capitol, the house is also gaveling in now after a round of votes on land and water bills at 6:30, members of the congressional black caucus will be speaking from the floor about the grand jury decision in ferguson, missouri. live coverage of the house on c-span. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. eternal master, you're too good to be true. repeatedly, throughout our history, you have been our anchor. continue to bring stability and unity to our lawmakers as they

strive to do your will on earth, even as it is done in heaven. may they trust your promises, remembering that you are that rock-solid mountain on which they can always depend. lord, encircle them with the shield of your favor, doing for them more than they can ask or imagine. renew their commitment to you as their guide and guardian and enable them to successfully meet the challenges of our time. we pray in your majestic name.

amen. the president pro tempore: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following my remarks and those of the republican leader the senate will be in a period of morning business until 5:30 p.m. at 5:30 the senate will proceed for two cloture votes on nominations to a very important country, ambassadors to argentina and to hungary. noah mamet to be the argentine republic and colleen bradley bell to be ambassador to hungary. mr. president, welcome the staff

and senators back from our thanksgiving recess. i'm sure that like me, people spent time with their loved ones. some here and some at their homes around the country. for many families across america, mr. president, though, this thanksgiving was particularly unique and special because of president obama's recent executive actions, many immigrant families celebrated holiday together for the first time without the threat of someone knocking on their door in a police uniform. these people now, instead of staying in the shadows, are having a good time. their holiday is not threatened to be ruined. all over america they are openly giving thanks for the blessings of family that they haven't been able to enjoy in the past. instead of looking over their shoulder, they joyously revel in the time they can spend with their loved ones. what president obama did needed

to be done. the chairman of the judiciary committee, the presiding officer today, spent days and weeks coming up with a very difficult piece of legislation, comprehensive immigration reform. amendments by the scores were heard, debated. republican amendments were adopted. democratic amendments were adopted. and that matter was brought to the senate floor where there was a good, genuine, long debate. here on the floor amendments were offered, debated and voted upon. we came up with a bill based on the work of the judiciary committee, a very good bill. it was bipartisan. it was one that an overwhelming vote here on the senate floor. now, mr. president, this had to be done. it had to be done because we've all seen firsthand how our nation's failing immigration system was tearing families apart. each day offices all over america, senate offices all over

america would receive pleas -- i did in nevada -- from loved ones who have fallen victim to our nation's flawed immigration system. i met with these people personally. i talked to them on the telephone. i've read their letters. i've seen their males, and it -- seen their e-mails and it's heart breaking to hear some of their stories, their experiences. so i always try to do everything within the law to help, and sometimes we can help. other times they cannot be helped within the confines of the law, so is they wind up really unhappy. earlier this year i was able to, for example, the experience we've all had, unite edith fawkes, a mother from las vegas with her son brian. that was a festive occasion. it was touching but it's all too rare. for every one family that's

reunited, thousands and thousands of others have been decimated by deportations. that's why the executive action taken by the president is so very important. it helps mend our nation's broken immigration system, gets criminals off the streets and strengthens our border security and spurs our economy. it spurs our economy -- underline and underscore that. president obama's action keeps families together. that's the most important thing. it allows parents with children who are u.s. citizens or green cardholders to temporarily stay in our country, in this country they call their home. by acting, the president told mothers, fathers, sons and daughters they're no longer relegated to the shadows of american soavment america's immigrant community knows there is a path forward. there really is a way. president obama took the first step. it is a good first step but it is only a temporary solution. if i had my way, the president would have signed a comprehensive immigration bill into law, one that came out of

the judiciary committee instead of announcing executive actions. but we could not sit idly by waiting for the republicans to act while homes are broken up all over our country and, frankly, their actions hurt our economy. the president has taken a first step -- i repeat that -- a first step. now congress must act to address all the issues within our broken immigration system. house republicans can still and should pass a bipartisan immigration bill that the senate approved 520 days ago. 520 days ago. in the meantime i'll keep fighting congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform that brings permanent long-term relief to our nation. we've done all we can in the senate. we need to do more. if the house tbrawt this bill to the -- if the house brought this bill to the floor it would pass

overwhelmingly, mr. president. i want to spend just a minute and talk about what we have to do this next one week, two weeks, hopefully not three weeks, but we may have to be here a third week and everyone should understand that. our most important task at hand is to pass bills to fund our government, keep it from shutting down. we have a number of vitally important nominations that must be confirmed. we need to consider an extension of tax cuts for working families and businesses. and we're going to work hard -- i had a conversation already today with senator wyden on that. we need to work on reauthorizing the defense authorization legislation. we have a lot to do, and there isn't much time to accomplish it. i urge all senators to work hard to complete our work in a timely and efficient fashion. we may have to be here the week before christmas and hopefully, mr. president, not into the christmas holiday. but there are things we have to get done. i talked to secretary of energy today.

he has seven nominations to fill. these are important positions in the department of energy. the chief financial officer, head of his science division, fossil fuels; all these important issues that these people deal with, that we need to confirm these cabinet level officers. so i hope that people will cooperate and help us get these done. mr. president, would you announce the business of the day? the presiding officer: under the previous order the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of morning business until 5:30 p.m. with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each and time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. mr. leahy: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: while the distinguished leader is still on the floor, i want to thank him for his comments about the immigration bill. i would note that he was kind to talk about hundreds of hours. i may not have spent that but a

whole lot of other senators did. and that bill would not have been on the floor and would not have been voted on without the leadership of the senator from nevada. he made sure that there was a calendar, that there was time, that he would keep the senate in session while we had roll call after roll call. we had 140 or so amendments voted on in committee, and we had dozens more on the floor. but we passed by a two to one that bill. republicans and democrats joined together, and i applaud the leader for what he did. i would just tell one short story. not long after that i was in oregon, and north of portland went to a farming area. i went to church on a sunday. my brother-in-law was conducting the mass, fluent in spanish. but hundreds and hundreds of

workers there, all tax-paying hardworking people. they meak -- make the community, make the economy in the area. i was introduced at the end of it. they all stood, raised their hand ... and asked blessings on me and on the u.s. senate for what we had done because it gave them hope for themselves and their families. mr. president, as long as i live, i'll remember that. and i would hope, knowing at that time that we had enough votes, there were enough votes to pass it in the house, and i just call on the house leadership do the right thing. allow it to come to a vote. let republicans and democrats, everybody who gives speeches on immigration, let them do what senator reid had us do here in

the senate. actually vote "yes" or vote "no." but let them do the same. vote "yes" or vote "no" and let those people, let that blessing they gave for us in the senate also be a blessing in the house. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: through you to the distinguished president pro tempore of the senate, for me in nevada, this is really an important issue because the state of nevada is 10 or 15 years behind the state of california as far as demographic changes. we have large numbers of hispanics, asians in the state of nevada now. but my friend, the senior senator from the state of vermont, basically has very few minorities in the state of vermont. he led this bill because it was the right thing to do. the people of vermont should be very -- and i know they are --

cognizant of the senior senator. he has taken issues during his time in the senate not because necessarily they're important for the state of vermont -- which they are, because anything good for the country is good for vermont -- baw he takes these -- but he takes these issues on because it is the right thing for the country. a long list of things that he has dealt with over the years that have very little bearing on the state of vermont but have tremendous bearing on this country. and that's why he's the national leader that he is. mr. leahy: i thank the distinguished majority leader. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i ask that the calling of the quorum be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: just before our august recess, this body passed s. resolution 525. i thank senator wyden, the vice chair of the whistle-blower protection caucus that i'm starting next year, for being an original cosponsor of that resolution. resolution 525 recognized july 31 as national whistle-blower appreciation day. on that day way back in 1778, the continental congress passed the first whistle-blower law in

the united states. i'd like to quote: "resolved that it is the duty of all persons in the service of the united states to give the earliest information to congress or other proper authority of any misconduct, fraud or misdemeanors committed by any officers or persons in the service of these states which may come to their knowledge." end of the quote of that resolution. this resolution was passed by the continental congress in 1778 without a recorded dissent. then and now, congress's control of the purse strings has given us an obligation to guard against wasteful and fraudulent spending. on this past july 31, whistle-blower groups met to

honor some of our colleagues on the hill for their support of whistle-blowers who report waste or fraud. i wasn't able to be there because the house of representatives judiciary committee held a hearing on oversight of the false claims act. i'm always wary when i hear the biggest violators of a law hire people to talk about strengthening the false claims act. so at the house of representatives, i had an opportunity to comment on a chamber of commerce release of a report on the false claims act. it claims the act -- quote -- "plainly is not getting the job done since the government has recovered only $35 billion since

1987." end of quote. now that current number as of today is actually $42 billion that has been recovered under the false claims act of 1986. and that surely is nothing to sneeze at, at least where i come from it is not. the fact is that since 1986, no other law on the books has been more effective in battling fraud. before the 1986 amendments, the false claims bill only brought in about $40 million a year. at that rate, it would have recovered only $1 billion in the past 25 years. so, thanks to the 19686

amendments, it brought back 42 times as much. clearly, i say to the u.s. chamber of commerce, the false claims act is working, and it's working fantastically. the chamber's report says the law is -- quote -- "ineffective at preventing fraud." end of quote. yet my staff have met with some of the authors of that chamber report, and i have to say to you that the chamber had no concrete proposals for preventing fraud for effectively than the false claims act. now, the chamber people meeting with my staff talked about -- quote -- "a gold standard compliance certification program" -- end of quote -- but to me and my staff it's just

"pie ipie-in-the-sky" idea witho specifics. as they told my staff -- quote -- "we deliberately left this vague." so that's the problem. they lack details on who would create the program, who would enforce the program; basically, they let -- they lacked details about everything. but they want this senate to believe that once this pipe dream is in place, it will magically increase the amount of taxpayer dollars the government recovers. in exchange, the report proposes hefty concessions for its big corporate sponsors. for starters, they want to eliminate the use of exclusion or disbarment. these happen to be some of the government's strongest tools in

deterring fraud. the chamber report would require whistle-blowers to report internally 180 days before any whistle-blower can file a false claims suit. yet, in most corporations, reporting internally just puts a huge target on the back of the employee blowing the whistle, just like it does on the back of a federal whistle-blower within the federal bureaucracy. we should trust whistle-blowers to use their common sense to know the safest place to report. internal reporting and a six-month head start on retaliation before the whistle-blower gets a chance to be heard in court is a recipe guaranteed to reduce disclosures

of fraud. now, i've long advocated companies developing strong internal compliance programs, so i have nothing wrong with those compliance programs. however, just -- however, having one of these programs isn't a reason to receive a get get-out-of-jail pass. i'm skeptical that companies will self-report violations. certification of a compliance program won't turn up the cold, hard facts on whether they do or don't self-report. even when a corporation does come forward, the company line is never going to be the complete picture. that's why the false claims act incentivizes whistle-blowers and, in fact, it has worked.

further, some corporations have actually been using compliance programs as a trap for muzzling whistle-blowers. by making their compliance program an arm of their legal department, anything a whistle-blower reports is protected as confidential -- confidential information covered under the attorney-client privilege. many corporations also require employees who provide tips to their compliance departments to then sign nondisclosure agreements. this has a major chilling effect on whistle-blowers contemplating filing a false claims act suit. whistle-blowers brave enough to file then find themselves the subject of legal action claiming

that they have violated the attorney-client privilege or non-exclusio-- ornondisclosure . now, a very simple question. is this how we ought to treat whistle-blowers? this report's recommendations contradict its assertion that the false claims act has failed by not recovering enough money. the report proposes to limit government recoveries across the board, regardless of the participation in any government certification program. that just makes no sense. in the last five years, the federal government has grown larger and larger and spending has gotten more and more out of control. the federal government now spends about $1 trillion in contracts and grants each year.

inspectors general, the government accountability office and the congressional oversight committees simply haven't been able to keep up. so whistle-blowers using the false claims act have played a very key role in checking fraud and wasteful spending. annual recoveries under the false claims act have increased dramatically in just the past five years. last year the justice department recovered $2.6 billion in just health care fraud through the false claims act. the false claims act is clearly doing exactly what we intended it to do, and, that is, recover taxpayers' money being lost due to fraud. states attorneys general across the country have used the false

claims act to successfully recover billions of dollars for their states. i'll give you some examples. last august -- october, then then-virginia attorney -- that's october 2013 -- then-virginia attorney general ken cuccinelli recovered $37 million from the state of virginia from a drug company that was inflating its prices to scam taxpayer dollars from medicare. the next month in 2013, cuccinelli recovered $21 million in two health care fraud settlements with multinational pharmaceutical giant johnson and johnson, which paid millions of dollars in kickbacks to the nation's largest pharmacy. yet just days before cuccinelli anoinsed the settlements, kathleen sebelius also made an

announcement. she rowvealed that this administration did not -- she revealed that this administration did not intend to treat obamacare as a federal health care program exempting it from anti-kickback laws. precisely because of the fraud opportunities under obamacare. one provision that congress added to the law made a violation of anti-kickback law an automatic violation of the false claims act. this administration has chosen to ignore that part of obamacare. congress must step forward and reiterate that obamacare is no less subject to the anti-kickback law and false claims act than other federal health care programs. congress should strongly consider strengthening the false claims act's connection with suspension and debarment. that would keep repeat offenders away from the taxpayer dollars that they've defrauded in the

first place. this issue then is really one about law and order. if we really want to improve the false claims act -- not go the direction of the u.s. chamber of commerce -- we should make a judgment or settlement under the law result in automatic review of forced sis suspensio forced r debarment. that would increase its deterred effects. the false claims act has already provided a crucial check during a time of growing government and out-of-control federal spending. whistle-blowers have been the key to the government finding out about fraud when it happens. we have to do all that we can to honor them for patriotic service that they provide to the taxpayers and protect them from

those who resist the role that they play. mr. president, i want to speak on another subject at this point, but i'd like to take a drink of water. mr. president, i want to explain to the senate why i will continue my objection to the consideration of the nomination of nani coloretcki. it keeping with my effort to end secret holds, i've been very open about the reason that i put a hold on this nomination.

the obama administration hahn givegive -- the obama administrn hasn't given me the same consideration about being very open about giving me the information that i desire. in may i found out about questionable hiring practices at the financial crimes enforcement network known here in washington by the acronym fincen. fincen is an agency within the treasury department collecting and analyzing financial reports for law enforcement agencies to use in their money laundering investigations. fincen has been hiring additional personnel to beef up its enforcement division. the problem occurred when the agency posted its job requirements.

that criterion was a law degree. this is illegal under federal hiring guidelines. i also learned that fincen rejected qualified veteran whose applied for the positions. veterans' preference doesn't guarantee veterans a job, but it does give these veterans extra consideration for jobs for which they are qualified. the unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans is significantly higher than the rate for the general population. these men and women are extremely capable. they have an array job skills to offer in the workplace. so it is inexcusable for fincen and any other federal agency to reject qualified veterans who faithfully served their country. the office of personnel management already determined

that the fincen hiring practices were illegal and referred the case to both the u.s. office of special counsel and the treasury department's inspector general. the investigations need to cover whether treasury department officials knew about the hiring problems and did nothing until o.p.m. forced treasury's hand. and if fincen tried to game the system to shortchange our military veterans, congress obviously needs to know. in addition, whoever is responsible must be held accountable. to find out what happened, then, i requested all e-mails sent between the treasury department and fincen on this very matter. as the treasury assistant secretary for management, miss

coloretti, oversees the treasury's human resources department and may have known about the illegal hiring practices or was at least in a position to know. if she did, she certainly shouldn't be rewarded with a promotion. however, regardless of her involvement, the treasury department needs to come clear. as i said earlier, i have requested e-mails from the treasury department to help me get to the bottom of this. so far i received four e-mails. indead of open transparency, the obama administration is once again obstructing access to information that i need to conduct proper congressional oversight. the treasury department tried to convince me that no other relevant e-mails exist but i am not convinced. their search was limited to only

the eight months when the vacancy announcement -- those announcements were opened. this excluded any e-mail communication that troops in preparation for posting the announcements or during 2014, when problems with the announcements were found. so this is unacceptable, so i will continue my objection to the consideration of miss coloretti's nomination. i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the clerk will call the roll.

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the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i ask that the call of the quorum be terminated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i move to proceed to executive session. consider calendar number 1036.

the presiding officer: question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, david j. hail of kentucky to be united states district judge for the western district of kentucky. mr. reid: there is a cloture hetician apetition at the deskm. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of david j. hail of kentucky to be united states district judge for the western district of kentucky, signed impi 17 senators as -- by 17 senators as follows: mr. reid: i ask that the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the mondetory quorum be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i now proceed to

move to legislative session. the presiding officer: question is on the motion to proceed. all in favor say aye. opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. mr. reid: thank you. i now move to trod executive session to consider calendar number 1037. the presiding officer: question is on the motion e all in favor say aye. opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: mark a.kearney of pennsylvania to be united states district judge for the eerch descraict of pennsylvania. -- eastern district of pennsylvania. mr. reid: there is a cloture motion deive. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of mark a.kearney of

pennsylvania to be united states district judge for the eastern district of pennsylvania signed by 17 senators as follows -- mr. reid: i ask that the reading phs names be waived. the presiding officer: officer without objection. mr. reid: i ask that the mandatory quorum be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: question is on the motion. all in taser say aye. all opposed, no. the ayes appear to have t the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. vied i move to proceed to calendar number 1038. #*z officer certificate question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. opposed, nay. the ayes appear to have t the ayes do have t the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: gerald j. pepper of pennsylvania to be united states district judge for the eastern district of pennsylvania. mr. reid: there is a cloture motion at the deive i ask that it be reported. the presiding officer: the

clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of gerald j.pappert of pennsylvania to be united states district judge for the eastern district of pennsylvania, sign yoed by 17 senators as follows -- mr. reid: i ask that the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that the -- under rule 2 be waived. the presiding officer: woiks. mr. reid: i move to legislative session. the presiding officer: question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. opposed, nay. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have t the motion is agreed to. vied i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 55. the presiding officer: question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. all opposed nay. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to.

the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: dment of energy, franklin m. orr of california to be under secretary for science. mr. reid: i ask that there is -- there is a cloture motion at the deive and i ask you order it to be reported. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on franklin m m. orrcalifornia to e under secretary of science for department of energy singed by 18 senators as follows -- mr. reid: i ask that the reading of the nails be waived. officer without objection. mr. reid: i ask that the mandatory quorum under rule 2 be waived. officer without objection. mr. reid: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: question is on the notion. all those in favor say aye. opposed, nay.

the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. reid: i move, mr. president, to executive session to consider calendar number 660. the presiding officer: question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. opposed, nay. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have t the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the mom nation. the clerk: joseph f.hazier to be chief financial officer department of energy. mr. reid: i ask that a cloture motion which has been filed be router the. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture motion. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of joseph s. hazie revment of virginia to be chief financial officer, department of energy, signed by 18 senators -- mr. reid: i ask a this the

reading phs names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask that the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived. officer sphe without objection. mr. reid: i now, mr. president, move to legislative session. the presiding officer: question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. all opposed, nay. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have t the motion is agreed to. mr. reid: mr. president, there is one unanimous consent request for a committee to meet during today's session. it's been approved by senator mcconnell and by me. i ask consent that this request be agreed to and be -- this request be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

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