are out of date. good workers, long work history, they need not only the help to retrain but they certainly need the help to get from day to day to day until they get back into the work force. with that, madam president, let me again commend and thank the sponsors and the authors of this legislation and yield the floor. mr. isakson: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. harkin: i ask further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, i ask consent that if the final vote on passage is successful the statement of the managers for the work force innovation and opportunity act be printed in the record immediately following the text of the senate-passed bill. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. isakson: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. isakson: mr. president, how much time remains on the republican side? the presiding officer: one minute. mr. isakson: mr. president, i'd like to ask unanimous consent that five additional minutes be extended from the democratic side to the republican side. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. harkin: how much time is on our side? the presiding officer: 25 minutes. mr. harkin: absolutely. mr. yook isakson:

mr. isakson: i yield the time to mr. lee. the clerk: amendment three proposes amendment 3380 to amendment 3378. mr. lee: i ask the reading be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lee: federal job training programs are seldom evaluated to determine whether they're meeting their intended purposes. however, when the u.s. is $17.5 trillion in debt, we as representatives of the american taxpayers should do a better job to ensure that the programs we are funding are actually working and working for them. we should pay particularly close attention to programs that receive billions of dollars every year from the federal government when their operation lapsed over a decade ago. the murray-isakson-harkin-alexander substitute amendment takes important steps to ensure title

1, state and local programs are more accurately evaluated, meaning performance -- meeting performance measures and held accountable for unmet goals and unsubmitted reports. more specifically, the bill would sanction state and local programs should they continually fail to meet their performance measures or fail to submit required reports. the substitute amendment does not hold the department of labor to similar standards. the department is required to conduct evaluations and to submit such reports to congress, and i was very pleased to work with senators alexander and harkin to include in the manager's amendment a provision that would require the federal -- the final evaluation reports to be made public and available to the public. and my opinion requiring the department to post these reports to the department's web site is a commonsense step toward improving transpairns in the wi

wioa training programs. i worked with the chairman and ranking member to further discuss a procurement provision within the job corps selection -- section of the bill. while i believe there is still some outstanding concerns that we should continue to discuss, i believe everyone's goal is to ensure that the best job corps operators are able to compete for these sites. today i'd like to offer an additional good-governance measure that would subject the department of labor to similar sanctions as the states. i would help tackle the problem of department of labor delaying congressionally mandated evaluations which would roo teenly has been abused by both republican and democratic administrations. it is a shame that congress passing a law requiring the completion of an evaluation by a certain date is not enough to get the job done. my amendment would remedy this problem by reducing the department of labor office of

secretary's budget by 5% in the year a report is due should the agency fail to conduct and release the independent evaluation as required by the bill. this reduction of funds would continue each year until the report is finalized. wioa authorizes $9 billion each year for five years and title 1 represents half of that funding. therefore, ensuring an independent evaluation of title 1 programs is conducted and made publicly available for review and striewt scriewt any by congress and the american public is critically important for any future modification, renewal or elimination of programs. i would appreciate the support of my colleagues for the passage of this amendment. thank you, mr. president. i yield back the floor.

mr. harkin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, i think we worked very hard on this bill to make sure that we had good, strong, independent evaluations and reporting requirements. so therefore, i have to rise and speak in opposition to the lee amendment. we included in the bill requirements for an independent evaluation to be conducted every four years which includes what we call the gold standard impact evaluation, the first of which is due in 2019. our house colleagues on both sides of the aisle agreed with and supported these provisions in a bipartisan, bicameral process. what the lee amendment would do would be inappropriately penalize the secretary of labor if the secretary does not report -- submit a report by an arbitrary date. i understand the intent of the amendment, we all want to see

reports filed in a timely manner. however, the lee amendment does not give any allowance for factors that might be outside of the secretary's control and then would penalize the secretary for the failure of others over whom the secretary has absolutely no control. that's why i oppose the amendment. as the name suggests, independent evaluations are run by objective independent third parties. sometimes those evaluations encounter delays far crond the control of the department. for example, data may not be available in a timely manner, alternatively followup with states, local areas or programs participating in the evaluation may be necessary. on some occasions legal challenges may arise. any of these factors could delay a comprehensive report of this nature. and then to say, well, however, we're going to penalize the department for failing to meet an arbitrary deadline i think is just inappropriate.

inequitable. because they may not have control over that. so the lee amendment would disregard any and all of these reasons that a report my be delayed even by one day. even by one day. so, mr. president, i want to make it clear all of us who worked on this bill believe in the value of independent evaluations and the information they can provide policymakers and consumers. but we also believe they should be done right without undue pressure of arbitrary deadlines and no room for corrections. so i'd also note that the underlying bill does strengthen evaluations and reporting in the right way. this is something we all worked on. and we've all worked on it in a bipartisan, bicameral nature. so, again, the house has been very clear that we work this out, they would not be accepting of this amendment, so i hope that all of us would join

with us who worked so hard on this bill in a bipartisan manner to oppose the lee amendment. mr. lee: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: mr. president, ask i could respond very briefly. i think it's important to point out that yes, there may come times when any government office, whether it's an elected government office or appointed office, there may come a time when someone who is new to the office my be affected by something that did or didn't happen during the predecessor's time in office. but even were that to occur in the case of the secretary of labor, this is a position that could easily enable, could easily empower the new secretary to come in and within a matter of months make sure that a contractor gets a report done and makes sure that report gets submitted. it's also worth noting, mr. president, when we entrust

a federal agency with the power to spend $9 billion of the american people's hard earned taxpayer money, resources, we should expect them to stand accountable and they should certainly have the ability to have a study conducted and have that study released to the american people. if we don't trust them to be able to issue that report and make it public, then we should have some reason to be concerned about giving them $9 billion. but i think this is a reasonable requirement, and i therefore ask my colleagues to support the measure. thank you, mr. president.

mr. harkin: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. mr. franken: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. franken: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to speak in proud support of the work force innovation and opportunity act and to urge my colleagues to support it. this is an extremely important piece of legislation and one that i was happy to work on in the help committee. it's also long overdue. we haven't reauthorized the work force investment act since 1998. it's clear that the law isn't working for a 2014 economy. we know it isn't working because we have a large and growing

skills gap. now, what is the skills gap? well, recent studies have shown that between one-third and a half of manufacturers in my state have at least one job that they can't fill because they can't find a worker with the right skills or the job. that skills gap in minnesota, but of course it isn't just minnesota. this is a nationwide phenomenon, and any colleague that i talk to on the floor says that's the case in his or her state. a 2011 survey by deloitte found that there were 600,000 manufacturing jobs nationwide that were unfilled because of a skills shortage. that was 2011. i just met with the president and c.e.o. of enterprise, minnesota, a terrific organization that studies manufacturers in my state of

minnesota. he likes to say we have been admiring this problem for a long time. and it's not just manufacturers. there is the skills gap in information technology, in health care and in other sectors that have jobs sitting there waiting, waiting for skilled workers to fill them. there are more than three million jobs in this country that could be filled toad if there were workers who had the right skills. with too many americans unemployed, we have to find a way to fill those jobs. the thing is we know how to solve this, and the work force innovation and opportunity act will help us do that. i have been on the floor of the senate a number of times to talk about this strategy. i have talked about it with the presiding officer. and i'm really excited about this, as you very well know, as

the president knows. these are partnerships between businesses and community and technical colleges that are training up workers and getting them into high-skilled, high-demand jobs right away. a number of these partnerships are up and running in minnesota and have employers fighting over graduates. sometimes the fight starts before the students have graduated. that's good for the student. bob kyll told me about one of the programs at the alexandria technical community college. by the way, a community college that has been doing this for a while and doing a great job. this student had 14 job offers before he graduated. all 14 employers said that they would pay him to get his engineering degree. now, i bet if you ask most recent graduates from a four-year or even a graduate degree program, they would be

jealous of that kind of eagerness from employers. so that's a program that has been working and with good reason. employers were involved in the program from day one. so they helped to shape the curriculum to their needs. this is obviously more effective than a training program with no connection to the needs of employers or as labor secretary tom perez calls it train and pray. and our education system needs this, this focus on skills for jobs that exist. careers are different than they were a generation ago. very few people stay working in one job from one company for their entire life anymore, and as technology progresses faster and faster, workers are going to need to constantly upgrade their skills. we need a work force development system that is agile enough to

keep up with these changing demands. that is essential not just so that workers will be able to get the different skills that they will need over the course of their working lives, it is also going to be one of the keys to the united states remaining globally competitive. if our workers can't adapt to the new industries that are constantly forming, we will lose those jobs to our global competitors. we're seeing manufacturing coming back to our country for all sorts of reasons, and we need to have the skilled workers to take advantage of that and be globally competitive. there is no better way to anticipate and react to these changes than to connect businesses directly with our schools to get workers exactly the skills that they need. this is also about -- it's about

global competitiveness, it's about jobs. it's also about college affordability. i already talked about the student with 14 job offers, all of which included a free engineering degree. you can't get more affordable than free. and if you've heard me talk about this issue before, you've heard me discuss a manufacturer from minnesota named eric ajax. when eric hires employees from these business technical partnerships, the way that he looks at it is they are on a career ladder that would otherwise not be available to them. he told me about one such hire. i hired him right after he did a credentialed program, like a short c.n.c. credentialed program. then the guy did a great job. so he said well, i'm going to send you back to community college and get your associate's

degree, while you're working, and i'll pay for it. so the guy got his associate's degree, came back and he was magnificent at his job. so then he said well, you know what, i'm going to send you to the university of minnesota to get your bachelor's degree while you're working, and now the guy's about to -- i believe he is about to get his bachelor's degree, but he is now the -- the head of quality control at this precision manufacturing company, at this advanced manufacturing company. and he's got a couple degrees -- or will have a couple degrees, zero debt, zero debt. i think about that story a lot when i think about college affordability. i could talk about these partnerships for hours, as the presiding officer knows.

he's heard me, because they work. i am enthusiastic about this. that's why i worked with senator murray, senator patty murray, the great senator from washington, with johnny isakson, the great senator from georgia, and tom harkin, the great senator from iowa and lamar alexander, the great senator from tennessee, to make sure that this bill would encourage the formation of these partnerships, and i really thank them, each and every one of them for their leadership on this bill. they work together on a bipartisan -- worked together on a bipartisan basis and led a cooperative process in the help committee. thank you. and i think the result of the bill is something that everyone can be proud of. now, i will keep working to pass my community college career fund act because i think these partnerships deserve even more focus as well as a dedicated

funding source, but i am proud that i have fought to make sure that the work force innovation and opportunity act contains provisions similar to my bill and does a lot to encourage the formation of more of these partnerships and bigger partnerships, create more jobs, on a path in the right direction. and i think this is a huge step in the right direction and i thank my colleagues. we're creating a smarter, more nimble work force that needs to respond to the unique needs of each local areas. we're coordinating all the programs so they will all be working together to the same goals and the same outcome metrics. this will reduce administrative costs, make the system focus on what counts -- getting people good jobs. once again, thank you to

senators murray and harkin and isakson and alexander for their hard work on this bill. i encourage my colleagues to support it so that we can get our work force system working for today's economy and the economy of tomorrow. thank you, mr. president, and -- mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: let me express my sincere thanks to my co-authors and the managers of this bill, senators isakson, harkin and alexander, and let me also again thank senator enzi who was for years my partner on this bill. for over a decade now, some combination of us, along with others, have been working to reauthorize the work force investment act, and i'm so excited that we're finally on the verge of passing this long overdue legislation through the senate. let me remind everyone that the work force development system

serves over 20 million people every year. that is one in eight -- one of every eight working age adults in this country. people who are looking for work, people who want to change their jobs, people who want to upgrade their skills, and the system serves thousands of employers every year -- manufacturers, construction firms, health care providers, financial institutions. the list goes on. and let's also remember that our work force development system is a vital partner of economic developers all around the country, making sure that companies being recruited or expanded have access to training and skilled workers necessary to compete and grow. mr. president, with millions of new jobs that will require postsecondary education and advanced skills in the coming years, we will fall behind if we do not modernize our work force development systems and programs now. we have to make sure that when high-tech jobs of the next century are created, americans are ready to fill them. that is what we have done with

this bill. we have doubled down on the programs that work. we have improved or eliminated programs that have become outdated and created a work force system that is more nimble and adaptable and better assigned and more accountable. so, mr. president, i am very proud to be at this point and i again especially want to thank my partner who has been with me so many times, so many critical times, senator isakson from georgia who has just been incredibly hard working and diligent in getting this done. so thank you, mr. president. i look forward to the votes. we have two amendments. i will be joining all of our cosponsors in voting against those amendments. and then final passage, and i again thank everyone who has worked so hard on this for so many years. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. mr. isakson: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. isakson: as we close the debate, i want to enthusiastically support and endorse the work force investment opportunity act. this is a statement the united states senate can send to the

united states of america and all the people who are on unemployment, looking for better opportunity. we are now going to offer training to see to it those 10,600,000 americans out of work can find jobs and hopefully it will be the four million jobs available today in america where skilled workers are not trained. i want to thank senator murray for her kind comments and reiterate my appreciation for her, her staff, my staff. chairman harkin has been a fearless leader on our committee and allowed us the chance to get to where we are today. senator alexander's cool hand has helped us get through an amendment process that was difficult at times but got us to the point we're at today. i urge all of my colleagues to vote for the bill and against the two amendments, and i yield back my time and yield back the balance of time. senator alexander? everyone having spoken, all time will be yielded back. the presiding officer: under the

previous order, the question occurs on amendment number 3379 offered by the senator from arizona, mr. flake. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators who wish to vote or to change their vote? seeing none, on the amendment, the votes are 33 yeas and 63 nays. the amendment is not agreed to. under the previous order, the question occurs on amendment number 3380 offered by the senator from utah, mr. lee. the senate will be in order. the senate will be in order. the question is on the amendment. is there a sufficient second?

is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: r is there any senator wishing to vote or to change their vote? seeing none, on the amendment the yeas are 40. the nays are 58. the amendment is not agreed to. the senate will be in order. under the previous order, the question occurs on amendment number 3381 offered by the senator from iowa, mr. harkin.

the question is on the amendment. all in favor say aye. those opposed. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the amendment is agreed to. under the previous order, the substitute amendment is agreed to as amended. the question is on final passage of the measure. excuse me. the question is on passage of the measure. the clerk will read the bill for the third time. the clerk: h.r. 803 an act to perform and strengthen the workforce system of the nation to put america back to work and make the united states more competitive in the 21st century. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

viy(e)rushalayim. the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or change their vote? seeing none on the matter before the senate, the yeas are 95, the nays are 3. the bill as amended is passed.

under the previous order, h.r. 803, as amended, having passed, amendment number 332 to the title is agreed to and the motion reconsider is considered made and laid on the table. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations, which the clerk will report. department othe clerk: jamie min of michigan to be director of cost assessment and program evaluation. thomas p. kelly ii oii of california to be ambassador of the united states of america to the republic of djibouti. the presiding officer: the question is on the wright nomination. all in favor say aye. all opposed? the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nomination's confirmed.

the question occurs on the morin nomination. all in favor say aye. all opposed? the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nomination is confirmed. the question occurs on the kelly nomination. all in favor please signify by saying aye. all opposed? the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motions to reconsider are considered made and laid upon the table, the president will be immediately informed of the senate's action, and the senate will resume legislative session. under the previous order, equal time until 4:30 shall be divided between the two leaders or their designees. mr. harkin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: mr. president, i -- i just want to thank all the senators for this strong, affirmative vote for the reauthorization of the work force investment act, we now call it the work force investment opportunity act. it's a great bill.

a 95-3 vote i think indicates that people worked hard, put together a great bill that -- that meets the needs of our country in training our new work force for the future. again, i just want to thank senator alexander, our ranking member, for a very, very close working relationship on our committee. i would note for the record that this passage of this bill marks the 14th bill reported out of our committee during this session of congress -- during this congress that will go to the president for his signature. our committee just met a little bit ago and we are now reporting another bill, the -- the autism cures bill, which we hope to have again before the senate very shortly also for passage. so our committee has worked very hard across party lines to reach these agreements.

again, i thank senator alexand alexander. on this bill especially i want to thank senator isakson and senator murray for just sticking with it. this bill took five years and a lot of ups and downs, a lot of knots to untangle but they did it and they worked hard at it. and i think there's a lesson here for all of us, that, you know, if you stick to it and you focus on the areas in which you have agreement, not those where you don't have agreement but you focus on the areas you have agreement and build from there, you can get good things done. so this is a good bill. i want to thank all the senators and their staffs. mr. president, i have a statement. i'd like to have the statement and my remarks at this point be included in the record prior to the final passage of the bill. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: thank you. i yield the floor. mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. i want to thank our chairman and

ranking member, senator hark i n and senator alexander for their tremendous work and banking of us as we worked through this process. and i again want to thank my partner, senator isakson, who was so diligent and true to his word and worked through every issue with us. and i want to thank him for that. i also just want to take a minute this afternoon to extend a sincere thank you to all the staff who worked so hard to help put this bill together, work through its challenges and get us to this point today where we have passed it in the senate. if the senate will bear with me, we have a lot of names but i think that tells you how many people worked so hard to do it. i want to thank from my office, senior advisee scott cheney, chief of staff mike spawn, my budget committee staff director evan schatz, stacy rich, and emma fulkerson from my floor and leadership staff, my entire communications team, especially he willy zubnick and shawn coin and everyone else from my team who have all worked so very hard to move this bill forward. i also want to thank the wonderful staff from senator

isakson's office. tommy newan, the staff director of the help subcommittee on employment and workplace subcommittee, as well as brett layson and michael black who have just been incredible to work with. and chairman harkin's health, education, labor and pensions committee team. senior education policy advisor crystal bridgeman. chief education council, mildred otero, policy director michael mccormack. district council lee purcile. lauren mcpheran, and labor policy advisor liz weiss and many more from his staff who have helped. i also want to thank the staff of senator alexander, education policy advisor patrick murray, education policy director and counsel peter oppenheim, bill knutsen, education policy advisor, and help committee staff directer and chief of staff, david cleary. mr. president, we also benefited from the expertise at the congressional research office.

i want to thank david bradley, benjamin coons and adrian fernandez cantera. and i would be remiss if i didn't thank the professionals in the senate legislative counsel's office, katiey grendin and others. mr. president, as you can see, a lot of people worked a very long time to get us where we are. this has been an 11-year process so there have been a lot of staff who've worked on various versions of this reauthorization over years. and i can't name them all but there's some who deserve recognition as well. jerry fialla, bill camella, beth buelman, pam smith, daif, davids and lee smith. and the house and administration of whom there are far too many names to mention here. but, mr. president, i think that tells all of us that this is a bill that was worked on diligently by many over the years and who will benefit at the end of the day is our work force and our employers and our country. and i really want to thank again my counterpart, senator isakson, for working with me to get this

done. thank you, mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. isakson: mr. president, i want to associate myself with the remarks of chairman harkin and of senator patty murray from washington. i want to reiterate what i said in my opening statement about how much regard and respect i have for miss murray and the job that she has done. we would not be here today if it weren't for patty murray and i'm grateful for her support and grateful for her kind words. i want to reiterate all the names that she said, all the thanks that we have but i want to particularly thank my staff that has made me once again look good and that's a difficult job to do sometimes. i want to thank tommy newan, thank amanda maddox, michael black, brett layson and appreciate all they've done, and joan kertzner, my chief of staff, who came to the aid last week and pulled a rabbit out of the hat at the last minute in the republican conference to allow us to be here. we all get a lot of credit here in the senate but it's our staff that makes or breaks what we do. we're grateful for the staff of the work force innovation and

opportunity act, would not have become law or get to the president's desk without the hard work of our staff. so thank you to pat ey senator , thart, thanthank you to senator. at the end of the day, we've done a great service to the people of the united states of america. and i yield back. mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i'm -- i come here every week now for 72 consecutive weeks that the senate has been in session to urge colleagues to wake up to the growing threat of climate change. and today i have the pleasure and honor of being joined by my friend and colleague, senator joe manchin of west virginia, so i would like to ask unanimous consent that the senator from west virginia and i be allowed to engage in a colloquy for the time that we've been allotted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: senator manchin and i come from different states in very different parts of the country.

we're the ocean state. he's the mountain state. but we both came here today to say that climate change is real, that human activities, including the burning of fossil fuels, are causing dramatic changes to earth's atmosphere and oceans, and to seek responsible solutions that will ensure reliable, sustainable energy for the united states and protect our local communities and economies from the worst effects of a changing climate. recognizing, as we must, that fossil fuels will be part of america's fuel mix for decades. the recent national climate assessment showed many effects of climate change already being seen across the united states. in my home state of rhode island, we have narragansett b bay. more than three degrees warmer in the winter than it was 50 years ago. and measurements at the newport tide gauge show that, as the sea water warms and expands, sea

level is up almost 10 inches against our shores since the 1930's. extreme weather depends a lot on natural variability but climate change increases the odds that heat waves and heavy rain bursts will occur. as the clie pa climate has warme types of extreme weather have already become more frequent and severe. here on this chart we see that in the northeast, up here, the area which includes both rhode island and west virginia, between 1958 and 2010, the amount of rain coming in those big downpours has gone up by 70%. let's remember, too, how climate change affects the economy and jobs. for example, fishermen in rhode island have seen their winter flounder catch from narragansett bay nearly disappear in recent decades as the bay has warmed. these are not distant climate

model projections. this is now. this is happening to rhode island. the people of west virginia have senator manchin fighting for them every day here in washington. i know he believes that we need to find economically responsible answers to environmental problems. i am proud to stand with him today as his friend and colleague. mr. manchin: thank you, senator whitehouse. mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. manchin: let me just say i'm pleased to join my friend, senator whitehouse, from the great state of rhode island to talk about this important subject. in the past, we may not always have agreed on how to approach this problem, but at least we've come together to work on a solution together and that's -- that's very important. that's a rare thing in washington, as you know, and we're determined to see if we can find common ground to move forward. as senator whitehouse suggests,

the way we produce and consume energy in our states is quite different. i'm the mountain state. he's the ocean state. nonetheless, we both agree that we need to strike a balance between the economy and the environment. one can't go it alone. it takes a balance, if you will, and about anything we do in life. one that acknowledges the reality of the climate change and, while also understanding that fossil fuels, more specifically coal, that we produce so much of in our state and is such a part of our economy, is a vital part of our energy mix for decades to come. that's by the department of energy, the e.i.a.'s own claim. there's no doubt that 7 billion people have impacted our world's climate. those who deny that i believe are wrong. and along with my friends. i believe we've had an impact and we have a responsibility. but we need to know what's going on and the facts we're dealing with in the world todaymen toda. there's more than 8 billion tons

of coal consumed around the world each year. this gives you a little bit of an outline of where most of that coal is consumed. currently china bulls more than 4 billion tons per -- burns more than 4 billion tons per year and they're not stopping other letting up. if anything, they're increasing their consumption and building more coal-fired plant as we speak. while the u.s. and europe each burn less than 1 billion tons. so the united states of america, you could say, is less than one-eighth of the coal consumed annually in the world. if we stop burning every ton of coal, would that really clean up the climate? but if we find ways to do it better, can we help the rest of the world clean up the climate? that's what we're here to talk about. there's a broad agreement in the scientific community that carbon emissions and other human contributions are causing substantial changes to the earth's climate. according to the west virginia state climatologist office, five of the six wettest years have occurred isn't 1989. four of the six warmers years occurred since 1990. -- warmest years have occurred since 1990.

just as i don't deny the existence of climate change, my friend, senator whitehouse, doesn't deny that eliminating coal from our energy mix would hurt the reliability of our coal. he knows that. you can't do it without it. we've got to work together to keep the reliability into the system which is so vital to people all over this country. without coal, the northeast of the united states would have suffered severe and enduring power outages during the winter's polar vortex. if our reliability had failed during the polar vortex last year, there's no question, people would have died, no question at all. during that period of time coal provided 92% of the increase in energy needed to survive the disaster. if coal was not able to go on line to back up the grid, 92% of it was driven by coal, because it is dependable, reliable and is affordable. this chart shows basically the portion of the increase in the u.s. electricity generation by

fuel. january and february, the times that we needed it the most to keep the system, the grid system up and running, you can see coal at 92%, natural gas fell because of distribution problems that we had. it will increase, it will get better as distribution and infrastructure is build. oil, nuclear, hydro, renewable, they weren't able to pick up the demand or the load needed to keep the system moving. nick ai cins is the c.e.o. of american electric powell. he said this about the polar vortex. this could did not dodge a bullet, it dodged a cannonball. we need to do it while maintaining the reliability of our electricity system. coal will remain a vital part of our nation's generation portfolio for the foreseeable future. according to the president's own

energy information agency, coal generated 45% of elect in 2011. in 2040, coal will still generate more than 30% of the domestic electricity that's needed. this chart basically shows you where we are going. this is clear up to 2040. by 2040, natural gas will be at 35%. coal will still be at 32%. both can be said out of fossil so you have 67% renewables increase to 16%, nuclear is going down to 16 which i believe we have to reengage our efforts there. i really do. so coal will assume the dominant world markets for the for seatbelt future. according to e.i.a., coal provided 69% of china's energy consumption in 2011. this gives you an idea. china used four times the amount

of coal used in the u.s. that year. coal supplied 41% of india's total energy consumption from from -- india, during that period of time used roughly the same amount of coal as we did in the united states. but by 2040 chien china will produce 6 % of its electricity from coal while india will produce 56%. during the next few years, some 1,200 new coal plants will be built across 59 countries. 363 are going to be built in china, and 455 in india alone. it's just unbelievable when you look at more than 8 billion tons of coal consumed around the world each year, china burns more than 4 billion tons while the u.s. and europe burn less than 1 billion tons. use in these countries and other

parts of the world is expected to go dramatically for decades, for decades to come. the u.s. has already been a leader in providing the world that we can produce coal cleaner today. traditional pollutants, sul for, mercury and night nitrogen particulates have been cut by 80% in the last few years. what's less known is technologies are being developed that dramatically lower coal plant carbon emissions. with smart investments from the public and private sectors, we'll complete the first generation and develop the second generation of these technologies. when that happens in the not so distant future we'll lead the world toward ute utilization of fossil fuels in a way that produces negligible emissions.

we can lead by example and show the world we can burn fossil fuels cleaner than ever. most importantly, mr. president, we can do all this while protecting consumers, creating jobs, and growing our economy. mr. whitehouse: i agree with my friend from west virginia that we must address climate change in a way that protects jobs in all sectors, and ensures grid stability. fossil fuels like coal and natural gas are indeed going to be an important part of america's energy mix for decades. so we need to invest as senator manchin as has suggested in reducing the carbon pollution we generate from these sores. we also need to adapt our power infrastructure to withstand the effects of climate change. extreme weather has become the main cause of blackouts in the u.s. the president's council of economic advisors and the

department of energy counted 679 widespread outages between 2003 and 2012 due to severe weather. 58% of power outages since 2002 and 87% of outages affecting 50,000 or more customers were used by severe weather such as thunderstorms, hurricanes, and blizzards. the average annual cost of power outages caused by severe weather is between $18 billion and $33 billion per year. the u.s. energy information administration exiled data that has is plotted on this chart showing weather-related power outages are already on the rise since just the early 1990's. addressing climate change is also important to grid stability. we also should expand and modernize our electric grid. a smarter grid will make it easier to respond to and recover from extreme weather events,

will boost efficiency within the system, will help lower utility bills, and will bring more renewable energy on line. in both our states, senator manchin and i realize it's in america's interests to be leaders in the research, development, and deployment of energy efficiency tools, in cleaner fossil fuel research, and in renewable energy technologies, particularly ones that we can export. and i know senator manchin has some of these technologies being rolled out in his state. mr. manchin: thank you senator. when i was governor of west virginia, we set and we have now aseefd an alternative. we were going to reduce our carbon foot president footprint% using coal in a cleaner fashion and some of the other things i do. not only did we do it, mr. president, we did it 10 years early. 10 years earlier than what we had targeted for.

in 2013, 4.1% of west virginia's energy already came from hydroelectric and wind energy. mount storm wind farm -- so many people don't know what we've done in our little state because we're all in. we're trying everything we have. the mount storm wind farm is the second largest wind farm east of the mississippi. 17 miles across the beautiful landscape. i also agree with senator whitehouse on the importance of energy efficiency with our friend, senator hoeven from north dakota, i've introduced the all-of-the-above federal building energy conservation act, legislation that would improve the energy efficiency of federal buildings. and set an example for all private sector. this legislation takes a sceens all-of-the-above approach to federal efficiency. i believe by encouraging the use of innovative technologies and practices, instituting reasonable goals and allowing flexibility, we can achieve better environmental stewardship

in a cost-effective manner. as governor, senator hoeven, a republican from north dakota and myself have relied on common sense to guide our state policies and this bill applies that much-needed common sense to federal policies. we should be using all of our abundant resources including coal to power our nation in the most efficient way possible. our bill accomplishes this goal and improves the the federal government can achieve greater efficiency in a cleaner fashion. while the efficiency and renewables are important, let me say again it is most important to reduce emissions from coal plants while keeping them running well into the future. advances in coal use technologies will continue to develop with help from the public sector. enhanced oil recovery is already developing into a valuable tool for augmenting domestic oil production. we need federal investments.

research is ongoing for the use of coal and co2 for a multitude, a multitude of new energy and consumer products, including fertilizers, liquid fuels, plastic materials and i just had a gentleman come to my office that basically makes carbon out of coal which cleanses the water that we drink. unbelievable. so there's so many things and senator whitehouse is right. there are so many things we are using and can do an awful lot more. mr. whitehouse: efficiency is something we take seriously in rhode island as well. in 2013 the american council for an energy efficient economy ranked rhode island as the sixth most energy efficient state in the country. the energy information administration in 2011 ranked rhode island the lowest in energy consumption, which is the presiding officer from the small state of delaware can understand we have an unfair advantage in but we were also the sixth lowest in total energy

cost per capita. we do our part to save energy, avoid emissions, lower costs, and reduce demand and stress on the electric grid. rhode island and eight other states partnership in the regional greenhouse gas initiative, rggi, we call it which caps carbon emissions and sells permits to emit greenhouse gases to power plants. one way rhode island has been able to drive down consumption and utility bills is by investing the money generated buy rggi into energy efficiency. rhode island invests over 91% of rggi proceeds in energy projects. helping residents to save money on utility bills and making small businesses more competitive. rhode island is also poised to gain scores of jobs from the development of offshore wind. i think we have the advantage on west virginia in offshore wind. our private developer of

offshore wind, deep water, has received its first major environmental permit to begin deployment in the block island wind farm area. the price of wind energy has decreased over 90% since the early 1980's. and is now competitive in the energy markets. i am working to make wind energy more a part of our energy portfolio. at the federal level, our energy policy nuss must use the best science available to improve the way we use fossil fuels and our tax code should help address climate change while leveling the playing field for various energy sores. -- sources. i believe, i believe carbon driven climate change hurts our economy, damages our infrastructure and harms public health. yet shows costs are not factored into the costs of fossil fuels. that means the cost of the pollution has been borne by the public. i believe we should adopt a carbon fee to correct this

market failure and return all its revenue to the american people. what republican supporters of a carbon fee call revenue neutral. on a smaller scale congress can extend the renewable energy tax credits and others supported by members on both sides of the aisle. helping renewable energy in west virginia and a bipartisan array of states. mr. manchin: thank you, senator. the senator and i disagree on a few things, but i adamantly disagree with my dear friend, senator whitehouse, regarding the wisdom of a carbon fee or carbon tax. i do agree we can sues the tax code and other incentives to clean up fossil fuels. that's why we're here together, to find that pathway. first, the d.o.e. must approve $8 billion in loan guarantees for advanced fossil fuel projects that they've had available since 2005 and none of

it's been invested to try to help use the fuel that we depend on, coal, in a much better, cleaner fashion. also i found out that we also have $3.2 billion, senator, that from the stimulus money to be used for shovel-ready coal projects that still is sitting and hasn't been invested. so there's an awful lot that we can do without appropriating any new money, just using the money that's been there for the purpose it was intended to do. new tax incentives could be employed to incentivize providers to update plants to the super and ultracritical configurations that pave the way for cccs. second we need to incentivize the technology that one that holds the promise for the use with new england religionible -- neglect religionable emissions. carbon capture sequestration just used for that purpose if you don't have a second source

to where you can sell it for enhanced oil recovery, the technology that we could use in the shell that maybe could enhance the gas from the shales that the utica and marcellis that we have in west virginia. so much could be done. maybe key wee could solidify the carbon and use it as a spent fuel. this money laying right now in the department of energy for almost 10 years needs to be invested. and with your help, senator whi, i can only thank you that we can move forward and find a solution. mr. whitehouse: i agree with the distinguished senator from west virginia, that the department of energy's advanced fossil projects loan guarantee program has not yet lived up to its potential, and i will work with him to push the administration to accelerate its use. i would like to close my share of this colloquy by noting something very basic, and that is that america has l