the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: i would ask unanimous consent to vacate the quorum call, mr. president, and speak for up to 15 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. wyden: mr. president, today there are wildfires that are burning across the west, and i want to speak for a few moments about some very important work that chair mikulski and her colleagues have done on the senate appropriation committee that has really built -- that is really built on a bipartisan

proposal that senator crapo, our colleague from idaho, and i with a large group of bipartisan senators are proposing to change the way in which forests are managed and reduce the likelihood of some of what i call these infernos, mr. president. these are fires that are bigger, they are hotter, they are more damaging, and they act like a wrecking ball pounding at the rural west. and what has happened over the years is that the preventative efforts in the west in terms of our forests are underfunded. there isn't enough effort that goes to hazardous fuels, management and thinning and program that reduce the huge load on the forest floor. and i was just this past weekend

both in medford, oregon, rural southern oregon and in portland, meeting with the forest service and bureau of land management, and they told me about the problem that senator crapo and i are trying to address in a bipartisan legislation that chair mikulski has included in her appropriation bill. -- appropriations bill. and the heart of the problem, mr. president, is because these prevention efforts are underfunded, when it gets very dry and very hot and particularly when there is a lightning strike or a series of lightning strikes, what you have is an enormous fire in a hurry, and all through the west there is an effort to try to share resources and communities work together and try to share efforts of aerial resources and

others, but the reality is there is not enough money to put out those huge fires. so what happens then is the bureaucracy borrows from the prevention fund in order to put the fire out, and then we're on our way to two bigger problems, mr. president. we're on our way to again a lack of preventative dollars because of this fire borrowing. some of our colleagues call it fire robbery. i'm trying to be diplomatic. it's fire borrowing, i guess, if you want to be diplomatic, but we underfund prevention and then of course we don't have the money needed for suppression as well. and this trend that i have described is getting more and more pronounced and more and more serious, so what senator

crapo and i are proposing to do in order to make the focus on wildfire prevention is in effect say that the most serious fires in the west, the kind of fires that are dominating our tv screens night after night, 1% of those infernos ought to be treated like the major natural disasters they are and would be funded in the same way as other natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes. and specifically, the legislation that senator crapo and i and others are advancing would move any spending above 70% to the ten-year rolling average for fire suppression outside of the agency's baseline budget by making these additional costs eligible to be funded under a separate disaster

account. now, so far this year, more than 33,000 fires have burned a total of 1.6 million acres nationwide, and the numbers are growing by the minute. just this past weekend, mr. president, visiting with our wonderfully talented folks at the forest service and the bureau of land management in medford, they were telling me about their concern that in southern oregon where it is very hot and very dry and there can be lightning strikes, they were concerned about the prospect of another biscuit fire which we had at the beginning of the century, burned 500,000 acres. really our most destructive fire ever, and yet that was what was on the mind of the firefighting professionals when i visited with them in medford friday last.

now, this year the firefighting expects to exceed its budget by $600 million, and that isn't going to surprise anybody in the west. in eight of the past ten years, the forest service has spent more of its wildfire suppression budget, requiring the agency to engage in what i have just called fire borrowing to cover these wildfire suppression costs. and the reality is that in many cases, the borrowed moneys are not repaid. in the cases where the funds are repaid, it's cut only through costly supplemental spending bills that congress has to enact or by taking money out of future year's budget. so what you have is this kind of borrowing that's extraordinarily disruptive to the ongoing work

that the forest service and their contractors are in the middle of performing, and i might add, mr. president, what all this does is it makes it more expensive in the future and makes it less likely that we're going to get the important prevention work that is so necessary. and in our part of the world, i think it's fair to say that westerners are coming to consider the forest service charged with managing the nation's forests for multiple uses and users has really become something that more appropriately would be called the u.s. fire service, because in effect that's what this agency is month after month, using more of its resources on. what i was told in portland last friday, having visited rural

oregon -- excuse me, rural oregon on friday and portland on saturday, the specialists in portland on saturday told me that the fire season is 70 days longer than it was until recently. so you have got this challenge of more fuel load built up on the forest floor, drier, lightning strikes and lasting longer, and that is a prescription for trouble in the rural west and in fact that's what we are seeing. so my hope is that as a result of the work that senator crapo and i and others are seeking to do is we can have more hazardous fuel treatments, more preventative work that will be effective at reducing fire risk and lowering costs. a fire in central oregon this year slowed to a halt when it

reached treated areas outside the city of bend, and i saw that. i saw that, mr. president, when i was in bend looking at the difference between treated areas, this preventative kind of approach and others that were untreated. in a study published by northern arizona university ecological restoration concluded, and i will quote here, "treatments can reduce fire severity and successfully reduce fire risk to communities." now, based on department of interior and department of agriculture analyses, 1% of wildland fires represents 30% of firefighting costs. that's what senator crapo and i want to address in our bill. what we're saying is for that 1%, the 1% that is really driving up costs, let's handle those fires like what they are,

which are natural disasters, and then instead of raiding the prevention money to put the fires out, we will be able to cause less problem in the future because we'll have the kind of preventative work that is so effective that i saw in bend and elsewhere. so it seems to me as we see in a lot of parts of government, there is a choice. you can spend modest sums up front on prevention in order to generate significant savings down the road, and if you have got one dollar to spend, you ought to always try to put it in prevention and then make sure that of your scarce resources to the greatest extent possible, you target the remaining money on those infernos that are bigger and hotter and more

damaging and cost about 30% of the overall budget. so in summary, mr. president, the legislation that senator crapo and i and others are pursuing would fund the true catastrophic fire events under separate natural disaster programs, rue teen wildland firefighting costs would be funded through the normal budget and appropriation process. oversight hearings, letters and numerous discussions with the administration and colleagues help produce the approach that chair mikulski has included. i remember not long ago, mr. president, being in idaho, being hosted by our colleagues, senator crapo and senator risch. we had numbers from across the political spectrum. congressman labrador from the other body was there. we had progressive members. this is something that is common sense. this just makes sense to make

sure that the small number of fires, these infernos who are dominating our news accounts, let's handle them from the natural disaster fund and then let's put most of the money and allow the forest service, b.l.m. professionals to put their focus and their resources where we can prevent as much of the problem here as possible and prevent it early on. that's the point of our legislation. we are very grateful to chair mikulski for her effort. i want to thank senator crapo for his support. he and i have been at this with senator risch and senator merkley and senator cantwell and senator murray, senator bennet. all of the western senators, senator udall has been doing important work on this on the energy and natural resources committee. all of the western senators are of like mind here. and chair mikulski recognizing

what we're looking at. and the prospect that we would be leaving this week without this change to make better use of our resources i think is just -- i call it legislative malpractice. because we have an opportunity in a bipartisan way to make a real difference here, and given what our colleagues are seeing if they are outside the west, i'd say it's a chance to spend scarce dollars more effectively and for us in the west it's nothing short of survival. mr. president, with that, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new mexico is recognized. mr. heinrich: let me begin by just thanking my colleague from oregon for his leadership along with senator crapo on this wildland firefighter budgeting and fire borrowing issue is

really what it is. it's critical to all of us in western states. every single one of us has seen communities touched by these catastrophic wildfires as our -- as our climate is changing and as these fires get bigger and bigger. and we have solutions and the solutions are bipartisan and they are common sense and i can only hope that we're able to move quickly to make these budget changes. they will make a real difference for all of us up and down the inner mountain west. mr. president, i want to thank all of my colleagues who have been vocal about their commitment to address the central american refugee crisis along our southern border. now, we have heard the stories of unimaginable violence, of corruption, of instability in places like honduras and el salvador and guatemala. factors that are driving many children to the u.s. and to other neighboring countries in central america.

and in some cases, these children are literally fleeing for their lives. now, our nation has responded with a spectrum of attitudes towards immigrants ranging from hostile to down right hospitable. and it is my hope, mr. president, that our attitude as a nation continues to be defined by the image of the statue of liberty and not by shouting protesters holding signs labeled "return to sender" as they stand in front of buses full of central american children. now, i recently received a letter from a constituent in my home state of new mexico whose grandmother, as a result of extreme poverty, left her family and emigrated by herself to the united states from ireland at the age of 14 at the end of world war 1. brendan said growing up his

grandmother frequently shared this irish proverb with him. she said courage is trusting that your feet will bring you to where your heart is. brendan asked that i please continue to remind my colleagues that the immigrants arriving at our borders come by foot following their hearts and do so in the hope of building a better life. last week i sat down with ambassadors from honduras, from el salvador and guatamala, and we discussed how our nation' approach to stemming the influx unaccompanied children to the u.s. must be collaborative and get at the root cause of the dire situation in these countries. with out-of-control drug cartels and more than 90 persons for every 100,000 person annually, honduras has the highest murder rate in the world and similarly el salvador and guatamala have the world's fourth and fifth

highest murder rates. there's no easy solution to these problems, but congress has an opportunity and a responsibility to act on pragmatic measures before time and resources run out. secretary johnson has warned that immigrations and customs enforcement will run out of money in august and customs and border protection will run out of money in mid-september if nothing is done. and with resources already running scarcer by the day, customs and border protection won't have any other choice than to direct border agents away from other sectors of our southern border and into the rio grande valley. so let's be clear, those who would choose not to support this emergency supplemental are putting our border security at risk, mr. president. new mexico, california, arizona and west texas will all see fewer agents and fewer resources

on our border if the house and senate do not act. this is no way to address a crisis. we must pass the senate's emergency supplemental funding bill introduced by senate appropriations committee chairwoman barbara mikulski. this emergency funding bill includes important resources to help stem the current central american refugee crisis while continuing to treat these refugee children humanely as required by the law. this situation is an emergency and we need emergency funding. passing the emergency supplemental would also allow the departments of homeland security and justice to deploy additional enforcement resources including immigration judges, immigration and customs enforcement attorneys and asylum officers as well as expanding the use of the alternatives to

detention program. yet, instead of ensuring that we provide these necessary resources to address this crisis on our border, some of our colleagues are actually proposing that the solution is to actually weaken federal child trafficking laws and to roll back protections for unaccompanied child refugees seeking asylum. the proposal introduced by our colleague from texas, senator cornyn, would weaken the 2008 william wilberforce trafficking victims protection act and short circuit justice in an effort to deport refugee children faster and without the due process afforded under our law. according to a poll released tuesday by the public religion research institute, 69% of those surveyed believe that u.s. authorities should treat the children as refugees and allow them to stay in the country if it is determined it's not safe for them to return to their home

country. but some would use this crisis to eliminate crucial child trafficking protections, punish some of our nation's brightest dream act students, mr. president, and promote a narrow border enforcement-only agenda. i believe we're a better nation than that, frankly, and let's step back and remember that just one year ago the senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill, a bill that included provisions to further strengthen the border, but that would also protect refugee children and crack down on smugglers and transnational criminal organizations. notably, the bill was widely supported by both democrats and republicans in the senate. public support and good economics have thought been enough to convince house republican leaders to hold a vote on immigration reform, but they cannot turn a blind eye to the current humanitarian crisis

along our southern border. the bipartisan senate bill that passed more than a year ago includes provisions for family reunification and for the protection of children who have been the victims of human trafficking. the bill also includes measures that would address refugee and asylum laws. the public, including faith-based organizations, educators, local elected officials, small businesses and many, many others overwhelmingly supports this balanced approach to immigration reform. however, here we are, more than a year later, and house republicans are still unwilling to even hold an up-or-down vote on the senate's proposal. each day that the house fails to act on serious solutions to our broken immigration system is another day that our nation and our economy suffer. the congressional budget office reported that last year's

bipartisan immigration reform bill that passed this body would reduce budget deficits by $197 billion -- billion with a "b" -- dollars over the next decade and about $700 billion in the second decade. in a companion analysis, c.b.o. also estimated that fixing our broken immigration system would increase our country's g.d.p., our economic output, by 3.3% in ten years and 5.4% after 20 years. the evidence is clear, immigration reform is good for our economy, it's good for our workforce and it's good for the future of an american middle class. i'm familiar with the promise america represents its families, mr. president. my father fled from naz disi germany in the -- nazi germany. as a sofn immigrants i know how

hard immigrants work, how much they believe in this country and how much they're willing to give back to our nation. those of us who represent border communities understand the difficult challenges we face, but there are solutions before us that are pragmatic, that are bipartisan, and that uphold rather than compromise our american values. in the short term, we must approve the senate's emergency supplemental bill and in the long term we should partner with honduras, guatamala and el salvador to stabilize their nations and end the cycle of gang violence that we see there. and a key part of our long-term solution is for house republicans to finally put the senate's immigration reform bill on the floor for an up-or-down vote. we in congress have a historic opportunity to pass comprehensive immigration reform and to address root causes rather than just symptoms for a

change. i believe we'll have failed if the only immigration legislation we pass as a body in this congress is to weaken legal protections for refugee children. with this in mind, i'll continue to work with my colleagues to ensure that we address this humanitarian crisis and fix our immigration system once and for all. mr. president, let's seize this opportunity. and, mr. president, i see that i've been joined on the floor by the senator from florida, and i would ask unanimous consent to engage in a colloquy with senator nelson. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. the senator from florida is recognized. mr. nelson: mr. president, i thank my colleague for his leadership. i want to ask my colleague if he is aware of the testimony that

the commanding general of u.s. southern command, general kelly, marine four-star general, has given to the armed services committee and to the foreign relations committee recently in the last couple of weeks. mr. heinrich: mr. president, i am aware of the testimony of general kelly. but given his role at cilcom and in particular its location in florida and the fact that the senator from florida was there for the testimony, i would ask him to remind us exactly what general kelly had to say about how we are or in some cases are not interdicting in dealing with the flow of narcotics, and particularly cocaine, that has been at the root of so much of the instability and violence

that we see in these three central american countries today. mr. nelson: mr. president, the senator from new mexico has put his finger on exactly the root cause of the problem. it's the substantial loads of cocaine that are coming in to these three central american countries, that because of the violence, because of the killing, as a result the parents, they have three choices when their child gets on up toward their teenage years. their first choice is to let their kid join the gang because the gangs -- and theets gangs are criminal -- and these gangs are criminal gangs and they're tied in with the drug lords, and the drug lords have taken over the country because of all the money that's being made from these big shipments that come in. so the parents have three

choices. number one, let their kid join the gang. number two, go to their child's funeral. or number three, they become subject to the subtle and direct plea by the coyotes, oh, for $1,500, $5,000, we can get your kid to the border, and your child will be safe in america. now, why those three countries? why are the children that have been showing up in the last several months at the border, why are the children not coming from belize? from nicarauga? from costa rica? from panama? they're coming from three countries: el salvador, guatamala and honduras, because

that's where the big shipments of drugs are coming from from south america into there in a boat one to three tons of cocaine. once they get on land, they break them down into small packages, and they go through a very efficient distribution system that is drugs and criminal elements. they can distribute just about anything they want, including trafficking in humans, and they're going north. so, if honduras is the murder capital of the world and if el salvador and guatamala are not far behind, how do you get at that immediately to stop the flow of children going north?

you interdict more effectively the drug shipments. and that's what the united states has been so successful. and so general kelly, the commanding general of all of u.s. southern command, tells us that sadly, he has to sit there with his joint interagency task force, all the agencies of the u.s. government, arrayed together in this joint interagency task force that is headquartered in key west, and they have to watch 74% of primarily these boats -- not as much flights. primarily boats because they can carry big, big loads of cocaine, get through. so what this senator has been

doing -- i mean if it gets to the point of voting for the supplemental, i will certainly vote for it. but it doesn't get additionally to the root cause of the problem. what we have done, and i have shared this with as many people as i can, consulting with general kelly, they've boiled this down to $122 million out of this president's request of $3.7 billion, of which the senate appropriations committee has pared that down to $2.7 billion. this senator is asking for $122 million, and it will cover such things as $31 million for maritime patrol craft, working through our i want agency -- u.s. government interagency task

force, such as $40 million for maritime patrol requirements to deploy u.s. coast guard law enforcement detachments, such as $15 million for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance by putting up contract-owned predators 24 hours a day five days a week. that contract is being drawn up. if we did this, general kelly could execute that contract immediately. then you'd start to see some results. mr. heinrich: so, if i understand the senator from florida correctly, general kelly literally is -- simply does not

have the resources to do the job that we have done historically in terms of interdicting cocaine moving north for the market that, frankly, is in north america -- the presiding officer mr. nelson: that is correct. hine and has to sit there and watch -- mr. heinrich: hansd to sit there and watch these resources go by without having the resources to stop them in their tracks? mr. nelson: the senator is correct. and whereas general kelly ands -- and i'm just using him as the simple bowel, as the four-star general. it is the joint interagency task force in key west, it's actually headed by a coast guard admiral. they can interdict and do interdict about 25% of those big shipments coming from south america, coming thraw the caribbean on the -- coming through the caribbean on the east, coming through the pacific on the west. and because they've been

effective at 25% of the shipments, what we're seeing is a shifting of those shipments. they're now actually sending more of them to the east, mott onlnotonly to the dominican repc and haiti but now to puerto rico, which is a u.s. territory. you get those drugs into puerto rico, that's american territory. they can ship them by mail from there to the rest of the u.s. and avoid detection. mr. heinrich: and my understanding is the resource situation in southern command has changed so dramatically in recent years that not only is this interagency task force limited but that they have literally canceled more than 200 engagement activities and mullly lateral exercises with our partners through the region who can multiply that effect and

interdict even more of these narcotics as they're moving forward. mr. nelson: the senator is correct. and, as a matter of fact, the staff of the senate appropriations committee, who i have consulted with, is well-familiar with the great operation of the joint interagency task force to go after these drugs. and as the senator from new mexico says, you can imagine their frustration when they know about the boat shipment and sometimes they can watch it from their overhead assets and they can't do anything about it. and, as a result, look what has happened over the last several months of which we're trying to solve that problem of all these children showing up at the border. we ought to help solve that

problem, but we need to go back and stop it at the very beginning of what is causing this problem. mr. heinrich: now, the senator from florida also, mr. president, brought up another issue that i think is worth exploring, and it's my understanding that he was recently briefed on the relationship that existed between these drug cartels and the entities that are actually engaging in human trafficking and moving people through central america, through mexico, and to u.s. border. can you tell us a little bit about the nature of that relationship. mr. nelson: the senator is correct on how all of these things are interlocked. you can imagine that when drugs come in of sufficient quantities

that are worth so much, how that is a corrupting influence on any kind of law and order. and, thus, the systems of governments, even though -- and i just met -- senator kaine and i both met with the president of honduras. he's trying as hard as he can. he's got a bounty on his head by these drug lords because he is opposing them. the judicial system is corrupted. the local police are corrupted. okay, when that happens, then you can imagine, when there are other criminal activities to occur in addition to running drugs north ultimately into the u.s., other drug activity such as human trafficking, such as

any other kind of illegal activities, and potentially also terrorists being utilized in these efficient delivery networks, then it's all the more a threat to the national security interests of the u.s., and i think the u.s. congress and the u.s. administration better wake up to the fact of what's happening right down there under our nose and at this in addition to solving the problems that we see that are a symptom ultimately of what is the root cause: the creation after whole criminal network that is, in large part, fueled

by the drug trade. mr. heinrich: you know, if the senator from florida will yield for a minute, the sad thing is, it didn't used to be this way in this part of central america, and i know for a fact because my wife and i traveled there 15, 16 years ago, traveled extensively in honduras, all across this country, and at that time these gangs simply did not have the influence. there was not the level of de-stablization. there wasn't the murder rate. you know, i always joke about trying to drive in tegucigalpa, and i wouldn't recommend it for somebody who hasn't had plenty of time to acclimate to the speed and crush of cars in that capital city. but it was a completely different country at that time. and we traveled extensively in urban areas, in san pedro sula,

in rural areas, and it was an economically challenged country. and for those folks who have claimed that all of these immigrants are simply heading north out of economic de desperation, the economic situation has not changed all that much. and it's worth looking at the rest of central america, because surrounding countries -- belize and costa rica and other countries in central america -- are also seeing refugee from these countries. and nicaragua, which has substantial economic challenges right now, is losing economic immigrants, and those immigrants are not making it to our southern border in any substantial numbers. in fact, not - less than a year ago, i was in costa rica, and many nicaraguans are working in costa rica because the economy is better there.

but yet we don't see them showing up in the numbers, especially as unaccompanied minors -- basically, 7, 8, 10, 12-year-olds showing up at the border by themselves ther that e being driven by the extreme violence. mr. nelson: if the senator would yield, just to underscore his point, we can look at the extraordinary success of plan colomb i don't. now, outside -- colombia. now, outside of central america, go a little further south and you're in the continent of south america and, lo and behold, 1 15-20 years ago colombia was a place that in large part of colombia was controlled by

elements that were controlled by the drug lords. with the assistance of the united states, with extraordinary heroism on the part of the government of colombia, over the course of years i've seen the government of -- you have seen the government of colombia be able to take back control of most of its country, and even though cocaine is still grown there and the farc is still operating, nevels, they are a diminished insurrection and criminal element of which there used to be a time that for us visiting a place like bogota, the capital city, it really wasn't safe for us to go out alone walking on the streets. now you can easily walk on the

streets. it's a changed situation, so we're seeing the same thing replicated now in central america, where the drug lords have basically taken over by buying off people with considerable money and, therefore, it makes it very difficult to have the rule of law in those struggling governments like the president of honduras, who is trying so hard to bring back his country. mr. heinrich: if the senator from florida will yield for a moment, you know, having formerly served oge on the houss armed services committee, the department of defense budget is something on the order of $550 billion. surely, s some of thsocom -- sot

have a substantial amount of resources to be able to meet this. of that $550 billion, does the senator know how much goes to southern command? mr. nelson: what this senator knows is that before the sequester started hitting the defense budget, even though we were conducting a war in two countries -- afghanistan and iraq -- with all the multiplicity of threats that are around in the region, including now what we see isis between syria and northern -- and western iraq, the department of defense had to make some hard choices. they had to cut back because of this mindless budgetary meat ax called the sequester. and, as a result, they had to set their priorities. when it came to it, they had to support the troops out in the

field and had to cut back in other commands. u.s. southern command is one of those commands that was cut back. but now we're seeing the lack of wisdom to these budgetary policies -- sequester -- and the scarcity when you cannot allocate the defense resources and other agencies -- because, remember, this is a joint interagency task force. we are now seeing the effects of that in what has been on the front pages of the newspapers about all the children coming to the border. now, by the way, the children are just a diminutive percentage of the total people still coming to the border. i can't remember if it's 20%, 40% -- but it's something well

less than half of all the people that are still coming to the border. but, of course, the children -- because of the humanitarian crisis with them -- are the ones that have gotten the attention. so if we know there's a problem, how do we fix the problem? we ought to go back to the root cause. and that's the case that i've been making on that side of the aisle, on this side of the aisle. and yet we're at this point of impasse, and needless to say, it's very frustrating to this senator. mr. heinrich: well, i want to thank the senator from florida for continuing to advocate for this. i know that southern command's annual budget now is about $1 billion. literally $1 billion out of the $550 billion in the department of defense. and given our strategic necessity of engaging with

central and south america on these issues, i think it's time to reevaluate in terms of both resources but also in terms of priorities how we look at central and south america, to reengage in our neighbors and try to address some of these issues at the root level instead of always at the symptom level. and i see, with that, that we've been joined by our esteemed chair of the appropriations committee, senator mikulski from maryland. so with that, i thank you, mr. president, for allowing the senator from florida and i to indulge in this colloquy, and once again i want to say how much i hope we take this opportunity to do something not just about the symptoms and the current crisis, which has to be dealt with, but also the underlying causes of this crisis.

ms. mikulski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senior senator from maryland is recognized. ms. mikulski: well, mr. president, i think you've just heard a really interesting and i think -- oh, i'm sorry. excuse me. from the way the gentleman from new mexico concluded -- was the senator from california next? yeah, i thought i was at 5:00 -- 4:52. so i didn't mean to jump the line. i real lie do want to hear from the gentlelady from california, the chair of the intelligence committed and also the chair of the committee on interagency. i look forward to t excuse me. the presiding officer: the senior senator from california is recognized. mrs. feinstein: thank you. i want to begin by saying the appropriations committee is in very good hands. chairman mikulski has done an excellent job.

and i strongly support this supplemental that she has put together. i want to give you just some brief background of my involvement in this issue and the issue being the unaccompanied alien children. it began around 1999 on thanksgiving day. a 5-year-old in an inner tube off the coast of florida, three miles out, was picked up by a fisherman. his name was elian gonzalez and the fisherman rescued him. he was taken to a hospital, but his mother and 11 others on the raft had drowned in their attempt to come to the united states from cuba. well, that launched in this country a major debate, a major debate about an unaccompanied alien child, whether he goes back to his father, whether he

remains with his uncle in miami. then, secondly, i'm home one day and i turn on the television set, and i see a 15-year-old chinese girl who had been placed on a container ship from china in the cargo hold by her parents to the flee china's rigid family-planning laws. she came to this country. she was alone. she was desperate. she was picked up. i coi saw her asylum hearing. she was unrepresented. she was shackled. her wrists were bound and big tears were rolling down her face. she couldn't understand a single word that was spoken. she was held in a jail cell for a year and in another detention facility after that. she eventually received asylum in our country. but she unnecessarily faced an ordeal no child should undergo.

at the time, she was only one of 5,000 other foreign-born children who are apprehended in the united states in need of protection. i remember thinking that that was so bad and that i had to do something. in 2000 i introduced the unaccompanied alien protection act. i also pushed for the change in the homeland security act of 2002, which successfully transferred the responsibility for the care of unaccompanied alien children from the former immigration and naturalization service to the department of health and human services. however, that chan change by itf was not enough to ensure that unaccompanied children are properly treated. therefore, over the next six years, i continued to consult with relevant federal agencies, children's advocates,

immigration attorneys, house members such as zoe lofgren on the house judiciary committee, and fellow senators. finally, in 2008, the legislation was included amazingly enough by voice vote in both houses as part of a larger trsk trafficking bill, the william wilberforce trafficking victims protection reauthorization act -- a long naism it was signed in to law by president bush on december 23, 2008. it took effect six months later. that year the number of children was in the vicinity of 8,000. it provided the framework for how unaccompanied children would be treated while in the united states and for their safe and orderly return to their home countries without undue delay, if they did not qualify to stay. we now have a dramatically

escalated situation that was not foreseeable at that time. last fiscal year, 2013, 24,000 children unaccompanied arrived in our country. this year more than 50,000 unaccompanied children have arrived in our country. and the department of homeland security is preparing for as many as 90,000 such children to arrive in the country by the end of this year. the numbers are so great and so unprecedented that our federal agencies understandably are having difficulty carrying out the procedures and time lines in place. i have sent members of my staff in california to every holding facility in the state, and they have sent me photos, they have sent me their impressions, and i just want to take a word -- take

a moment to thank all our people, whether it is border patrol, ice or anybody else or homeland security for the excellent job they are doing. i saw through pictures and through reports numerous facilities -- eight to ten of them -- where children were in bright rooms, where they had beds, they had covers, they had a day program so every effort has been made. but the numbers are so great and unprecedented that the difficulties continue. and when we run out of money, there's going to be a different story. so we've got to remember that these children are primarily from el salvador, guatemala, and honduras -- three central american countries which are deeply troubled -- and many have entered as victims, i'm sorry, of rape, abuse, poverty, and, above all, violence. and they are alone, and they are

subject to abuse and exploitation. they are young, they are unable to articulate their fears, their views, or testify about their needs as accurately as adults can. considering this, there's no other option but for us to help, and that's what this supplemental does. i've met with secretary of homeland security jeh johnson, the head of department of health and human services sylvia burwell, and both tell us that their agencies run out of funds by september. so we must respond, and this is the response today. for not only are they managing the humanitarian crisis at our border, but they're also charged with protecting human life and homeland security. earlier today, i met with immigration judges from the united states department of justice's executive office of immigration review. they informed me that they are

desperate for increased resources with which to handle not only the influx of children's cases but also a current backlog of 375,000 cases. now, listen to this: due to there being only 243 immigration judges across the country, immigrants today wait 587age of days for a hearing -- average days for a hearing. that's a year and seven months before they have the opportunity to come before an immigration judge. with adequate funding from this supplemental, which provides for immigration judge teams, legal representation, and services, government immigration litigation attorneys, and courtroom equipment, among other things, this crisis can be managed and make the processing of children more efficient.

one of the -- and here's the key thing. one of the judges who sits in miami told me that through her court where a child has representation, a voluntary return to the country of origin was able to be achieved in a majority of case -- of her cases. so the majority of children actually took voluntary departure and returned to their countries. why? a judge can't make a phone call, but they had the attorneys, who could make the calls, do the necessary preparation, and see that a safe home could be arranged. so, because of this representation, over 60% of her cases went back home. i understand there's been concern that unaccompanied children will not appear for their immigration court proceedings. that is simply not true.

the fact is, whether representative or not -- and this is a new number -- 6 60.9%o appear and the number increases to 92.5% when represented by counsels. so these children do get before a judge 60.9% of them, and if they have a lawyer, 92%. so with this supplemental funding, the immigration courts, with help from legal representatives, would be able to hear more quickly immigration cases and determine with justice who may stay and who must go. i was contacted recently by winston lord, a former united states ambassador and assistant secretary of state, who is all-too-familiar with managing

situations of international crisis while preserving our national interests. in reflecting on the current crisis, he acknowledged the need for effective border control and immigration enforcement to ensure national security and a comprehensive solution. however, he also identified the heart of the matter here; that -- in quotes -- "these challenges need not be met by using ineffective and indiscriminate approaches that harm children." he is right. i'm getting a look from my chairman. okay. we are a great nation. we are capable of safeguarding our national security while simultaneously proceeding with humanity in addressing this crisis. and any future challenge this country faces. this problem demands action now to provide these agencies with

the funds they need to meet this crisis. now, if we don't pass this and if these departments run out of money and if facilities have to be closed and if there is nowhere for these children to go, let us think for a moment what happens to them. should they experience the same thing in this country that they have back home? what will they do? and what does that do to our conscience? i think that this supplemental is well-put together. the chairman of our committee has gone through it with a fine-tooth comb. she has reduced it in size. i think it is well-representative of the situation that dramatically needs funding. so i really hope that there's a heart in this body and that this supplemental appropriations is

approved. i thank the chair. i yield the floor. ms. mikulski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senior senator from maryland is recognized. ms. mikulski: mr. president, first to the gentlelady from california, thank you for your excellent statement. you bring such experience and expertise. it's very much appreciated. did -- has the the gentlelady looked at my supplemental recommendations where we've actually added money for both judges and then support to even pro bono lawyers willing to represent the children? mrs. feinstein: that's exactly right madam chairman. your supplemental does that, and that's really the thing that makes the difference for the child. if you can't speak the language and if you're held in a jail cell and if you're shackled and handcuffed before a judge and have you nobody to help you and you have no one you know in this

country, what can you do except cry? and that's what i saw directly myself, and that's what sort of awakened me then to a problem, which was just 5,000 a year, in the start of this. now we're at 54,000 and probably 90,000 before the end of the year. ms. mikulski: that's right. mrs. feinstein: i thank you for your support and your energy and effort that you've put forward. i hope this body does the right thing. ms. mikulski: well, mr. president, i'd like to continue the discussion on the urgent supplemental. just -- but before i do, i just want to note that the senior senator from arizona is on the floor and i just want to say something heart warming to my colleague. you're a graduate of the naval academy, class of 1958. and we both have a very dear

friend that's passed away, admiral chuck larson. admiral larson served with distinction in the navy, did he many tours of duty in the defense of our country but also did two tours of duty at the united states naval academy where i came to know him, and then subsequent to that, his wonderful role that he played in education and transformational leadership. i know he was a good friend of yours, too, so i'd like to express my condolences and i hope to you and to the -- then it was guys only at the naval academy, class of 1958, i was class of 1958 at mount sainting as in college, we probably saw each other at a tea dance or two, i was the chunky one over there, not in the corner, though. i just wanted to express my condolences and what a great class that seems to be and i

hope we could work together on something that would truly recognize chuck larson and the great transformational leader he was. mr. mccain: madam president, i ask unanimous consent to have a colloquy with the senator from maryland. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mccain: i would say first of all to the senator from maryland i would on behalf of all naval academy graduates and all of us who love the naval academy, your support of the naval academy has been consistent, unswerving, you have been probably the stanches supporter of the united states naval academy that i've ever had the privilege of encountering and i want to also tell you that the devotion that you have extended to the naval academy is reciprocated by the naval academy and its graduates to you. and i thank you for that.

and yes, madam president, -- i say to my colleague from maryland, a dear and beloved friend, admiral chuck larson passed away, i would be honored to join with her in any way that we could to honor his memory. i would just like to point out the senator from maryland was heavily involved when there was a very serious cheating scandal at the naval academy. senator mikulski led the investigation, and the demand for correcting that situation, and admiral larson was called back from retirement to be the superintendent of the naval academy on the recommendation of the senator from maryland in order -- the only naval officer in history that served as superintendent twice, and he put the naval academy back on the right track. and i would like to say again that he mentioned to me often the consistent support for

reform, for the institution, and they are incredibly proud of your representation not just of the people of maryland but specifically that wonderful institution, and i know i speak for chuck larson when i say that. i thank you. ms. mikulski: thank you very much. i love our united states naval academy, which, you know, when you have great leaders, we want to in some way be able to memorialize them in a way that they inspire this ongoing -- this next generation and the generations to come about really what a great leader is and what value-driven leadership is all about. so i look forward to working with the senator from the naval -- from the naval academy and the state of arizona. mr. president, i'd also like to continue the discussion on the urgent supplemental and the crisis, many people call at this time crisis at our border. well, we have a surge of

children at our border because of the crisis in central america. the crisis is at -- in central america creating a surge of children desperately coming across our borders to seek political asylum. and i would hope that when we look at this urgent supplemental, we understand what we are trying to do in it. yes, provide humane care of the children. real support for judges and other legal assistance to determine their legal and asylum status, and at the same time, to do the prevention in central america by going after what is the surge all about, and the surge is about the escalating narco criminal driven violence in these countries.

and, mr. president, what -- people will say, well, are you going -- what does that mean? it means this -- that when you look at where the children are coming from, they're not coming from every country in central america, they're coming from three countries in central america. they're coming from hounders, guatemala -- honduras, guatemala, and el salvador but they're not going from nicaragua nicaragua and not coming from panama and not coming from costa rica. why is that? the reason it is that the violence rate is not as high. yes, in these countries, particularly in nicaragua, the poverty rate is the same as the other three. so why are they coming? they're coming because of the violence. and this is what we need to be able to deal with. last week, along with many senators, i met with the

ambassadors from the three countries of honduras, guatemala and el salvador. at the invitation of senator menendez of the foreign relations committee, the chair of it, i met with the president of honduras, the president of guatemala, and the president of el salvador to talk about these issues, to say what is it that we need to be able to do to deal with these issues? and this is what they talked about. they talked about the violence coming from the drug cartels and organized crime. organized crime, drug cartels, fueled by america's insatiable demand for drugs. they have worsened and these -- in these three countries. then the recruitment of the narco criminals have gone after the children to recruit them,

either for their profit or for their pleasure. i have to talk about this in a way that civilized people shouldn't hear, have to hear that this is going on against children in our own hemisphere. this is our own hemisphere. and when i talk about the recruitment of children for profit or for pleasure, that's exactly what they're talking about, to recruit the children to be part of gangs, violent gangs. the gangs who engage in narcotrafficking, who engage in extortion, to engage in murder, to engage in intimidation. this is the particular targeting of boys. the particular targeting of boys to recruit them for the gangs and if the boys don't want to join the fang and they resist,

they hide, try to run away, they're often grabbed, many sometimes kidnapped, threatened with torture or their mother or their grandmother or their sister is threatened with either death or violent sexual attack. all sexual attack is violent, but they talk about it in ways that i will not discuss on the senate floor. and then there's the recruitment for profit. yes, to make sure that maybe they're couriers for the drug trade, but also to recruit, nab, or force young children to be -- to be involved in human trafficking and sexual slavery. but we've got to deal with this. we've got to stop the violence with the tough battle. we have to go after the cartels, and we have to also

really begin to deal seriously with our addiction to cocaine and to heroin. when you talk to the president of honduras about the drugs in his own country bound for the united states, he talks about how the children that they use -- they smuggle drugs and they smuggle children along the same trade routes. it's good trade to traffic in drugs and it's also good trade to traffic in women and children. you see, to drug dealers, to the narcotraffickers, to the seven organized crime units and yes, we know who they are and where they are, just need to marshall the -- marshal the resources to go after them, we know what they are and what they do and how they do it, they look at women and children, boys as well as girls as

commodities to be sold across countries and across borders. my god. and we want to blame the children? we hear let's send them back, send them back to what? this is why these children are on the go. this is why these children are on the march. and the children don't care how they get there as long as they escape the violence. this is why we have included money of over $112 million to the department of homeland security for enforcement. no, not national guard at our border, but really moving assets to central america to work to deal with law enforcement to strengthen the courts and to be able to deal with the issues of narcotrafficking and organized crime in their own country. we also know that while we're doing this type of intervention

down there to go after the smugglers, coyotes, and human traffickers, we also need to deal with the fact that when these children are here, they have the right to seek legal asylum. now, as senator feinstein pointed out, there are only 240 immigration judges in the country, the fact is that there is a backlog of over 100,000 cases, these kids move to the front of the line but even if they move to the front of the line, it could be as much as two or three years before their cases are held. this is not right. it's not right for them, and it's not right for our country. so i have more money in this bill for more immigration judges to resolve the asylum cases, additional legal representation for the children, including bilingual representation, and the kind of backup and support where pro bono lawyers are coming to the aid to be able to do this. i hope we pass this supplemental

so we could do this. second, i made the trip to the border. i will talk about this on another day. i know that my time is exceeded but what i wanted to emphasize today was why these children are coming, the legal services we need to present here and i look forward to talking more about this. i know my time is up and i do want to be courteous to my colleague from the other side of the aisle. so, mr. president, let's pass this and let's pass this bill, let's do the interdiction in central america and let's enforce our laws here and provide the legal representation the law requires. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: i ask unanimous consent to address the senate as if in morning business for as much time as i may consume. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mccain: quite often on numerous occasions i've come to this floor of the senate to talk about the ongoing tragedy of syria. not in the belief that any

action may be taken of any real impact, although it's always been my hope and prayer, but because my conscience dictates that i come to the floor of the senate and discuss one of the great and fortunate and shameful chapters in our history. last february i came to the floor to appeal to the conscience of my colleagues and fellow citizens about the mass atrocities that the assad regime is perpetuating in syria. i brought with me at that time a series of gruesome images that documented the horrors the assad regime has committed against political prisoners in its jails across the country. those images were smuggled out of the country by caesar, caesar, a syrian military policeman who risked his life and the lives of family and friends to show the world the

real face of human suffering in syria today. at the time i had hoped that those images would cry out to our national conscience and compel our great nation to help end the suffering and genocide of the syrian people. how could anyone, how could anyone look at those pictures and not press for immediate accountability and an end to those mass atrocities? in the months since those images were first made public, u.s. and european investigators have poured over the images and concluded that not only are these images genuine, but they are evidence of an industrial scale campaign by the assad regime against its political opponents. according to the state department, these photographs are evidence of systematic atrocities not seen since hitler's nazi regime exterminated millions during world war ii. steven rapp, the state department's ambassador at large for war crimes, stated that, and i quote -- "this is solid

evidence of the kind of machinery of cruel death that we haven't seen, frankly, since the nazis. it's shocking to me." unquote. u.s. ambassador to the united nations samantha power, after a briefing to the u.n. security council members, stated, and i quote -- "the gruesome images of corpses bearing marks of starvation, stragulation and beatings and today's chilling briefing indicate that the assad regime has carried out systematic, widespread and industrial killing. despite the statements from these and other senior officials, the administration has yet to finish its investigation. perhaps when the administration does complete its forensic analysis of the evidence provided by caesar, president obama will decide that it's finally time to take action in syria and prevent the continuation of mass atrocities that according to his presidential study directive on mass atrocities is, quote -- "a

core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the united states." i have to tell my colleagues i'm not hopeful. in the time of the investigation to prove what we all know to be true has been under way, approximately 40,000 more people have died. another one million people have been forced from their homes, and over half of syria's population is now believed to be in dire need of food, water and medicine. the assad regime continues to bomb northern syria, using cluster munitions known as barrel bombs, for the sole purpose of terrorizing and killing as many people as possible when indiscriminately dropped from syrian government aircraft on schools, bakeries and modification. it continues to raze entire neighborhoods for no military purpose whatsoever, simply as a

form of collective punishment of syrian civilians. it continues its -- quote -- surrender or starve famine campaign. starving people to death by denying entire neighborhoods any access to food or water. and just last month, the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons, which has been tasked with destroying syria's chemical stockpiles, announced there is credible evidence that toxic chemicals are still being used in a systematic manner in syria. indeed, this kind of inhuman cruelty is a party of behavior for the syrian government. as early as august, 2011, a damning 22-page report was issued by the united nations human rights office which concluded that syrian government forces had committed crimes against humanity by carrying out summary executions, torturing prisoners and harming children. the evidence of which we now see

clearly in those images. the report prompted president obama to issue a statement calling for president assad to step down. the president declared, and i quote -- "we have consistently said that president assad must lead a democratic transition or get out of the way. he has not led. for the sake of the syrian people, the time has come for president assad to step aside. that was two years ago. the president ended this statement by saying -- quote -- "it is clear that president assad believes that he can silence the voices of his people by resorting to the repressive tactics of the past, but he is wrong." following the president's statement, there was no shortage of administration officials publicly professing that president assad's days were numbered. in december, 2012, then-secretary of state hillary clinton told a nato gathering

that assad's fall was -- quote -- inevitable. she later repeated -- quote -- "it's time for assad to get out of the way." that was from our then-secretary of state. that same month, white house spokesman jay carney echoed clinton's proclamation stating -- quote -- "assad's fall is inevitable. as governments make decisions about where they stand on this issue and what steps need to be taken with regards to brutality of assad's regime, it's important to calculate into your consideration the fact that he will go. he went on to say -- "the regime has lost control of the country and he will eventually fall." in may, 2012, 2012, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff martin dempsey told fox news that -- quote -- "escalating atrocities would likely trigger a military invention following a massacre that left more than 100 dead, 100 dead. that was back when we were talking about serious dead and

hundreds rather than tens of thousands. a month later, june 12 -- in june, 2012, then-secretary of defense panetta stated -- quote -- "i think it's important when assad leaves, and he will leave, to try to preserve stability in that country. i'm sure that deep down assad knows he's in trouble, and it's just a matter of time before he has to go. i would say if you want to be able to protect yourself and your family, you better get the hell out now." so that was in june of 2012 by our secretary of defense. where are we now? three years after president obama and his administration rightly decided it was time for him to go, president assad remains in power, and i know of no one that believes that basra aassad is going to negotiate his departure. in fact, he just orchestrated

another -- quote -- re-election. i remember when an american president said that a foreign leader must go, it conveyed a commitment to doing something about it, but instead of taking decisive action in support of the president's declared policy, the administration has simply moved away from calls for assad to step down over the past year. in fact, instead of being forced to step down, assad has continuously gotten the administration to treat his regime as a central interlocutor , first with a chemical weapons agreement through which assad forced the u.s. into acknowledging his legitimacy and ensuring that he would remain in place until the agreement was carried out, then by serving as the sole authority on distribution of aid within the country and now by presenting himself as critical to the fight against terrorism and the al qaeda affiliated islamic state of iraq and syria. so as it turns out, president obama was right.

assad's violence and repressive tactics could not silence the voices of the syrian people who even in the worst imaginable conditions have continued to fight for freedom in a democratic syria. instead, it has been the voice of president obama and other administration officials that president assad has managed to silence. we cannot be silent, but we cannot allow words to replace action either. what has become exceedingly clear in the wake of recent events is that even if we can ignore the moral imperative to act, the growing threat to american national security interests means that doing nothing is now out of the question. the conflict in syria is largely to blame for the resurgence of al qaeda in iraq which has grown into the even more dangerous and lethal islamic state of iraq and

al-shum commonly referred to by the acronym isis or isil. top officials testified in last week's foreign relations committee hearing that isis represents a threat that is -- quote -- worse than al qaeda. deputy assistant secretary of state for iraq and iran breath mcgerp stated that isis is no longer simply a terrorist organization but -- quote -- a full-blown army seeking to establish a self-governing state through the tigress and euphrates valley in what is now syria and iraq. the director of national intelligence, the director of the f.b.i., the secretary of homeland security and the attorney general have all warned repeatedly about the threat posed by isis' state-like sanctuary in syria and iraq, and the largest safe haven for global terrorism in the world. if the september 11 attacks should have taught us anything,

it is that global terrorists who occupy ungoverned spaces and seek to plot and plan attacks against us impose a direct threat to our national security. that was afghanistan on september 10, 2001, and that is what these top officials are now warning us that syria is becoming today. secretary of homeland security jeh johnson has said -- quote - "syria is now a matter of homeland security." unquote. f.b.i. director james comey recently warned congress that the terrorist threat from syria against the united states is -- quote -- met metastasizing. their assessments were confirmed earlier this month by attorney general eric holder who said that recent intelligence reports of terrorists from syria partnering with yemeni bomb makers are -- quote -- more frightening than anything i've seen as attorney general. it's something that gives us

really extreme, extreme concern. he added -- quote -- "if they, meaning isis, are able to consolidate their gains in that area, iraq and syria, i think it's just a matter of time before they start looking outward and start looking at the west and at the united states in particular, so this is something we have to get on top of and get on top of now. it's clear that president assad's strategy is to convince the administration that we only have two options -- him or al qaeda-linked terrorists. it is a sad testament to the administration's leadership on syria that assad's strategy seems to be working. according to a report by "the daily beast," administration officials are debating whether to abandon the president's goal of toppling assad and enter into a de facto alliance with the assad regime to fight isis or other sunni extremists in the region. such a decision would represent the height of folly.

nobody, nobody should believe that assad is an ally in the fight against terrorism. former ambassador to syria robert ford who resigned in may after asserting that he could no longer defend american policy in syria made it clear how foolish such thinking is. he quoted -- i quote him -- "the people who think bashar assad's regime is the answer to containing and eventually eliminating the islamic-based threat do not understand the historic relationship between the regime and isis. they don't understand the current relationship between assad and isis and how they are working on the ground together directly and indirectly inside syria." he added -- quote -- "if this administration wants to contain the islamic state on the ground, they're going to have to help the free syrian army." after more than three years of horror and suffering and devastation and growing threats to our national security, the

conflict in syria continues to get worse and worse, both for syria and for the world, but the united states has no effective policy to bring this conflict to a responsible end. the outcome of the administration's disengagement has been a consistent failure to support more responsible forces in syria when that support would have mattered. the descent of syria into chaos and growing regional instability, the use of syria as a training ground for al qaeda affiliates and other terrorist organizations, the ceding of regional leadership to our adversaries and the shameful, shameful tolerance of war crimes and crimes against humanity. in short, all of the horrible thing that the critics said would happen if we got more involved in syria have happened because we have not gotten more involved. now president obama finds himself in a position where the united states will have to do

far more today to stave off disaster in syria than we would have needed to do in 2012. the administration seems to have finally come around to the idea that we must arm, train and equip the moderate opposition in syria, but arming moderate f.s.a. students is only one element of what must be done for a much broader strategy that includes both syria and iraq. i will be the first to admit there are no good options left. if good options ever existed to begin with. but as bad as our options are, we still have options to do something meaningful in syria. the conflict in syria is reaching a critical point. government forces are advancing on aleppo effectively cutting off routes in to and out of the city. and from the south and west exercising a stranglehold on the people of aleppo. more than six months of punishing daily airstrikes have

killed thousands of residence and forced tens of thousands more to flee. but at least 500,000 residents remain in aleppo, and they're being slowly asphyxiated by assad's forces as they brace for aleppo's upcoming siege. meanwhile disillusioned fighters starved of the resources and equipment they need have been drifting from the front lines and in some cases joining the better funded and equipped extremist groups. it is a moral outrage to watch the destruction of what remains of aleppo and refuse to do more to help those fight against our enemies in the region. worse still, the government's campaign has been aid and abetted by isis which is attacking the free syrian army from the northeast in an attempt to take control of two vital supply lines from turkey and forcing the moderate opposition

to fight simultaneously on two fronts. such activists are suggesting that the fall of aleppo could be the nail in the coffin for the moderate opposition and the situation for civilians still living in aleppo has become so disastrous that the united states recently authorized the delivery of cross-border humanitarian aid without prior approval from the assad regime. these efforts are a band-aid on a bullet wound. it will not be enough to mitigate the increasingly dire crisis unfolding in the city. we must offer quick support to the moderate opposition as they battle both the assad regime and extremists from the islamic state before it's too late. the rise of isis combined with the events in gaza and ukraine have placed assad's assault on aleppo safely outside of the headlights. with the international community distracted by these disturbing events in other parts of the

world, assad will again manipulate time and terror in his favor. president obama, who spent much of his time in recent weeks at fund-raising events, said nothing about syria or iraq during recent appearances to discuss gaza and ukraine. worse still, details of the sole initiative proposed by the administration on syria since the collapse of the geneva peace talks reveal a plan that would train less than a -- a battalion sized unit of 2,300 individuals and wouldn't begin until the middle of next year. by that time aleppo may be lost and there may be no more units left in syria to support. the conflict in syria is a threat to our national interests but it is more than that. it is an affront to our conscience. images like these should not be a source of heartbreak and

sympathy. they should be a call to action. for the sake of our national security, we must move quickly to help the moderate opposition now before it's too late. for the sake of our national conscience, we must do more to help the 150,000 political prisoners who remain in assad's prisons and put an end to the suffering of the syrian people. it is with great sadness that i met with caesar yesterday and had to tell him the truth. that although our great nation could have done more to stop the suffering the others, that we could have used the power we possess, limited and imperfect as it may be to prevent mass atrocities in the killing of innocents, it is with ever lasting shame that we have not. shame on all of us for our current failure. if there ever was a case that should remind us that our interests are indivisible from

our values, it is syria. we cannot afford to go numb to this human tragedy. i've seen my fair share of suffering and death in the world but the images and stories coming out of syria haunt me most. but it's not too late. the united states is still the most powerful nation in the world today and we have the power and capabilities to act as brutal tyrants slaughter their people with impunity. no one shubl we are without -- should believe we are options. i pray we recognize the cost of inaction and take the necessary actions to end assad's mass atrocities and help the syrian people write a better ending to this sad chapter in world affairs. i want to -- i note the presence of our distinguished chairman of the armed services committee. i urge my colleagues among many reasons to support him in his

effort to bring the national defense authorization act before this body. and part of that act authorizes for the training and equipment of the free syrian forces. i thank my friend and colleague, the senator from michigan and the chairman of the party, chairman of our committee, and whose effort has made this national defense authorization act, i think, something that deserves the attention, debate, commending and passage from the united states senate. i thank my colleague from michigan. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. the senator from michigan. mr. levin: i inquire of my friend from pennsylvania about how long he intends to speak. mr. casey: about ten minutes. mr. levin: after the senator from pennsylvania has concluded, i would ask unanimous consent that the senator from oklahoma and i be recognized for 20

minutes evenly divided to talk about the need to get the defense authorization bill to the floor, and each one of us would control ten minutes under this unanimous consent request. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mccain: i ask my statement on the national defense authorization act be made part of the record. mr. levin: would the senator from arizona amend that to say his statement would be added in the record at the time of our discussion. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. casey: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: mr. president, thanks very much. i rise to speak about a topic that we don't talk about enough, which is what's happening in afghanistan with regard to women and girls. but i know that the senior senator from arizona was speaking about syria before i had recognition. and i'm grateful to him for the work that we've done together.

him and -- he working with me and with others on the best way forward for us to have a constructive impact on what's happening in syria. working to get more dollars and more efforts in the direction of supporting the well-vetted syrian opposition. i'm grateful to him for his passion and for his commitment on this issue and look forward to working with him going forward. but i rise today to talk about an issue that we don't focus on enough here, and that's the outlook for afghan women and the children who have grown up during the past 13 years of war in afghanistan. children all too often the innocent victims of the conflict. according to a recent report by the u.n. secretary general to the security council in

afghanistan, child casualties increased by 30% between 2012 and 2013. while reporting was limited by the security environment, there were at least 790 documented incidents in which 545 children were killed and 1,149 were injured. that's just a snapshot of the horror that so many children have suffered in afghanistan. armed opposition groups like the taliban were responsible for a majority of the recorded child casualities. i've spoken on the floor a number of times about the substantial improvements that have been made in afghanistan, with significant united states support. our tax dollars and our people and government have helped enormously. to get greater numbers of afghan children, especially girls, into

school. where there were once only a few educational opportunities, now more than 8.3 million children are in school, boys and girls. by one assessment, up to 40% of those 8.3 million children are girls. the security situation and persistent taliban aggression in afghanistan continues to threaten this progress. according to the same u.n. report, there were at least 73 reported attacks on schools. in some especially horrifying incidents improvised explosive devices -- we know them as i.e.d.'s -- were planted inside school premises. the american people should be proud of the sacrifices that have been made already by our fighting men and women and our diplomats that have served in afghanistan and the progress that i just mentioned that's been made. as the political transition approaches and we prepare for a

full security transition, this issue merits continued focus. in 2013 and 2014, i led a bipartisan effort with senator ayotte to include language in the national defense authorization act that highlights the security issues afghan women and girls face and promotes the recruitment and retention of women in the afghan national security forces. i focused on the issue because i believe the future of women and girls are critical, essential to the stability of afghanistan going forward. and consequently, our own national security interests in the region. according to the institute for the inclusive -- institute for inclusive security -- quote -- "there is evidence that women in uniform are more likely than their male colleagues to deescalate tensions and less likely to use excessive force." unquote. some improvements have been made to recruit and retain women in

the afghan national security forces. for example, just earlier this month 51 women graduated from the afghan national police academy. these women defy the taliban threats by serving as police officers. and during the elections earlier this year, female police officers and searchers helped secure polling stations for women and their effect was tangible. significant turnout by female voters despite serious security threats. so although significant progress has been made and women's rights and security, there are still far too many horrific incidents of violence against women and children. and i was particularly disturbed, as i know many americans were, by an article that ran in "the new york times" on july 19 entitled "struggling to keep afghan girls safe after a mullah is accused of rape."

that's the name of the article dated july 19. the article describes how a ten-year-old afghan girl was raped by a mullah in a mosque. a local women's shelter took in the young girl after the attack to protect her from her own family. from her own family who were planning to carry out an honor killing. the activists teschle ter received death -- at the shelter received death threats in addition to the threats to the girl. once the young girl recovered, she was returned to her family. however, as the article concludes -- quote -- "those caring for the girl said she had been terribly homesick and wanted to return to her family, but no one had the heart to tell her that they had been conspiring to kill her." unquote. to say that this story is heartbreaking doesn't begin to

translate the horror of what some young girls have to face in afghanistan and other parts of the world as well. extremists will no doubt continue to threaten women leaders and target innocent children in an effort to terrorize the afghan people during this transition. we should send an unequivocal message that the united states continues to stand with afghan women and children and that we see them as an important part of building a stable and secure afghanistan. so, in an effort to honor the sacrifices of the american people and our service men and women and to make sure that those sacrifices are remembered, we have to make sure that we take steps here in the senate. i filed an amendment to the national defense authorization act and i'm grateful again to the work that senator ayotte has done with me on this. we're joined most recently by several cosponsors.

senators shaheen, warner and boxer. here's what the amendment will do, mr. president, and then i'll conclude. this amendment will address three main issues. number one, continue to prioritize recruitment and retention of women in the afghan national security forces. two, support police units especially trained to work with female and adolescent victims and increase the number of female officers trained to address cases of gender-based violence. this would include afghan police units have the necessary resources and are available to women across afghanistan. third and finally, emphasized need to maintain the female searcher capabilities that were established in april 2014 in the presidential elections for the 2015 parliamentary elections. we must ensure the gains made by afghan women in every sector of society are preserved in a

post-2014 afghanistan. ness our national security interest to help afghanistan from ever again become bein becn for international terrorism. we've seen from the recent event in iraq what happens after a security transition if some groups are marginalized. as we approach the transition, afghanistan women and young people should not just be the target of taliban violence. they should be full partners in building a stable afghanistan. with that, mr. president, i would yield the floor. mr. levin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. levin: mr. president, i i come to the floor today along with senator inhofe and senator mccain who was here before to express the hope that the senate is going to be able to take up the national defense authorization act for fiscal year 2015 during our september

work period. in june senator inhofe and i came here to urge senators to file amendments to our bill. to begin that process. and many amendments have been filed and we've been working to cheer as many amendments as possible in preparation for senate consideration of our bill. the amendment just described a few moments ago by the senator from pennsylvania is the type of amendment that we believe we can clear and would strengthen our bill and strengthen the position of our nation. when the defense authorization bill is brought to the floor, our goal is first to be in a position to offer a package of cleared amendments and then our second goal -- and probably as important, perhaps more important than our first -- is to see if we can't identify either specific relevant amendments that could be included in an unanimous consent

agreement, ready to be debated and voted on, or the alternative, to craft the unanimous consent agreement with a limited number of relevant amendments, leaving it to the managers and the leaders to identify which relevant amendments would be brought to a vote. given the small number of days that are left for legislative action in this congress, we must all -- all of us individually and as a body -- pull together if we're going to get our defense bill completed. the course that i've outlined will, in my judgment, facilitate that conclusion. i know there's a backlog of important nominations that the senate must still address thand these nominations have been -- and that these nominations have been taking up very much of the senate's time. but we've enacted a national defense authorization act every year for 52 years, and this bill

this year -- senate bill 2410 -- was reported out of the senate armed services committee on the 2nd day of june with a strong bipartisan vote of 25-1. it provides critical authorities, funding assistance, -- excuse me, it provides critical authorities. it provides funding. it provides assistance and guidance for our military and for you our men and women in uniform and their families at a time when they face a wide array of threats around the world. in our national defense authorization bill, we enact authorities, programs which would create important initiatives that would be unnecessarily delayed if we do not adopt this bill. if we fail to enact this bill, our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines will not receive many important special pays and bonuses. these include the critical

skills bonus, bonus and special pays for health professionals, including those in critically short wartime specialties. it includes many other bonus and special pays that enable the military services to shape the force as we draw down that force. if we fail to enact this bill, we will not be able to slow the growth of military personnel costs and the department will not be able to use those savings as planned to make up for readiness shortfalls that undermine our military's ability to respond to emerging national security crises. the committee-reported bill includes over $1.8 billion in savings in 2015 and over $20 billion in savings over the future years' defense program. if this bill doesn't pass, those savings will not have been achieved and the readiness and modernization accounts will be even further depleted. if we fail to enact this bill,

we will risk delaying the implementation of programs to address the mental health of our armed forces. by developing a standard method for collecting, reporting, and assessing suicide and attempted suicide data of members of the national guard and reserves. our presiding officer has been very active in that particular area in trying to address the suicide problems that we have in our armed forces. if we fail to enact this bill, we will delay a much-needed reorganization of the department's prisoner of war missing in action community to enable the department to more effectively accomplish its mission of accounting for our pows anp.o.w.'s and m.i.a.'s. if we fail to enact this bill, school districts all over the united states that rely on our supplemental impact aid to help them educate military children will no longer receive that money. if we fail to enact this bill, we are unlikely to authorize a

national commission on the future of the army, a critical step to enable the army to ensure that its forces, including its active duty reserves and army national guard components, are properly structured and supported to meet current and future threats. if we fail to enact this bill, no new military construction projects will be authorized for fiscal year 2015 and our armed forces will too often continue to live, train, and work in substandard facilities. previous years' national defense authorization acts have been strengthened and enhanced through debate on the senate floor. that includes the opportunity for members to offer amendments, debating and enacting those authorizations are critical, not only to our national security but to ensure that our nation keeps a sacred vow to provide for our service members and their families. now, senator inhofe and i will do our part, but we urge our

colleagues to continue to file amendments that colleagues would like to see in our bill. we will do our best to clear them. we will also do our utmost to draft a unanimous consent agreement for consideration by our leadership that would provide for some contested relevant amendments so that we can show our leaders that we can deal with this bill in a day or two. we will do all that we can, but we need 98 other senators to help us. so we urge our colleagues, please continue to bring amendments to us. please help us craft an unanimous consent agreement that would allow for a reasonable number of contested relevant amendments to be debated and voted on. this is the best way that we're going to be able to persuade our leaders and our colleagues that we can bring the bill to the floor, have a reasonable period

for debate, dispose of at least some relevant amendments, and pass the critically needed defense authorization act. our troops and their families deserve the maximum effort on the part of all of us, and i just hope that that can be forthcoming so that we will not miss in the 53rd year passage of a bill that is so critical to our national security. and i yield the floor. i yield to my friend and colleague -- our ranking member who has worked so closely with me, our staffs worked so hard on this bill and together as partners we've been able to bring it bill to the floor. and i want to thank him for the very, very strong leadership that he has shown in this security area and on this bill. mr. inhofe: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: mr. president, first let me thank my good friend, the chairman of the committee, senator levin.

and it's true, we work so closely together, not just the two of us, but our staff directors, the minority and majority staff. it is just rare that we have a difference of opinion. when we do, we sit down and work things out, debate them, and g.e.d. things done -- and get things done. so there's a reason that when senator levin said that we have passed this bill for 52 consecutive years -- you know, there are a lot of bills that hit the floor. some are important, some are not. some are more important to certain members than others. this is one that's important to everybody. there's not one -- ther senatoro doesn't want to pass a defense authorization bill. when he mentioned that it passed by 25-1, we've been ready to go since that time and that's why we're encouraging people and have been encourage people to bring amendments down. let me mention that i personally went, as did senator levin, to both the majority and the minority leaders -- both

leaders. they said, go ahead. you have our go-ahead to get these people to bring their amendments down. and this is really important. and i have to stay that one of the problems that we had last year is that there were a the love republicans -- and i will on the republican side -- a lot of republicans had amendments that they didn't think they were going to get heard. well, this is their chance do it right now, because we have -- the count as of today is 94 amendments have been filed. of that, 73 are democrat amendments and only 21 republican amendments. so i -- i appeal now to the republicans, because what i don't want to happen is for us to come back, maybe go into some type of lame-duck session and find ourselves in the same position that we did last year. now is the time to preclude that from happening by getting your amendments down. and i think we can do it. look, we've got, what, four or five weeks during this august recess for our staff to work on these. and as the chairman said, a lot

of these are imping to be put together -- going to be put together and are going to be accepted and be in the managers s. amendment. but not unless you get them down right now. so we know that right know we're probably in the most perilous situation we've ever been in as a country. i sometimes say i look wistfully back at the days of the cold war when we had two superpowers and we knew what they had, they knew what i woul we had. you have people with -- led by -- people of seniorly is questionable characteristic and abilities. you have north korea, iran, and all of these countries developing nuclear weapons. we don't really know -- our intelligence is good but not good enough to know when it is going to be able to come this way. so we've got to be ready. that's the primary function of this committee. now, we rely on all of the people making our nation safe

right now. but they are in a position where they are looking at what we're doing and we need to take care of them. in training, readiness, pay, benefits, these are things that are going to happen. the other day the president came out with the o.c.o. request of $59 billion. in there he mentioned two programs. frankly, i never heard of either one of them, one was $4 billion to go to the counterterrorism partnership fund. the other was $1 billion for a european reassurance fund. well, no know what these are. -- we will, i don't know what these r this is the forum that we will use when we start debating the ndaa bill, to get to all of these programs that are programs that are new on the horizon to see, do we really want to devote any of our scarce resources to some of these programs? we don't know. but when we get the bill on the floor, we will know. now, it's too important to our troops to do what we did last year. not passing it would send a terrible signal to them. but i think that it's more

important to realize that if -- how close we came last year to not having the bill by december 31. and if we didn't have it by december 31, just think of what would have happened. we could not have corrected the situation, we would have combat pay stom stopping. we would have incentive pay for some of the doctor and all that coming to a conclusion. we also would have re-enlistment bonuses. this is something very significant. people don't realize looking at the -- some of our airmen who are flying sophisticated equipment. to train a new person to get to the level of -- let's say, an f-22, it costs about the $15 million. however, a re-enlistment bonus would be about $250,000. so you is look at the -- what we can do by doing the right thing and passing the bill. so we've got a lot of serious questions that we need to debate on problems in syria, as senator

mccain was just talking about a few minutes ago. iraq, ukraine, afghanistan, and that's why we need to have the ndaa bill tended to as soon as -- hopefully as soon as we get back from this recess. the later we put it into the year to act, the more likely it will be rolled into a big bill. we all know how that would play out. it would be rammed through the senate without amendments and open gaivment so we want transparency, we want people to have an opportunity to bring their amendments out and the more we can get between now and when we go into this recess, the more quarterbac can be worked oe staff because they're going to be working all during the recess to get this done. we've got all of these people risking their lives on our behalf. we certainly -- they deserve to have this bill in a well-thought-out manner. right before we came on, senator casey was