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. holy one, teach us to do your will. help us to see life's troubles from a spiritual perspective as we continue to place our trust in you.

may our hearts find repose in you. direct our senators in all their doings, surrounding them with your favor. be continually available to help them in their work so that your name will be glorified and righteousness will exalt our nation. keep our lawmakers captive only to your spirit that they may be free from bondage to self. guide them so that they will pursue only what is good and true and just. as you empower them to live

god-centered lives. we pray in your mighty name. amen. the president pro tempore: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our 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.

the presiding officer: the senate will receive a message from the house of representatives. the messenger: mr. president? i have been directed by the house of representatives to inform the senate that the house has passed h.r. 2685, a bill making appropriation for the department of defense for the fiscal year ending september 16, 2016 and for other purposes. in which the concurrence of the senate is requested. the presiding officer: the imagine will be received. the democratic leader. mr. reid: the statue of liberty stands as a universal symbol of hope and freedom. engraved within its pedestal are the words of emmett lazarus a call etched for the world to see -- give me your tired your poor your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the

wretch of refuse of your teeming shore. send them, the homeless, the tempest tossed to me. i live my lamp beside the golden door. for countless generations mr. president, our fathers mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers braved oceans, deserts and rivers to answer that call. as a result, the united states has been empowered by the contribution of immigrants around the world immigrants who came pursuing the american dream, pursued this dream with family values, hard work and love of country. my wife's father, my father-in-law, emigrated here from russia. my grandmother from england. my family, like so many american families has its immigrant stories to tell. this month is immigrant heritage month. as we celebrate our shared immigrant heritage, we must work to ensure that america welcomes future generations of immigrants with the dignity and the respect

that we wish on our own families. the united states has become the greatest nation on earth because of the hard work, dedication and diversity of immigrants brought to these shores. our strength lies in our ability to embrace the richness immigrants bring to the nation's story. just look at some of our nation's most successful companies -- google, yahoo general electric, i.b.m. these are all modern companies but over the centuries, we have like stories stories just like google yahoo general electric and i.b.m. all these american companies were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. i've seen personally the contribution of immigrants, the positive impact that diverse backgrounds has on shaping public policy. one staff member born in the philippines emigrated with her mother to las vegas. another left nicaragua in the

1980's in the midst of brutal civil war. others came from mexico, el salvador, poland. much like our nation, my office is all the better because it reflects the diverse backgrounds, communities and perspectives of those who have immigrated to nevada. nevada is a particularly vibrant international community. las vegas is home to a large latino asian pacific islanders and armenian communities. northern nevada has the same, but in addition to that, it's the home to proud descendants of immigrants from basque country. without the contributions made by generations of immigrants, nevada would not be the state it is today. immigrants have been our leaders, they have protected our nation and they have taught our children. immigrants who heeded the call engraved on the statue of liberty have altered this country for the better. we are and will always be a nation of immigrants.

mr. president, i have devoted years of legislative effort to fixing a broken immigration system. in 2010, after republicans blocked the dream act it became clear to me and other senators that republicans were not going to cooperate so we urged the president to take administrative action as republicans continue to block legislative efforts. three years ago today, the president announced that young people who do not present a risk to our national security would become eligible for relief from deportation through deferred action for childhood arrivals program. as a result of this action, over 660,000 dreamers have been approved including almost 12,000 nevadans. these individuals no longer live in fear of deportation. they can now contribute more fully to our country as college students as teachers, small business owners, artisans. these individuals were brought here as young children.

most do not remember the countries in which they were born. when they pledge allegiance, it's to the united states. they love this country and are americans in all but paperwork. these young people can now become teachers, own businesses, further contribute to the american economy. they can secure a better future for themselves, their families and our country. the program is a temporary solution for a broken immigration system. comprehensive immigration reform is the best way to repair our immigration system and preserve the integrity of the american dream. here in the senate, we passed a bill almost two years ago for comprehensive immigration reform but house republicans refused to even allow a vote on that legislation. had they allowed a vote on that legislation, it would have passed by a big margin because virtually every democrat would have voted for it and a number of republicans would vote for it. but the speaker decided no, we're not even going to allow a vote on it, and they haven't. but -- i'm sorry.

pardon me. because republicans would not pass immigration reform, president obama acted again within his legal authority to create a new program for the appearance of u.s. citizens and green card holders. they were in effect taking care of the appearance of these dreamers. those programs would be in effect now if it were not for a politically motivated lawsuit filed by republicans challenging the program. republicans say that it's about the president. they're really attacking and separating american families. in the senate, republicans have tried to repeatedly stop president obama's efforts. the deferred action for childhood arrivals program has transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people over the past three years. shutting down this program would cause deportation of young men and women to countries they don't know. we with the president will do everything in our power to protect and defend this program and to fight the baseless lawsuit that is preventing over five million additional people from the american dream.

the supreme court has been clear that presidents have the authority to set federal immigration enforcement priorities. i'm confident the president's actions will ultimately be upheld. i will continue to fight to protect those programs and keep families together. i look forward to the day to programs like daca replaced with permanent immigration reform. so vitally important. before closing mr. president on the floor today is the assistant democratic leader. he has been on this floor articulating the importance of these dreamers and what they do for our country and what initially was for the potential for our country and now, of course it's already been proven their potential was either underrer discord. they have done so much more than even we anticipated they could do. and i appreciate very much my friend the senior senator from illinois for his advocacy for this program his tireless efforts, for justice in america.

so i hope then, mr. president we'll live up to the words on the statue of liberty at the lamp beside the golden door which is beckoning people from other shores. mr. president, would you announce the business of the day? the presiding officer: underunder the previous order the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order the senate will be in a period of morning business for one hour with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant democratic leader. mr. durbin: mr. president i want to thank the democratic leader for his kind words. today is the third anniversary of daca. it was 15 years ago when i received a call to my senate office in chicago. a woman korean american woman who worked at a dry cleaners in the city of chicago had a question for me. it turns out that her daughter teresa lee had been offered an

opportunity to go to school at one of the best music schools in america. but she had problems filling out her application. the whole story is that this family had come through brazil from korea to the united states years before. the little children, including teresa, who was then 2 years old, came in on a tourist visa. the idea behind their arrival in america was that her father was going to open a church. he would be a minister with his own congregation. it was a dream that was never realized. the family struggled. they were very poor. teresa's mother went to work at a dry cleaners. her father didn't work much, had health problems. and luckily for teresa, this young girl, when she was about 10 or 12 years old, she was enrolled in a music program in chicago. it was called the merit music

program, and the merit music program offers to children from poor families musical instruction in instruments. they introduced teresa to the piano and an amazing thing happened. she turned out to be an incredible musician. so she was finishing high school and offered an opportunity to go to school in new york in a music school the manhattan conservatory of music. she had had other offers, too but when she went to fill out the application and they asked her to put in her citizenship or nationality, she said to her dad and mom what am i supposed to put there? and they said we didn't file any papers for you. you're technically undocumented in america. now, your brother and sister who were born here are citizens. we have become legal in america. but you we're not sure. so what should we do? let's call durbin's office. so they called my senate office. we checked the law and the law is very clear. if you were brought to the united states undocumented and lived your entire life here and

you wanted to stay here, the law said you had to leave the united states for ten years and then apply to come back. they asked me if there was anything else under the law and i said no. that was it. and it's because of that that i introduced the dream act 15 years ago. this dream act said young people under circumstances like teresa brought to the united states at a very young age raised in this country, finishing school, no criminal record, would be given a chance, a chance to become legal in america the dream act. well that dream act has been a dream for 15 years. it is not a law. but fortunately for me when i served in the senate at one point i had a colleague named barack obama who was my fellow senator and cosponsor of the dream act in his day. when he became president and it became clear that we weren't

going to pass comprehensive immigration reform or make the dream act the law of the land, this president said i will give to these young people who would qualify for the dream act temporary status so they could stay in america on a temporary basis without fear of deportation. that's what the president did three years ago with daca. deferred action for childhood arrivals. as the democratic leader reported 660,000 young people have signed up, paid a hefty filing fee had a criminal background check and submitted their names to the government. it was a leap of faith for these young people to do this, because if you grew up undocumented in america, you were told at a very early age by your parents for goodness sakes keep your head down don't ever get arrested, don't try to drive a car. you could not only get deported, our whole family

could get deported. these young people wanted the to be heard and they stepped up. and they signed up for the president's program. it's been incredible story. five years ago in april 2010 i joined with my former colleague, richard lugar in writing a letter to president obama asking him to establish this program. later that year, senator reid who just spoke brought the dream act to the senate floor. the gallery was filled with young people, undocumented people who came for that bill to be considered wearing caps and gowns. they wanted to make it clear they weren't looking for a free ride in america. they were looking for a chance. but despite the fact that 55 senators out of 100 voted for it we didn't get the magic 60 number and the dream act did not become a law. senator reid joined me with 22

other democratic senators asking president obama to create this daca program so these children could sign up. the president did it. it's an amazing success. what has happened to these dreamers? when they're given a chance to have a future in america when they're not afraid of a knock on the door and being deported, well what has happened? amazing things have happened. they are beginning to contribute to america as engineers and teachers and small business owners and more. i know this policy of the president to give these young people a chance to be part of america absolutely infuriates most of my republican colleagues. they can't stand the thought that the president by executive order would give these young people a chance. in fact, the house of representatives on several occasions has tried to reverse this and take away this recognition that these young

people can stay here on a temporary basis without being deported. last fall, the president extended the program in what is known at dapa, deferred action for parental accountability, for those who had been here a long time and would be given temporary status, and be able to work in our country. today, the center for american progress released a new report on the impact on the economy of the united states of these people eligible for daca, the young people, and dapa, their parents. over the next ten years in my home state of illinois, these two presidential policies will increase my state's gross domestic product by almost $15 billion, and it will increase the earnings, overall earnings of people living in my state. how is that possible? how it possible to take these undocumented people and turn

them into a positive for the economy? well, i'll tell you that's what happens. when they're on the books and working and paying their taxes as they want to be, as they should be. senator john mccain of arizona was just on the floor here. he was one of four republican senators took some courage stepped up and worked with four of us on the democratic side to write a comprehensive immigration bill. we believe our immigration system is broken in america and we want to fix it. we met together for months working on that bill and one of the good reports that came out of the bill was a comprehensive immigration system where people registered, submitted themselves to a background check, pay their taxes has a positive impact on the economy of the united states. unfortunately, the expansion of these two programs has been blocked by a lawsuit in texas filed against the president. earlier this month republicans

in the house of representatives voted to block the administration from any money to defend this lawsuit. that amendment was offered by a republican congressman from iowa named steve king, who has falsely claimed that dreamers are actually drug dealers with -- quote -- "calves the size of cantaloupes" -- close quote -- direct quote from congressman king -- because they're carrying drugs across our border. it's a cruel game that congressman king is playing with the lives of these young people. and now they want to fix the game by blocking the obama administration with the lawsuit. clearly the proponents of this lawsuit and their obstructive efforts will ultimately fail, but the supreme court has been clear the president has the power to make these policies. it is so troubling that so many on the other side of the aisle

are determined to block immigration in america. i come to the floor many times to tell the stories of these dreamers, and i'd like to tell one of those stories today. on the third anniversary of this daca program. this is denise rojas. in 1990 when she was just a little infant her parents carried her across the southwest border with the hope of giving her and her siblings a better life. denise and her family settled in fremont, california, and denise said -- quote -- "in grade school i recall feeling different from my peers. my skin color was darker, my english was stilted i was poor poor and i was undocumented." denise remembers her dad studying to pass the g.e.d. test and her mother attending community college for seven years to earn a nursing degree

and it was the this perseverance that inspired deny nears to try harder. in high school she was an excellent high school and athlete, graduated with a 4.3 grade point average received the army national scholar award. she was sipped at the university of california berkeley, one of the best colleges in the country but because of her undocumented status she didn't qualify for any financial aid or government help. denise worked 30 hours a week while attending school full time and she commuted an hour each way to school every day so she would live in affordable housing. at berkeley, denise rojas majored in bottling and sociology and was selected to work in a research lab her research was published in the journal "science" -- i ask for two minutes. i know the senator is anxious. mr. mccain: if i could just do a unanimous consent. mr. durbin: we have one more

thing to check. if you'll give me two minutes. mr. mccain: please proceed. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. durbin: thank you. i would gladly yield to my friend from arizona but higher -- as a senior at berkeley she cofounded prehealth dreamers an organization of undammed who wanted to become health care professionals. she volunteered at the same san francisco hospital clinic linkage program to help those seeking employment. in 2012 when president obama established daca, the third anniversary today her life changed. as a daca recipient denise's dreams finally seemed within reach. in this picture denise is holding her letter of acceptance to mount sinai medical school in new york. she'll be in classes this fall. she wrote me a letter, she said i pledged allegiance to this

nation's values since the first day i was in school. i considered the u.s. my home. furthermore, serving others has instoled stilledst stilled the notion everyone has the as possible built for prosperity. i continue to be a voice for immigrants. would america be a better country if she were deported? would we be better if dean niece rojas said leave, we don't want you? the fact you spent your entire life here means nothing the fact that you're an exceptional student leave? it sounds like a harsh point of view but shared by many in congress. this last weekend i took my grandkids, my wife and i did out to the statute of liberty in ellis island and i took a look there at that statute and was -- statue and was reminded we are a nation of immigrants. i was blessed my mother came to this country as an immigrant and i stand on the senate floor trying to do my best to make it a better country. there are people like denise roj

as who want to make this a better country. daca has given them that chance. today we celebrate the third anniversary of this executive order but more importantly we celebrate who we are a nation of immigrants, always striving to make life better for the next generation. mr. president, i yield the floor and thank my colleague from arizona. the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: i'd like to express my appreciation to the senator from illinois for his passion, for his commitment, for his advocacy for people who sometimes do not have a voice here in the united states senate. i congratulate him and i express my heartfelt appreciation for his efforts on behalf of people who are unable to speak for themselves. i thank the senator from illinois. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that at 11:30 a.m., foam june 16, notwithstanding

the provisions of rule 22, the senate vote in relation to the mccain-feinstein amendment 1889 with no second-degree amendments in order to the mccain-feinstein amendment prior to the vote, further that at 2:15 p.m. the senate vote in relation to ernst amendment 1549, followed by a vote on the gillibrand amendment 1578, as under the previous order followed by the cloture vote with respect to the mccain substitute amendment number 1463. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mccain: i ask to modify that unanimous consent request by adding further ask that no second-degree amendments in order to ernst or gillibrand amendments. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mccain: mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. a senator: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be terminated. the presiding officer: without objection.

mrs. ernst: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mrs. ernst: mr. president, as we continue the fight against isis and their radical allies, i rise today to ask my colleagues to are support the ernst-boxer amendment. it defeating isis is critical to maintaining an inclusive and unified iraq, and the iraqi kurds are the key to that goal. and to help improve the humanitarian crisis in the region through their support and protection of over 1.6 million displaced persons from iraq and syria. this bipartisan amendment also cosponsored by senators graham, tillis rubio and gardner provides temporary authority for the president in consultation

with the iraqi government -- and i say again in consultation with the iraqi government -- to provide weapons directly to iraqi kurdish perk -- peshmerga forces in the fight against isis. should the administration choose to do so. currently by law the u.s. must provide support to the iraqi kurds through the iraqi central government in baghdad, which is has often not been timely or adequate in the past. these delays have had a negative impact on the iraqi ability to provide security for those who have sought refuge in iraqi kurdistan. the president's recent decision to is expedite arms to the kurds as a way to improve the counter-isis effort i believe

speaks for itself. additionally last year secretary of state john kerry said to the house foreign affairs committee -- and i quote -- "you said the administration is responsible for sending all these weapons through baghdad. no we're not. you are. we're adhering to u.s. law passed by congress." secretary kerry continued -- and i quote again -- "we have to send it to the iraqi government because that's u.s. law. if you want to change it, fix it we invite you." close quote. well this amendment does just that and it does so in a bipartisan bicameral fashion. it builds upon a similar bill in the house led by foreign affairs committee chairman ed royce and ranking member elliot engel.

this bill and my amendment are quite different than the house ndaa language. my amendment provides a three-year authorization to reduce delays and inefficiencies in arming peshmerga forces to fight isis while ensuring the iraqi government is an integral part of the process. the amendment continues to promote a unified iraq and enhances the ability to fight our common enemy an enemy who ultimately seeks to bring their terror here to our shores. furthermore, the amendment preserves the president's ability to notify the iraqi government before weapons equipment, defense services, or related training is provided to iraqi curd -- kurdish

peshmerga forces. it ensures it does not provide direct support to other nations other than a country or international organization. most importantly to remember, it does not require the president to act. it provides him the authorization to do so if he feels the situation warrants it. beginning in the first gulf war the iraqi kurds and their peshmerga security forces have played a vital role in supporting u.s. interests and fostering a free iraq, despite limited means of doing so. last week they not only held their ground, but made some gains against isis in the kirkuk province. there are far too few positive news stories out of iraq

recently but when there are some and it's often the kurds who are making that progress. isis is deadly and determined, and iraqi kurdish peshmerga forces in the fight against isis need u.s. weapons as quickly as possible. we simply cannot afford future delays at this critical moment in the battle, and i urge my colleagues to join us in supporting this much-needed bipartisan legislation to arm the iraqi kurds in the fight against isis. with that, mr. president i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. nelson: madam president what is our parliamentary procedure? the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. nelson: madam president i ask consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: madam president i want to address the issue of america's space program. some very disturbing news has come out over the course of the appropriation committee's deliberations, and the house-passed commerce, g-8 justice appropriation bill, which it's my understanding it has passed the house.

it includes the funding for nasa. what is disturbing about it is at a time that we are recognizing, vladimir putin is increasingly trying to thwart the interest of the united states not only with his aggressiveness and invasion of ukraine, his threats to the baltic states, his completely taking after an invasion of that part of ukraine known as crimea and the various other semi threats that he has made to us. it would certainly seem to be in

the interest of the united states that where we have a joint shared and mutually agreed to space program which goes all the way back to 1975 when in the middle of the cold war an american spacecraft rendezvoused and docked with a russian spacecraft soyuz and and the apollo soyuz mission made extraordinary political as well as scientific history. for those two crews led by general tom stafford on the american side and general alexi leonov on the soviet side. after they docked, those two

crews live together in space for nine days in the middle of the cold war 1975. now, that set us on the course still with the soviet union in existence of starting to cooperate. we actually had an american space shuttle rendezvous and dock with the first russian space station near mir and from there we went on to build the international space station with the russians as well as a dozen other nations as our partner. now this space station on orbit 250 to 325 miles high. it is 120 miles long --

120 yards long. in other words, if you sat in the 50-yard line in a football stadium, you'd look from one goal post to the other goal post and that's how big this thing is. the international space station. there are six human beings up there. there is an international crew. there are russians, there are americans, and from time to time there are italians, germans french japanese a whole host of nations that are our concerns. and so it has been that as we built this space station the russians would launch on their soyuz space shaft to and from the international space station

supply and human supply, and the americans who have the capacity of 45,000 pounds on the space shuttle would take the component parts of the space shuttle up, assemble them on orbit and then we continued that over the better part of a decade and a half until the space station was complete. in the interim we had lost two stays shuttles and 14 solos the last one of which was columbia in the winter of 2003, and the investigation board led by navy admiral gaman said that as soon as you get the space station assembled of which necessity of

flying the space shuttle to take up the component parts you shut it down and you replace the space shuttle with a safer rocket. now, i won't take the time here right now to explain the engineering and design of the space shuttle versus the future rockets, but for this discussion suffice it to say when you put the crew in a capsule at the top of the rocket, you have the capability of escape and saving your crew even if you have an explosion of the rocket on the pad because the capsule can separate with the escape rockets and land some distance away by the parachutes. by the way one of those rockets under developed right now just

had its test spacex, and it was very successful. i'm giving all this background to get to what was almost a dagger in the heart coming out of the appropriation committee in both the house and the senate. and that is they have funded nasa fairly well, given the fact that they're trying to cut in order to satisfy this tea party-inspired sequester, which is this cut across the board but in doing so, what they have done is cut the development funds for the humans riding on american rockets to get to and from our international space station, the essence of which if

those funding cuts are sustained that the committee has done, it will delay us from putting americans on american rockets going to and from the space station instead of 2017 until very likely 2019. now, go ask almost any american, do they want a successful american space program and they will clearly tell you yes and that means americans on american rockets. we have those rockets. they're sending cargo to and from but we have to go in and do the designs of the redundancies and the escape systems on these commercial rockets, the two companies of which in competition are boeing and spacex. now, let me get back to vladimir

putin. we think it's a matter of wise public policy that we would continue our dependence on vladimir putin on our ability to get to our own international space station by having to ride and pay what he now charges $75 million a ride per u.s. astronaut. we think that is -- do we think that is wise public policy given the unpredictability, the -- this president of the russian federation that is so unpredictable? i don't think so. so what the house did, the

president's request for this next round of competition and they have come a long way. they are ready to go. i have just said that one of the competitors, spacex, just did a pad abort test by showing that the capsule could separate from the rocket and safely land 3,600 feet in a splashdown with the parachutes. it's not wise public policy to cut the funding so that this development of safe human space travel on these commercial rockets of boeing and spacex, it's not good public policy, it's not in the interests of the united states public spool that we would stay tied to vladimir putin in order to get to and from with astronauts, our own space station.

and it's just a small amount of money. the president had requested for this next year of competition he had requested $1.24 billion to put in the redoesn't enzi and -- redoesn't answers and escape systems. it's a critical year. it's 2015. it's the middle of 2015. we're going to start flying u.s. astronauts two years from now in 2017. but when you start cutting that funding from the president's request to $900 million as the senate appropriations committee just did last week or to

$1 billion, which the house has just done in the passage of their appropriations bill, when you do that, that's going to stretch out the development that's very likely that we can't send our own astronauts to our own space station on our own rockets. and we'll have to keep paying vladimir putin $75 million every time we go to ride on the soyuz to go to our own space station. no you figure it up. how many rides is that over -- now, you figure it up. how many rides is that over a few years? that's probably $3 billion right there. that's only four rides. assuming he's going to be charging us in 2018 and 2019 the same price that he's charging

now. he could jack that up. and so madam president i think it was a sad day in the senate appropriations committee when the committee turned down by a very narrow vote of 14-12 senator mikulski's amendment to restore the cut from $900 million to $1.24 billion. now, sooner or later that appropriations bills is going to come out here. it's got a lot of other problems as every appropriations bills has as the senate is finding out as we are on this defense authorization bill right now. all the funny money that is baked into it because of this so-called sequester.

but when it comes out here, i'm going to ask the senators, you think it's wise policy that we continue our reliance on vladimir putin? as we have been doing in the defense bill, john mccain, our chairman, has been on a rampage against giving money to vladimir putin by virtue of us buying the russian engine, which is a very good engine, and which became an engine for american rockets back after the collapse of the soviet union as a way of keeping their russian formerly soviet, scientists engaged in an aerospace industry

so they didn't get secreted off to become scientists for rogue nations such as north korea and iran. but senator mccain has pointed out rightly this senator believes that you want to reduce your reliance on those russian engines called the rd- 180 that are the main engines for the atlas 5, one of the absolute prime horses in the stable for our assured access to space. well if we're going to lessen our dependence on the russian engine why wouldn't we lessen our dependence on russian

spacecraft being the only means by which we would get to orbit to our own international space station. the logic is too compelling. and yet it is this ideological fervor that has lapsed over into partisanship that has so gripped these halls of congress to make irrational decisions. madam president, we can correct this decision when that appropriations bills comes to the floor of the senate. and i hope we will and i hope that folks like senator mccain one of this country's

two heroes that's taking this on in the defense committee is going to help us out here on the floor in taking this on on the probably -- on the appropriations committee. madam president, i yield the floor and i would suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i have two unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the

majority and minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent these requests be agreed to and the requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: madam president, the national defense authorization act is one of the most important pieces of legislation congress considers each and every year. that's why the new majority has made it one of our top priorities. it's why we reverse the worrying trend of recent years when we see such an important bill crammed in at the very last minute with little time or debate or for amendment. this year's defense bill has undergone weeks of thorough and serious consideration under the regular order both in committee and here on the floor. this year's defense bill has

been open to a vigorous and bipartisan amendment process with amendments from both sides having been adopted already. it's a reform bill that aims to transform bureaucratic waste and crucial investments for the men and women who give everything to protect us. it contains important quality-of-life programs for these service members and for their families. it holds the promise of compassion for wounded warriors and it extends a hand of understanding to heroes who struggle with mental health challenges. it authorizes the pay raises our troops have surely earned. it is a bill that contains input from both sides. it's a bill that reflects priorities from both sides. that's why it sailed out of committee with huge bipartisan support, 22-4. that's why the house of representatives passed a similar version with support from both parties.

that's why you'd think it would be headed towards strong bipartisan passage here in the senate as well, but some democratic leaders now want to hold pay raises and important medical programs for our troops hostage as leverage for unrelated partisan gains. it's part of the filibuster summer they promised us. democratic leaders have been quite open in detailing their strategy which basically boils down to this: deny our troops the benefits they've earned and even shut down the government if they can't extract more taxpayer dollars for bureaucracies like the i.r.s. the american people don't want any part of this senseless filibuster summer vacation. but democratic leaders already packed up their dusty winebago and with "bigger i.r.s. or bust"

scrawled on the back are now barreling toward our troops and their families in a dangerous game of chicken. i'm asking these leaders to please stop. please stop. this isn't some game. please think about what you're doing. we live in exceedingly dangerous times. we're faced with the most diverse and complex array of crises in the post war era and that's henry kissinger saying that. nearly every week seems to bring another new example of isil's brutality. this is certainly not a moment to use our military as a leverage in order to secure a few more bucks -- a few more bucks -- for bloated bureaucracies like the i.r.s. all of this must make some of our democratic colleagues uneasy. some of them must be cringing at

this strategy. i'm asking every democrat who is suryus about supporting our -- who's serious about supporting our troops and our national security to stand with the american people in rejecting these partisan gains. our all-volunteer force should be focused on training for combat and preparing for conflict not worrying about partisan delay of important policy authorizations. we all know how vital our troops are to both our country and our own local communities. i've come to the floor recently to talk about what the men and women of our military mean to kentucky. i noted how at fort campbell more than 30,000 army personnel trained for important missions around the world from repeated deployments to afghanistan to providing humanitarian support in places like africa. i noted how the base enriches the surrounding region with an economic impact of $5 billion each year. i noted how fort knox houses many different military commands

and boasts a truly impressive array of training grounds and training facilities. i noted how the base makes an economic impact of more than $2 billion in hardin county and the surrounding community. so today i'd like to tell you a little about bluegrass army depot. the depot located in richmond is integral to the army and our national security as a facilitation site for the storage, renovation and disposal of conventional munitions. it also serves as a reminder of the many important tasks undertaken by the department of defense and one more reason kentuckians don't want to see the department distracted or disrupted by partisan games here in washington, because after having personally implored the department of defense for several decades to meet our national commitment, the department is now close to completing construction of the state of the art chemical

demilitarization facility at the depot. that would allow for the proper disposal of dangerous chemical weapons that are stored there. this is important for our country and it's critical to the health and safety of my constituents in central kentucky. but it's also become a good job story for the region too. there are more than 1,400 jobs at the bluegrass army depot and hiring will continue when operations at the new facility begin. kentuckians know that passing the defense bill before us would authorize a new special forces facility at fort campbell. kentuckians know what authorized construction projects and an important new medical clinic at fort knox. kentuckians also know it would help prevent the department of defense from becoming unnecessarily distracted or disrupted as it continues carrying out critical tasks like the kind we see at bluegrass army depot disposing of those

dangerous chemical weapons. i'm asking every senator to remember all the ways that our troops and our military enrich our states and local communities. i'm asking every senator to consider the serious times we live in too. and i'm asking every senator to keep those things in mind when casting votes on the defense bill. we may be republicans we may be democrats, but in the end we should all be able to come together to support the people who support us. let's stand together in rejecting partisan games in favor of a bipartisan bill that contains good ideas from both parties and gives president obama the exact funding level he asks for. this bill gives president obama the exact funding level he asks for. let's worry less about the demands of one party's political base and more about supporting

the brave men and women who live on the base. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the snowe from hawaii. ms. hirono: madam president are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are in a quorum call. ms. hirono: i ask unanimous consent to set aside the quorum call. i also ask unanimous consent that jessica cleary, a navy fellow in my office, be granted the privileges of the floor through this calendar year. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. ms. hirono: madam president i rise today to enable my colleagues to become aware of the tragic circumstances that

led to the untimely death of 5-year-old talia williams and an amendment that i have introduced that seeks to close a loophole that allowed talia to slip through our child abuse safety net. in 2005, talia moved to hawaii to live with her father and her stepfather. mr. williams was in the military stationed at schofield barracks. mr. williams' defense attorney argued that mr. williams was ill-equipped to care for his daughter. that may be true, but we know for a fact, though, that talia williams suffered several months of the near-constant abuse at the hands of her father and stepmother. this torture ended on july 16 2005 when mr. williams hit talia so hard it left his fist imprinted on her chest and killed her. mr. williams was convicted of

murdering his daughter last year and he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. his stepmother delilah williams was given a reduced sentence of 20 years in prison for providing testimony against her husband. tarsha williams, talia's mother, sued the military in 2010 for the death of her daughter. her case was settled earlier this year with the department of defense agreeing to a $2 million settlement for not doing enough to save talia williams. in the course of these two proceedings, it became clear that talia williams could have been saved if one thing occurred and that is the reporting of the abuse to hawaii's welfare service branch or c.p.s. through a memorandum of understanding, m.o.u., with the state of hawaii, the department of defense established a system in which hawaii's child welfare services would be for the agency

primarily responsible for intake investigation and the provision of protective services as deemed necessary to abused children within the state of hawaii -- end quote. including the children of military families both on and off base. under statute and reiterated in the m.o.u., only hawaii's state agencies have the authority not the military, to take emergency custody and order foster care placement for children without the consent of a parent. but this could only happen if officials in hawaii knew about the abuse. in talia's case, a number of people were aware of her maltreatment yet no report was received by the report point of contact who was the person on base mandated to report to hawaii's child protective services.

the court in tarcia williams' civil suit found that military law enforcement the doctors who treated talia and at least one or two family counselors had reason to suspect that violence was occurring in the williams home. at least one person on base directly reported to the family advocacy program. her concerns for talia's well-being. no action was taken. talia remained in the home while time and again law enforcement personnel and others were called to investigate or received reports of abuse but not enough was done to remove her from her home. this lack of action was and is unacceptable. no one followed up on talia's case to the degree that we all should expect. information about the abuse she lived through never reached the army provost who under the m.o.u. with the state of hawaii,

was the single person required to alert child welfare services. and talia died. this loophole which puts us in a position of hoping and trusting that information of abuse makes it to the reporting point of contact must be addressed. my amendment would fix this problem by establishing a legal requirement that any federally mandated reporter with credible evidence or suspicion of child abuse notify both the d.o.d.'s family advocacy program as well as the appropriate state child welfare department. this amendment would eliminate the bottleneck of having only one reporting point of contact. instead, mandatory reporters which include teachers, doctors law enforcement and others, must directly must directly report such evidence or suspicion both

of the chain of command and also over to the appropriate state authorities. i am hopeful that requiring such dual reporting no military connected children will remain in abusive homes because information never made it to the right person. there are many -- there were many mistakes made in talia's case. many of those mistakes are the type that no law might rectify a reluctance of people to get involved in the affairs of others reluctance to implicate abuse, perhaps out of respect for a member's service and personal affability. however, in a case like talia's more should have been done and could have been if only the right people were made aware of the situation. i hope that we do not continue to ignore this one glaring reporting loophole, leaving in place a hole in our safety net wide enough to miss the torture

and untimely death of a child like talia. i recognize the time on the defense authorization act is short. i'm sure the department of defense shares my concerns on this issue and i look forward to working with the department and my colleagues to close this reporting loophole. madam president, i'd like to take a few minutes to shift gears to another issue of great importance. this issue is more hopeful. on june 15 2012, president obama enacted daca or deferred action for childhood arrivals granting deferred action to dreamers all across the country. three years later almost 700,000 hardworking young people are proof that deferred action works. daca has changed the lives of countless students who were brought to our country as undocumented children through no fault of their own. the president's actions has been

truly transformative to many people in hawaii. let me tell you about three such young people. gabriela immigrated from brazil with her family at the age of 15. despite a 3.8 g.p.a. in high school she found herself unable to go to college because she lacked required documentation. after receiving daca, gabriela enenrolled in a community college paying in-state tuition and is receiving her associate's degree in the spring of 2015 and transferring to the university of hawaii to earn her bachelor's degree. receiving daca was a life-changing moment for gabriela because it enabled her to do everyday things she was never able to do before such as getting a driver's license opening a bank account renting her own apartment. it also enabled her to get an education, start a career, and live up to her full potential. sam was born in tonga and

brought to hawaii when he was only 4 years old. his parents petitioned for residency for the whole family but as a result of a slow and ineffective immigration system, sam was over 18 years old by the time their petition became current. as a result, 18-year-old sam was put in deportation proceedings and came very close to being torn away from his family and deported to a can a country he no longer remembered. thankfully the president announced the daca program and sam was granted a stay of deportation and allowed to remain with his family. today he works as a music director at his church sand currently saving money to return to school and seek his dream of higher education. shin gai is from zephyr backy. he didn't find out he was undocumented until he graduated from high school and decided to play for college. shingai won a full scholarship

to go to college. unfortunately, with stardom came media attention and due to his undocumented status he was forced to quit his dream and protect himself and his family from the public eye. shingai knew the importance of education so he pursued his degree a few classes at a time and this semester is finally set to earn a bachelor's in political science from hawaii pacific university. receiving daca has enabled shingai to come out of the shadows in order to raise awareness and empower immigrant youth in hawaii. these dreamers no longer with the fear of deportation and family separation hanging over their heads each and every day. daca recipients are now free to live their lives to seek an education, and either work as teachers engineers enter our armed services, become business owners. daca is life changing for these

young people but it also has helped all americans. 49% of dreamers who are granted daca were able to open their first bank account 33% were able to obtain a credit card. 60% have been able to gain new jobs contributing to our tax base and our economy. experts estimate that all deferred action recipients will add $230 billion to our gross domestic product in the next decade. quite simply, daca works. and the american public stands with our dreamers, immigrant families and smart are immigration policies like daca. over 70% of americans reject the mass deportation approach favored by some and instead support the president's executive actions. however, daca is only a temporary solution to address one part of our broken immigration system. it is not a substitute for comprehensive immigration reform and it has been roughly two

years since the senate passed immigration reform bill with strong bipartisan support. president obama built on the success of daca who use his authority to expand the daca program and create a new program for the parents of children born as u.s. citizens. i strongly support the president's actions. both could be up and running helping families of individuals, millions of them but for a lawsuit filed by some republican governors opposed to immigration reform. we must continue fighting to provide relief for millions of parents who should be signing up or dapa right now paying their fees and applying for work permits. additional young people who qualify for daca as well as millions of other hardworking families facing deportation every single day in our country. madam president, i yield back my time and note the absence of

a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quote quote madammr. coats: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. mr. coats: i ask unanimous consent that the order of the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coats: madam president this is week 14 of "waste of the week." i have been coming down here for 14 weeks now while the senate has been in session this year to talk about yet another waste which if we can correct can save the taxpayers a lot of money. in this case, we're talking about several billions of dollars that have been

determined by the inspector general social security office to be money which was expense improperly -- spent improperly, accidentally by whatever reason money that belongs to the taxpayers and falls into the category of waste. waste because the inspector general -- and i give this inspector general -- i don't have his name -- i give this inspector general and his staff great credit for doing something pretty creative and interesting and actually this is their job: delving into how an agency does his business. are they making the most efficient use of 4 for a necessary program that can only be done by the federal government. yet, when you're looking at big business or big government, you find examples of cost-cutting that can save the company and in this case save the taxpayer, a very significant amount of

money. the inspector general decided to take a random sample of over 1,500 beneficiaries of the social security disability fund. 44.5% of them received an overpayment at some point during the ten-year period that he studied. and based on this sample, the social security inspector general estimated that overpayments totaled about $16.8 billion over a period of time from october 2003 to february 2014 covering nearly four million beneficiaries. now, that's a lot of people but in this digital age there are ways in which we can ensure that correct payments are made to the right people and that we don't end up overspending money that

comes from hard-earned taxpayer dollars. now there is some good news to this story because the social security administration following up on this study determined to go through its records and try to recover some of this money that had been overpaid. and they were successful in recovering nearly half of the $16.8 billion. they recovered $8.1 billion of overpayments during this period of time, and i commend them for the effort in doing that. but while we celebrate the good news, we also need to dig in and determine how we can take steps to make sure this doesn't continue. there's another $8.7 billion out there that needs to be recovered, and of course the goal here is to not only recover that money if possible, but also to keep this from continuing in

out years. so let's put the steps in place that will determine give us an ability to stop this from happening and going forward. now let me just go back and give you a little background here, a little history of how all this came about and how this happened. those who properly receive benefits, the circumstances break down like this. nearly 40% actually 39.9% of the overpayments happened when individuals started working and made enough money by law to support themselves and therefore no longer qualify for social security disability benefits. another 23% had their medical condition improved to the point where they could go back to work. now, interestingly enough, i believe it is my very first waste of the week, i pointed out the fact that individuals a very significant amount of

individuals who were receiving payments both from social security disability and unemployment insurance to receive unemployment insurance you have to prove that you can't work, to have been thrown out of work and can't get back. to receive social security payments, you have to prove that you no longer are able to work and get back. and yet, they were receiving payments for both of those. well, that was the very first part of the week. and we put a chart up here indicating that we're going to do a goal of reaching $100 billion of waste fraud and abuse to show the example that the money being sent here to washington, as some say we can't cut a penny from any program. well every business that's gone through this grand recession great recession now going on for the sixth year or so, have had to make sacrifices.

they have had to cut costs. families have had to cut costs. businesses have had to cut costs. only the federal government says we can't cut a penny. every program here that we have is valuable, has to be saved. in fact, it needs more money to be efficient. well let's start with, let's start with those issues that have been determined through inspections by independent agencies and proven to be fraud and waste and see what we can add this up to. as you can see here, the gauge here is growing every week. another 8.6 have multiple reasons that they no longer were eligible for the benefit. 7.5% were in prison and had fugitive status, which means they weren't qualified for -- they were no longer qualified for disability benefits. 7.2% of those people continued to receive checks after they had

died. you not only have people in prison and therefore no longer eligible. but 7.2% of the people receiving benefits received those after they died. and that totaled up to a very significant amount of money. again, we certainly have the technology and the capability to run the death records through the system to make sure that checks are not continuing to be sent out to the last home address or whatever to deceased individuals and then taken and cashed perhaps by family or who knows who. 3.4% were not entitled to benefits in the first place. pretty easy to scratch those names and save money. 1.8% had their payment improperly computed. in other words overpayment mistake made by the social security agency. 1.8% had financial resources exceeding the limit at which they were supposed to get. 1.7% had a change in their living arrangements.

they moved abroad; no longer eligible. 5% fell under another category of reasons. the bottom line is an inspection was made. a study was plowed into in terms of how this came about. we now have the information and money was returned brought back through legal process. but there's still $8.7 billion out there that we didn't get back. and we want to make sure that measures are now put in place so that this doesn't continue and some senator will be on the floor five years or ten years from now saying let me tell you about the latest study of the social security inspector general. former senator from indiana who was here form early whatever, came down to the floor he mentioned this, $8.7 billion

still out there and we ought to make changes in the system so it wouldn't happen again and guess what? it didn't get done, and here i am back. let's do it now. let's make these changes now so the american people understand that we're here to not extort them from the kind of overpayment that is taking place here and using their taxpayer dollars to achieve that goal. we can fix this problem but it's going to take some work. we need better cross-referencing for beneficiaries with other government lists or private lists to help identify earned waibltion -- wages or other assets. we need informationing sharing that can save billions. assuming that the trend of the i.g. report continues this change can be made and the missing $8.7 billion in overpayments can be traced.

we will estimate what potentially we can save in out years because hopefully we will be able to put the measures in place now that we have this information that will stop these overpayments from being made. but we do know there's $8.7 billion out there money that can be recovered. and so what we're adding today is a big chunk of money bringing us up nearly to three-quarters of our goal of reaching the $100 billion of savings in waste fraud and abuse. and we're only into week 14, and we've got several more weeks ahead of us and months ahead of us and so i'm hoping we'll have to put an extension on to this chart here and we'll see how high it goes. because our goal here is to save the taxpayer dollars that the federal government has been proven to waste through waste fraud and abuse. madam secretary -- excuse me. madam president, i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

quorum call: the presiding officer: under the previous order the senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations en bloc which the clerk will report. the clerk: nominations international bank for reconstruction and development matthew t. mcgwire of the district of columbia to be united states executive director. department of state gentry oz smith of north carolina to be director of the office of foreign missions. the presiding officer: under the previous order, there will be 30