and urban developer to barber to work with the private sector to reduce energy and water costs in subsidized housing units. you can watch the house live on c-span and now live to the senate floor it on c-span2. 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. father of all, give us your wisdom in these challenging times. may your wisdom ignite within us

reverential awe for you. inspired by your wisdom, help our senators to strive to ensure that their thoughts, words, and deeds glorify you. may our lawmakers not forget that you are an ever-present help for turbulent times, eager to deliver those who call on your holy name. lord sustain us with your might that they will live free from fear. mighty god, salvation belongs to you. continue to shower us

with your blessings. we pray in you 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. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: two weeks ago i asked the obama administration to step back from the iran negotiations press pause and reexamine the point of having

the talks in the first place. that would have been the most rational and reasonable approach for the white house to take, especially considering that its own allies in the senate were using phrases like "deeply worrying" to describe the direction of the talks. but instead of taking the time to reexamine basic objectives with its partners and agree on the nonnegotiable elements of any deal, things like any time, anywhere inspections complete disclosure of previous military-related nuclear research and phased relief of sanctions tied to iranian compliance the white house acquiesced instead to artificial deadline after artificial deadline and opportunity after opportunity for iran to press for additional concessions along the way. the result is the comprehensive

nuclear agreement announced today. given what we do know so far it appears that republicans and democrats are right to be deeply worried about the direction of these talks. it seems americans in both parties were right to fear that a deal inked by the white house would further the flawed elements of april's interim agreement. that it would aim at the best deal acceptable to iran rather than one that might actually end iran's nuclear program. remember ending iran's nuclear program was supposed to be the point of these talks in the first place. what's already clear about this agreement is that it will not achieve or even come close to achieving that original purpose. instead, the iranians appear to have prevailed in this negotiation, maintaining thousands of centrifuges

enriching their threshold nuclear capability instead of ending it, reaping a multibillion-dollar windfall to spend freely on terrorism dividing our western allies and negotiating partners, some of whom will now undoubtedly sell arms to iran. and gaining legitimacy before the world. this was an entirely predictable result. in fact, the most predictable result given the administration's stance. as noted back ne 2012, here's what i said, the only way the iranian regime can be expected to negotiate to preserve its own survival rather than to simply delay as a means of pursuing nuclear weapons is if the administration imposes the strictest sanctions while at the same time enforcing a firm declaratory policy that reflects a commitment to the use of

force. but, no, the administration never did that. instead it relied upon train and equip programs instead of forward presence, emphasize special operations forces in economy of force efforts pursue to draw down from iraq and afghanistan based on time lines not battlefield conditions, and executed the draw-down of our conventional and nuclear forces and withdrawal of those forces by both attrition and redeployment. through actions like these and by eschewing any declaratory policy toward iran, the president made clear to the world, contrary to his rhetoric, that all options were not on the table. all options were simply not on the table. knowing this, the iranians never feared for their survival. of course the survival of the regime being their number-one goal. and so we have the deal we have today. it appears we've lost the chance

to dismantle iran's nuclear program and that that will now become a challenge for the next president to confront regardless of political party. but the senate has yet to receive the final text of the agreement. we will not come to a final judgment until we do. the country deserves a thorough and fair review right here in the united states senate. and that's just what we intend to pursue. committees will be holding hearings. witnesses will be coming to testify. and then congress will approve or disapprove -- approve or disapprove -- the deal in in accordance with the iran nuclear review act. now the test of the agreement should be this: will it leave our countries -- our country and our allies -- safer? will this agreement leave our

country and our allies safer? there are several things we'll be looking at in particular as we weigh whether it will. here are a few of them. will the agreement allow for any time anywhere inspections in military installations and research and development facilities? question two will the agreement compel the iranians to disclose the possible military dimensions of their nuclear program? will the agreement make any real impact on iran's ability to continue researching and developing advanced centrifuges? will the agreement sanctions relief be tied to iran's strict adherence to the terms of the deal? and will we have any real way to verify its compliance? these parameters will also help us determine just how successful the iranians have been in extracting concessions from the

white house. so we'll be examining them very, very closely. i would remind colleagues of the deadly seriousness of the issue at hand. this should not be about some political legacy project. this is not some game either. it's certainly not the time for more tired obviously untrue talking points about the choice here between a bad deal and war. no serious person would believe that's true. even the people saying these things have to know they're not true. and they probably know that the very opposite is in fact more likely. so the country doesn't have time to waste on more white house messaging exercises. when the seriousness of the moment calls for intellectually honest debate. the choices made today are sure to affect our country for years

probably decades to come. the future we leave to our children is at issue as well. the senate should engage in serious consideration of what faces us in the years ahead. i invite every democrat and every republican to join us in that critical conversation. our country deserves no less. what we must decide now is whether this is really the right time to be reducing pressure on the world's leading state sponsor of terror. and for what in return? we already know that the quds for is capable of under the sanctions regime. what will iran's support of terrorism look like with the additional funding obtained from sanctions relief?

and let's not forget iran is pursuing a full-spectrum campaign to expand its sphere of influence and undermine american security and standing in the region. iran's continued support of terrorism and its determination to expand ballistic missile and conventional military capability should be gravely concerning to each of us. they certainly are to me. they pose significant challenges to our country and president obama's successor. now this comes on top of the many other threats that challenge our country today and into the future. from groups like the taliban, al qaeda, and isil, to increasingly aggressive regimes in moscow and beijing. a bad deal won't make any of those threats go away. pretending otherwise isn't going

to make us safer. a bad deal will only ensure iran has more funding to threaten us with renewed vigor. it will only ensure that iran expands its stockpile of missiles and that it strengthens terrorist proxies like hezbollah here's a reuters headline from this morning. syria's assad sees more iranian support after nuclear deal. that's the reaction from the syrian regime. syria's assad sees more iranian support after the nuclear deal. look the white house needs to know that the congress elected by the people is prepared to do anything it can to make america safer. we want to work collaborative to advance that goal. but if we have to work against a bad agreement to do so, a flawed deal that threatens our country

and our allies, i assure you, we will. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. reid: this statement i issued early this morning. today's historic accord is the result of years of hard work by president obama and his administration. the world community agrees a nuclear-armed iran is unacceptable and a threat to our national security, the safety of israel and the middle east. it is incumbent on congress to review this process with a thoughtful level-headed process and give it the review it deserves. mr. president, in the chamber this morning as the chairman of the education committee a man i have the utmost respect for

he's a person who understands education. he was governor of the state of tennessee. he was secretary of education. and he's been an outstanding senator. but, mr. president there was something that occurred last night that i think is really outside of the specter of reasonableness. cloture was filed on the education bill last night meaning we'll have a vote tomorrow morning. mr. president, we have worked on a few amendments. basically all of them could have been accepted with voice votes. there was not a single difficult amendment that was brought up. so now cloture is being sought and the process ignoring democratic amendments that we've been waiting to offer for some time now. we are not going to allow cloture to succeed unless we

have a pathway forward on these amendments. the ranking member of the committee, senator -- the senior senator from washington, knows this. she's talked to the chairman of the committee about this, and we're going to have to have a reasonable time to debate those amendments and have votes on those amendments. otherwise, we're not going to complete this bill. and it's an important bill. we should complete the bill. mr. president, senate democrats have said for months that republicans are running a sham appropriation process. from the very beginning, the republicans have proceeded with an appropriation process that is designed to fail. they move forward bills they know democrats can't support. the republican leader in congress simply have shown no interest in funding our government in a fair and responsible manner. this past week, even we were surprised how house republican leadership has handled the appropriations process.

republicans brought their interior and environmental appropriations bill before the house for debate. this legislation is nothing short of a disaster. it's also sad that president obama has made -- in fact, mr. president, it is so bad this bill they brought to the floor that president obama has made it clear already that it will be vetoed. what does it do? it strangleholds the environmental protection agency budget cutting it by some 9%, $700 million. it completes pollution standards to power plants to address climate change. it cuts funding for national parks. mr. president, we have such an infrastructure deficit in our national park system that it's a crying shame but yet they cut more from this program. we are the envy of the rest of the world with our national parks, but with how republicans have treated this wonderful system of parks we have, they

have really been depleted. it allows corporations. there is a bill to shift costs of their toxic waste spills. we have had for decades a very successful program to clean up these very, very dirty spills, dealing with chemicals and other substances that should be on the ground. it's called superfund. what it does is make sure that these disasters environmental disasters are paid for by the people that created the disaster. what does the house do on this? they change this, say no, we're not going to have the people that messed up the environment clean it up. we're going to have the taxpayers clean it up. that's wrong. this bill that was in the house last week fracking rules for public lands designed to provide transparency protect communities that host oil and gas drilling. mr. president, rules for public lands, not private lands they eliminate that. these are only a small number of

the devastating provisions the republicans piled into this funding bill. but even more shocking was what occurred next. this legislation pertaining to the removal of the confederate flag brought republican appropriations bills to a screeching halt. in an attempt to avoid voting on amendments that would outlaw the use of confederate emblems house leadership shut down their own spending bill. mr. president, the conserved flag -- confederate flag issue was brought up by republicans. they accepted the day before this debacle took place on the senate floor. but then they wanted more debate on confederate flag, and it didn't sell. so what did they do? they figured out a way to just drop this bill totally take it off the floor. listen to a few of the headlines that followed. these were in the newspapers. from "the atlantic" -- republican defenders of the

confederate flag derail a spending bill. from politico leaders yank bill after confederate flag fracas. the goal to finish spending bills by august. and finally from the "wall street journal," confederate flag debate prompts house to pull spending bill. it's very disappointing that this is what the republican party, the 21st century stands for, protecting the emblems of racism and our tragic past. the united states congress should not be protecting a confederate flag. protecting the confederate flag is certainly not worthy of bringing the entire u.s. government to a standstill. but that's what republicans have been doing all along with their bogus appropriation bills bringing our country to a standstill. it has been clear for months the only way congress will arrive at a responsible budget is by republicans and democrats senate and house sitting down

together and finding a path forward. now is the time to negotiate. not in september not in october. we know, mr. president that republicans are experienced in shutting down the government. they did it before. for several weeks. devastating to our economy and a real shock to the worldwide community. sequestration. another ingenious method of the republicans to hurt the american middle class. so mr. president republicans are experienced in shutting down the government. they did it two years ago and we know how the american economy suffered. senate democrats aren't the only ones calling on republican leaders to sit down for bipartisan funding talks. listen to what is said by congressional republicans. hal rogers, the dean of the kentucky delegation and chairman of the appropriation committee

here's what he said, and i quote -- "if we wait until the end of the fiscal year, then we're going to have to pass a c.r. continuing resolution. then try to cobble together something in the meantime like we have been doing under pressure. and that's not the best way to legislate." the house appropriations subcommittee chair mike simpson of idaho quote -- "under sequestration, the way it currently exists, you can't pass appropriation bills. it ensures that what you have got is a c.r. for the rest of your life." close quote. house appropriations committee chair tom cole -- "the reality is we still live in a divided government. it's not as if the democrats can be shut out of the process but they can't dictate to us any more than we can dictate to them. it's time to sit down and see if we can make a deal." charlie dent, appropriations subcommittee chair in the appropriations program over in the house. he's from pennsylvania quote --

"we all know there will have to be a short-term c.r. to take us from september to december. i would have hoped sometime between now and then we'll have to negotiate a budget agreement." close quote. these are just a few of the quotes where house republican chairmans, the only way we're going to avoid another republican government shutdown by got parties sitting down to construct a bipartisan agreement. so let's skip all the administrative drama by starting today to work together to avoid another government shutdown. the presiding officer: under the previous order the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order the senate will resume consideration of s. 1177, which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 63, s. 1177, a bill to reauthorize the elementary and secondary education act of 1965, to ensure that every child achieves. mr. alexander: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: mr. president the democratic leader expressed

the hope that we could have a -- a path to the end on amendments, and i can assure him that senator murray and i agree with him wholeheartedly. we're working together to try to be able to do that. in the committee we adopted 29 amendments. most of those were democratic amendments. we have adopted 22 on the floor. a majority of those are democratic amendments. the democratic leader has been very helpful to allow us to come to the floor without delay and i can assure him and the majority leader that senator murray and i intend to try to resolve the couple of issues that we have right now and be able to recommend to -- to the leadership a path forward. it would be my hope that we don't even have to have a cloture vote, that we didn't have to have one to get on the floor and i hope we don't have to have one to get off the floor. i'm not prepared to say we can do that yet but we agree with him and will do our best to do

that. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. reid: through the chair to my friend, the senior senator from tennessee the way the rules now exist now after coming in tomorrow, there will be a cloture vote. i say to my friend we need an agreement prior to that or we're not going to get cloture on the bill, on the substitute, which would be a shame. i hope that we can have adequate debate on these amendments. if we come up with -- we have five minutes per amendment that won't work. i know that my friend is such a fair man but we're trying to understand why there was a rush on filing cloture on this bill. i know that there's a lot of work to do around here, but you can't shortchange one bill in an effort to get to something else that may not work either. so we have two cloture votes on this bill, and if we could avoid the cloture vote, that would be great. maybe we could avoid the cloture

vote on the bill itself. i hope so. but until my senators are protected, we're not going to invoke cloture tomorrow morning. mr. alexander: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: i understand what the democratic leader is saying. i think the best thing for senator murray and me to do is to continue to work as we have with other senators. i believe we know almost all of the amendments that -- that are to be adopted not only have we adopted the ones in committee and the ones on the floor but senator murray and i have several dozen other amendments that we are prepared to recommend to the full senate that they be adopted in the substitute agreement. i would say to senators that -- that if there is any other amendment, i hope you will let us know about it. the filing deadline is 2:30 this afternoon. i hope we have all of the amendments that we -- that we need to have. mr. president, occasionally i'm asked why do you senators argue all the time, and my answer usually is that's what we're

here to do. i mean, we're presented with the most con contentious issues in the country, issues that can't be resolved other places, so of course we're going to argue a lot. we debate. we have rules about debate, so we debate what to do about the iran nuclear deal. we debate what to do about health care. we debate what kind of trade agreements we should have. but occasionally we come to a consensus about what to do and a consensus is the way you govern a complex country. i remember very well when i was a very young staff member here, i watched senator dirksen the republican leader, -- this was in 1968 -- and president johnson, the democratic president, worked together to pass a civil rights bill. the bill was written in the republican leader's office, even though it had been proposed by the democratic president. it took 68 votes to pass it.

and in order to get cloture at that time. and when they finally got 68, took 67, they got 68, senator russell of georgia who had led the opposition flew to atlanta and said it's the law of the land we need to support it. that's the -- that's why we have the senate. the senate has been called the one authentic piece of genius in the american political system. it is the only place in our government that encourages and actually forces consensus on important issues. and when you take a complex issue and try to resolve it and have it be the rules for a country as big and diverse as ours consensus is -- is the only way to do it, really. and i cannot think of an issue about which there needs to be more consensus than one that involves the 100,000 public schools in our country which have 50 million children,

3.5 million teachers. i mean, having a debate like this about elementary and secondary education is like attending a football game at the university of tennessee or arkansas or washington. i mean, everybody in the stands is an expert. everybody in the stands knows they could be the coach or the quarterback. so it's not that easy to get a consensus about what to do about elementary and secondary education in america. what's the proper role for the federal government. once you have decided that, then what do you do about it? how much do you spend? what rules do you set? the remarkable thing is that we have two -- we've come to a consensus in two ways here about our elementary and secondary education legislation which is on the floor today. the first is that we need to get something done. we're seven years overdue. "newsweek" magazine said last week in the headline to its story the education bill that everybody wants to fix. we've tried twice in the last two congresses. it was a well-intentioned

bipartisan effort. each failed. each failed. we don't have to go into the reasons why but they did fail. now, in this congress, we're off to a different -- we're off to a different start. we have heard from our teachers, our governors our superintendents o'you're parents that you have to get this done done -- this done. we want the bill to be as much like each one of us would write it as possible, but in the end let's get it done. and so not only do we have a remarkable consensus about the need to fix no child left behind, we have a remarkable consensus about how to do it. i give a great deal of the credit for that to the senator from washington, senator murray, who suggested to me that she and i write a draft bill together, which we did and we presented it to our committee which includes many of the most liberal members of the senate and many of the most conservative members of the senate. we worked through that draft. we considered 58 amendments.

we adopted 29. a majority of those were democratic amendments. and in the end every single member of the committee voted to report it to the floor. that did not mean that every single member of the committee supported every provision in the bill but i think what it meant -- and i asked the members this before they voted -- has it been a fair process, have you had a chance to have your say and is this bill good enough to present to the full senate, and the answer was yes for 22 senators on both sides of the aisle. now we've come to the senate floor, and we've been here about a week. we've adopted already 22 amendments 14 of them are democratic amendments. we have several dozen more amendments that senator murray and i have reviewed with our staffs and we agree with them and we're going to recommend to the full senate that those be adopted by voice vote. they are important amendments, important contributions to the

bill. and weech about two dozen -- and we have about two dozen remaining to go which we need to vote on. we need to do that today and we need to do that tomorrow. there's no need for us to go longer than that. we know what the amendments are. we have time to talk about those amendments on those two days. one or two of those are particularly contentious. we're trying to work those out. and so what i would appeal to my colleagues today is for cooperation. we've had excellent cooperation in the committee. we've had members in the committee who agreed not to offer amendments in the committee because they were told by me and senator murray that they have a chance to offer those amendments on the floor. we intend for them to have that opportunity before we finish this bill. senators on both sides of the aisle exercised restraint in that way in pursuit of a result. most of the members of the united states senate on both sides of the aisle so far in

this debate for the last week have done the same. i would simply ask all the members of the senate on both sides of the aisle the next couple of days to show that same kind of restraint and help us get, help us get a result. there's no need for us to go more than a couple of days. there is no need really for us to have a cloture vote. we should be able to agree the amendments we know about can be scheduled and there can be an adequate time for debate on those, and we can vote on them. and we should be able to do that by unanimous consent. we want senators to have a right to have their say on amendments that are related related to elementary and secondary education. so i thank the majority leader for placing this bill on the floor. i thank the democratic leader for helping to create an environment in which we could succeed. i thank senator murray and her staff and our staff for working with the other senators to get as far as we go. what i would ask our colleagues once again to do is to say our filing deadline is 2:30.

we hope we already have all the amendments. and if everyone will cooperate with us, hopefully the senator from washington and i can present to the leadership a list of amendments, a time agreement for how much debate there should be and we should get started. we ought to be able to have one or two amendments voted on before lunch. and when that's agreed to, we'll let senators know. otherwise i would expect there to be several votes in the afternoon and a great many votes on wednesday. i thank the president and i yield the floor. mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: thank you mr. president. mr. president, at zilla high school in my home state of washington jeff sharbenow who teaches science and engineering classes, nearly half of the students in his school are

struggling with poverty or coming from low-income background. despite the challenges poverty can present for our students, jeff and his colleagues engage their students and work tirelessly to help them succeed and that dedication paid off. zilla high school graduates more than 95% of its seniors and jeff was named national teacher of the year a couple of years ago. but despite all of that success today jeff's school is labeled as failing. the reason? last year washington state lost its waiver from no child left behind requirements, and that means most of the schools in my home state are listed as failing. mr. president, that's not fair to teachers like jeff who pour their energy into making sure students can succeed. it's not fair to washington state parents who are still facing a great deal of uncertainty about their child's school. and it's not fair to students who deserve better than the

current k-12 education law. mr. president, it is time to finally fix the no child left behind. i'm working hard to fix this broken law for teachers in my home state like jeff. i'm working to restore certainty for parents in washington state and across the country because they want to feel confident in the school where they send their child. and i'm working to make sure all students can get a quality education at our public schools no matter where they live or how they learn or how much money their parents make. mr. president, the every child achieves act is our chance to finally fix the current law. it gives states more flexibility while also including federal guard rails to make sure all students have access to a quality public education. and i look forward to making this good bill even better. it is why i'm disappointed with the majority leader's decision last night to file cloture and move towards ending debate on

the bill. we still have several important issues to address. senator franken has an amendment to help protect lgbt students from bullying and discrimination at school, and i think it is an absolutely critical issue. when students do not feel safe at school, we have failed to provide them with the educational opportunities they deserve. and i hope all of our senate colleagues agree we need to protect lgbt students from bullying and discrimination. we also have an amendment to expand access to high-quality early childhood education from senator casey making sure kids can start kindergarten ready to learn. it's one of the best developments we can make to help them -- best investments we can make to help them succeed in school and later in life and i look forward to having that debate here on the senate floor. mr. president, we also need to improve accountability. our bipartisan bill already includes some federal guardrails to help students get access to a

quality education but there is more we can do to strengthen those measures and make sure all kids especially our most vulnerable students, are able to learn and grow and thrive in the classroom. so we have many issues yet to work through concluding debate on this bill. getting this right cannot be more important for students across the country and providing a quality education isn't just good for students today. it's an investment in our future workforce. it's an investment in our future economy. and it will help our country grow stronger. around the country and in my home state of washington, parents, students, teachers and communities are looking to us to fix the no child left behind law. we cannot let them down. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. mr. tester: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. tester: thank you mr. president. first of all before i get into my prepared remarks i just want to say thank you to senator

alexander and senator murray for their great work on this bill. i very, very much appreciate where we're at today and hopefully when the amendments are all done this bill will continue to be a step forward for this country's public education system and the students that are in it. as everybody may know in this body i'm a third-generation farmer from north central montana. my wife and i had the incredible opportunity of farming the same land that my grandfather and grandmother homesteaded and that my folks worked for 35 years. i've been working on the farm since i was very young. and from the age of eighty knew i wanted to be -- from the age of eight i knew i wanted to be a farmer. but my parents were insistent that i work hard in school and that i pursue a degree, even though agriculture was in my blood. they knew that a degree would give me greater opportunity both

on and off the farm. my mother in particular had an unbreakable faith in the power of public education. so i went on to college and after college i graduated and got a degree, started teaching in the same elementary school that i attended as a child. and while my calling as a farmer pulled me away from my time as a public school teacher in rural america, now to be honest with you, the fact is i could make more money in one day of processing meat than i could in a week of teaching school, but that's another problem. nonetheless, i left formal public education classroom but it remained a key part of my life because i knew education was important. my parents instilled that in me. so i ran for the school board and got elected. i have been involved in public education my entire life as a student, as a teacher as a

parent as a school board member as a state senator as a grandfather and now as a u.s. senator. i've seen the positive impact that good education can have on folks' lives and i've seen how our system has failed too many kids. last year denise juneau put out a report on graduation matters. nearly 80% of the male inmates in montana's prison system are high school dropouts. 80% of the male inmates in montana's prison are high school dropouts. nearly three-quarters of the women in montana jails are high school dropouts. the superintendent juneau estimated montana could combine crime reduction savings an additional revenue of over $19 million annually if we just graduated 5% more kids and incarcerated fewer of them. nationally these stakes are just as high. according to some figures over 80% of the incarcerated

population are high school dropouts. it is true that over 8,000 americans drop out of high school each and every day. you can see how quickly the costs of incarceration will add up even if many stay out of trouble and some go back and get their g.e.d. years later. but it's not only the question of incarceration. the only jobs left within reach of a high school dropout are almost always going to be minimum wage or close to it. that perpetuates the cycle of poverty. so every american ought to know what we're up against. and i know that what we do here this week with every child achieves act will affect millions of american families for years to come. for the past few l months the appropriations committee has been working on bills that impact everything from our national defense to veterans to agriculture to access to our public lands. i have been highly critical of where this majority thinks we should spend money and where it thinks we don't need to invest.

my colleagues on the appropriations committee deserve a lot of credit for doing the best they can but the end result is still unacceptable. they have underfunded care for veterans by over $850 million compared to what the v.a. says it needs to keep up with the increased number of veterans accessing the v.a. they have rejected efforts to make head start a full-day, full-year learning initiative. and by freezing head start funding, they risk kicking more than 12,000 kids out of head start, despite the successes i've already told you about prison populations and education. it is a direct connection. and they've cut $500 million out of clean water projects. meanwhile they've funneled $40 billion of borrowed money into an off-the-books account used for overseas military operations. this week as we work to reform elementary and secondary

education, to ensure that our kids and our grandkids are prepared for the challenges of this worldwide economy in which we live, we simply cannot afford to shortchange their future. that doesn't just mean providing the framework that will guide our nation's 100,000 school districts as they work to improve education that our students receive. it also means letting them make decisions for themselves. the schools aren't teaching well. they are accountable to school boards. the school boards are hiring bad teachers or misapplying resources, they're accountable to their voters. and i can tell you as a former school board memorial, they are accountable to their voters. but we also have to provide them with the resources they need to succeed. this is an investment that we must make. almost everyone in this body agrees that education is the single-best investment that we can make to ensure that folks are able to climb the economic ladder and get out of poverty.

while i don't agree with everything in the every child achieves act, i can tell you that it is certainly a step in the right direction. most importantly most importantly, this bill eliminates adequate yearly progress known as a.y.p., and moves us away from some of the failed high-stakes testing that we've come to know. and the chairman and ranking member need to be applauded for that. no child left behind assumed that all students were the same and that success in the classroom in passing a standardized test. we all know that's simply not the case. no child left behind aimed to hold teachers and administrators solely responsible for the performance of their students, and punishment for low performance was rendered in the halls of the department of education here in washington, d.c. yes, i can tell you teachers and administrators must be held accountable, but much of that achievement gap is tied to

things out of the hands of those teachers and administrators. it is tied to what happens outside the classroom. students' lives both inside the classroom and out are significantly different depending on the community and home in which they live and one of the single biggest factors that impact students lives is poverty. if we do not address that issue then this well-intentioned bill will not have the desired effects. if we do not recognize that urban poverty and rural poverty are very different things, then we will fail to keep the promise that in america any kid could grow up to be in the united states senate or to be successful in business or in the arts. quite simply, if we're going to hold teachers and students accountable without addressing the root of some of the inequities in our public schools, then we're not addressing one of the most basic problems that our nation and our schools face. using a single formula to grade

the nation's 100,000 schools didn't work, especially when folks in washington expected schools to change oversight adding so much pressure to reform that some teachers, like students dreaded going to school. we lost a lot of good teachers. senator alexander and senator murray's bill acknowledges that washington doesn't have all the answers when it comes to educating our kids. it puts more control in the hands of the states and those local school boards. for example under no child left behind all 100,000 schools in this country were subject to the same regulation for graduation rates. under that regulation, schools can only count students who graduated with a diploma in four years. school districts don't get credit for students who graduated in five or if they earned a g.e.d. be oftentimes students who take more than four years to graduate had personal or family issues that prevent them from graduating on time. states would have to beg permission from the department of education to count that

five-year graduate, and if the department chose to accept those graduates, it would tell the schools how much weight it would count toward the school's assessment. under the every child achieves act, states will no longer have to apply that fifth year graduate and they can determine on their own how to weigh those students when assessing graduation rates. this bill also builds on the school's initiative that has worked well in montana to put some of our poorest performing schools on the right path. under the leadership of superintendent juneau, the communities that are home to montana's lowest rated public schools have received support to attract and retain better teachers and to encourage community members to be more involved in the education of their children. that model which empowers districts and schools to get better and hire better is being strengthened by the every child achieves act. while this bill can and should go further to place more power at the local level we've taken

a good first step and it has potential to do even better. i recently paid a visit to busbee montana on the border of the indian reservation. beautiful country surrounded by rolling hills. busbee is so small that if you blink, you could miss it. but it is the home to one of montana's three bureau of indian education schools. it is easy to see how america's broken promise to our tribal communities really is when you go to busbee. the school has few resources. the science teacher doesn't have any working microscopes. the teachers often cut pages out of their instruction manuals to make photo copies for the students. and the school needs maintenance. while the scene at many b.i.e. schools would drive you to tears, the public schools that educate over 90% of our native american students are also in serious need of support. over the past decade, american students are the only group they are the only group that

have not seen improvements in reading and math. in fact, the achievement gap in math has actually widened over that time. native american students are also the most likely to skip school or drop out and the least likely to go to college and that's why last week the senate passed my amendments to restore four grant programs that could help improve education in indian country if they get funding. my amendment allows schools and colleges to train teachers to understand native american culture so they are better equipped to help those students succeed, those native american students. it preserves fellowship programs for native american students to get greater hands-on experience through their degree. it protects gifted and talented programs to better address the needs of bright young native american students, and it maintains support for adult literacy and g.e.d. programs in native american communities. those initiatives part of title 7, have never been funded, but they have a major positive

impact for native americans across the country if we could find the money to fund them. last week's bipartisan vote showed that there is real support for these initiatives and we should provide them with adequate resources. dishly this bill includes strong steps toward native language instruction. it's a very good thing because we know that when indian kids learn in their native language, they do better in school and carry their history and tradition on to future generations and they graduate at a higher rate. another important step we can take, one that i hear about often when meeting with parents teachers and administrators back home is reducing the annual federal testing requirement because right now under no child left behind we're testing our kids to death. did you know that a student will take 17 federally mandated tests by the time they graduate high school 17? now, i met with some fourth and

some sixth grade students as well as their teachers and parents about how much testing the fed requires. now, as you well know, fourth and sixth grade students usually tell it like it is. there is not a political agenda behind it when they ask you a question or tell you the way they see it. so when i asked how much testing is the right amount, one bright young girl replied i don't know, but i can tell you now it's too much. a teacher told me that they were spending in fourth grade over four weeks a year testing. let me say that again. a teacher told me they were spending over four weeks a year testing. that's four weeks out of a year that takes away from instruction time where kids could be learning. the level of testing that's currently required is choking out creativity, innovation and taking away from our students' ability to learn.

so i have offered an amendment to replace that current annual testing with fewer tests. instead of taking federally mandated tests every year, students would be required to take one test in elementary, one test in middle school, one test in high school. if states want to test their students more, they can. if school boards want to test their students more, they can. but like the young girl in billings right now we're doing too much. my goal and the goal of many in this body is to give a greater voice to the state and local community leaders to determine how best to educate the next generation. this bill as drafted puts us on that path. it is a chance to leave a better future for our country by making sure that every child, from the best school in the biggest city to the poorest indian reservation in montana has a chance to succeed. and our schools should not be designed as data warehouses where we collect statistics on every student in america.

instead, we should be making sure that our students love to learn so that they continue to learn even after they graduate and enter the work force. we should make sure that they have the same appreciation for education that my mother did. that's what we should be investing in. and that's who we should be investing for. mr. chairman, i once again want to thank senator alexander and senator murray for their work on this bill. i look forward to making this bill better through the amendment process not worse so that we have a good bill to vote on hopefully at the end of this week. thank you mr. chairman. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from south carolina. mr. scott: i rise today regarding my amendment 2132 specifically targeting an opportunity to improve education for those kids attending title one schools. this is a portability amendment. as we debate this education bill we must ensure our focus

is in the right place. education policy is not about protecting a bureaucracy. it should not be about empowering washington. and it cannot be about an endless, fruitless push for some one-size-fits-all type of system. this conversation must be about kids 5-year-olds and 15-year-olds, and their unlimited potential. yes, i believe without question that each and every child has within them a reservoir of poe tension. we should make sure that the access to experiencing the fullness of their potential is available to all americans throughout this country. too many of our nation's children today do not have access to quality education. they don't have access to the

education they deserve. and now more than half of the students in our nation's public schools come from low-income households. this is an important point. as someone who grew up in poverty, someone who grew up in a single-parent household, i know fell well the challenges that come with poverty. poor kids too often move a lot. by the time i was in the fifth grade, i had attended four different schools four schools in my first five years of education. that's four different administrators four different set of teachers, four different funding streams probably 40 different funding streams so when you look at this through the eyes of a poor kid or if you look at this through the eyes of a single mother, struggling simply to make the ends meet, it seems very clear to me that providing more educational

options is the right path forward for us to make sure that every child everywhere, experiences their full potential. giving states the ability to provide portability for the title one dollars school choice for those most in need, is the kind of reform our kids deserve. it's the kind of reform they need. i don't care whether it's public private charter virtual, home school. i don't really care what option, as long as we have all the options, so that the parents find the best for their kids. instead of forcing funds through red tape and bureaucracy let's have it directly follow our students. and we're not talking about all the school funding this amazing nation provides somewhere around

$700 billion of funding for school -- for schools. we're talking about a sliver, about 14%. let that 14% of federal dollars let those dollars be portable. give the children in title one areas the greatest opportunity for success we know as a nation. we all understand and appreciate the fact that to achieve the american dream today it requires a quality education. and by backpacking those funds you hope little kids like i used to be, growing up in difficult circumstances, to look into their own future and to look into that future with hope, understanding that opportunity lives and breathes everywhere in america. we are seeing what happens when the majority of parents simply do not have those basic options and we're seeing it in some

challenging statistics, stunning statistics. in 2010, there were 2.8 million high school dropouts between the ages of 16-24. the unemployment rate, the unemployment rate in america today is around 5.2%. but for those kids who dropped out, the unemployment rate 29%. and nearly 36% more than a third of those students, were not participating at all in the work force. taken as a whole that's nearly two-thirds of all high school dropouts were simply not working. these are devastating devastating numbers for our nation as a whole. no matter where you live in america, you are impacted by these statistics, and they should cause you to stand up and

take notice. these are students who deserve better students who just need a little confidence in their abilities, and we can provide that through school choice. kids these kids, trapped in failing schools underperforming schools, deserve an opportunity. it is simply not fair to our children, not fair to their parents and simply not fair to america to allow the status quo to remain. i know, i know there is no silver bullet, but school choice is a large step, a leap in the right direction. that's one of the reasons why i launched my opportunity agenda, with school choice, the choice act as a part of the foundation, and that's why i'm standing here

today discussing, pleading with my colleagues to take a serious look at the educational opportunities available in some of the poorest zip codes in america. i think it's important to note that my amendment complements a growing body of evidence where we see now 57 school choice programs in 29 states. 57 school choice programs in 29 states not in the south merely. in the south yes. the southwest yes. the northeast absolutely. the midwest yes. local and state leaders are figuring out that when parents have a choice, kids have a chance. let me be crystal clear, it is

absolutely paramount that we act and that we act now. i know that opponents of school choice want to use voucher as a dirty word. i get the tactics for those who do not support giving every child a quality opportunity. i understand. but they forget that the federal government already authorizes vouchers for education. we just call them pell grants. too often too many of our poor kids and our kids of color never receive a pell grant because their high schools did not prepare them for college. now we know that there are quality, quality public schools all over this country. and we should celebrate the success of our quality public schools. i'm a big fan of our public

schools when they work. i'm a bigger fan of the potential trapped inside our kids and underperforming schools. we can make a difference. we should make a difference, and this amendment provides us the opportunity to make that difference today. we don't have to wait until tomorrow. we don't have to wait until next year. we can do it today. you see i took my pell grant to charleston southern. probably the greatest university in the history of the country: charleston southern university, where i took my pell grant to a private school and experienced a

wonderful education. you know, faith and hope are two of the most powerful and necessary emotions. they oftentimes serve as the glue to a better opportunity. we can restore those two powerful emotions in areas where kids too often are losing hope. you see i know that personally. i've seen it happen in my life personally. that's the power of school choice. all of our kids -- yes, all of our kids have amazing potential. and i believe that there are good people on the other side of this argument. i believe that the other side who believe that school choice as i am describing it is wrong i believe that they have good

intentions. i'm just speaking from a personal experience. i'm speaking from the statistical realities that we see across this country. i am speaking on behalf of those kids who have been trapped too long locked out too often said "no" to too many times. it is up to us as policy-makers to create an environment where we unlock their potential. i hope that today we will continue to have a robust debate leaving politics behind and figuring out how to improve educational opportunities for all of our children. thank you, mr. president. ms. warren: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. ms. warren: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that lindsey owens of my staff be

granted floor privileges for the remainder of the 114th congress. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. warren: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, are we -- can i speak now? mr. president, american workers have fought long and hard to improve their lot. banning child labor better safety on the job, minimum wage, an eight-hour work day. unions often led these fights but their efforts also helped tens of millions of workers who have no iewn -- union representation. by 1975 rules protecting the eight-hour work day covered about 65% of all workers. of course those workers might work longer, might be required to work longer, but if they did they got time and a half for their extra hours. now, managers were exempt from those rules but they were paid more to offset the lost overtime. to be sure, american workers did

their part too. year over year, decade over decade workers increased output so that today american workers are among the most productive in the world. the basic eight-hour day with overtime for extra hours was a godsend to families. and in a larger sense it was a core part of the deal that american workers could count on. from the 1930's through the 1970's as american workers' p productivey increased g.d.p. went up as did wages for the average worker. in other words as companies got richer their workers got richer too. this was the america that built the great middle class the america that created opportunity and protected opportunity for nearly two-thirds of all workers. but over time that deal vanished because we haven't meaningfully

updated these rules since the 1970's. instead of two thirds of the workforce being protected today only 8% of all salaried workers are covered. that means that only the lowest-paid workers -- workers whose salaries are so low that they're below the poverty line for a family of four -- are legally entitled to be paid anything for their overtime. today a fast-food worker or a janitor or a grocery store clerk making a little over $23,000 can be classified as a manager and they're required to work 10, 12, 14 hours a day five, six seven days a week with no overtime pay of any kind. today the productivity of american workers continues to rise but the gains go to wall street and to c.e.o.'s and are no longer shared with the people doing much of the backbreaking work to make it happen.

that's a broken system. two weeks ago the president announced he's going to fix these broken overtime rules. the administration's new proposal would raise the salary threshold under which a worker is guaranteed overtime pay to just over $50,000, more than double the current threshold. and roughly back to the 1975 level where both corporations and workers benefited from a growing economy. this matters. according to the white house nearly five million americans including over 100,000 people in massachusetts alone will get a raise. they estimate that workers will see an additional $1.4 billion in wages in just the first year alone. but, boy make no mistake, it will be a fight. some businesses are used to getting an extra 5 10, 20 hours for free from their employees

and they're just fine keeping the rules just the way they are. they will claim that fixing overtime will hurt businesses. well don't believe it. history shows that increases in overtime pay are actually good for the economy. employers usually respond to increases in the overtime threshold in one of three ways: some will actually pay existing employees overtime for the extra work. others will avoid overtime costs by hiring more workers to get the job done. and some will increase the hours of part-time workers. that's what we're likely to get. higher wages more jobs, or more hours for part-time workers. even the national retail federation which has lobbied hard against fixing the overtime rules, admits that this proposal will add tens of thousands of jobs to this economy. we need those jobs.

but this issue is about more than jobs. this issue is also about fairness. if a worker puts in more time and produces more for the company, the worker should get a chance to share in its benefit. no more free work. economic growth over the past three decades has been built on the backs of hardworking people, and it's time those hardworking people get a little bit more of all they've produced. now look, fixing our outdated overtime rules won't end income inequality. it's time to raise the minimum wage. women should get equal pay for equal work. workers deserve paid sick leave and paid family leave. social security should be expanded. but this is an important step forward, a vital piece of the puzzle that will increase wages increase hours and increase employment for millions of americans. and it's a step that will show

that the government can be made to help working people. there are plenty of examples of washington writing rules that favor the rich and the powerful, but this time we've got an overtime rule that will give working families a fighting chance to build some security for themselves. the president has proposed a new rule to benefit working families and the rest of us are here today ready to fight for that rule. thank you, mr. president. i yield. mr. alexander: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: mr. president we're continuing discussion of legislation to fix no child left behind. we're still hopeful that we may have agreement to have votes one or two votes before lunch. i would remind senators that we've -- because of their cooperation, we've done pretty well. we've adopted 29 amendments in

committee, 22 already on the floor. senator murray and i have a large number of other amendments we're prepared to recommend to the full senate be adopted by consent. we have about two dozen amendments on which we'd like to have a vote today and tomorrow. so the sooner we can move to those, the better, which will take some cooperation from all all senators. senator tester, the senator from montana, was here earlier. i want to thank him for his comments. he's a former school board member. he recognized that the idea that we want to restore responsibility for student achievement to local school boards to classroom teachers, to states, to chief state school officers is not just a republican idea. it is a bipartisan consensus. we agree we want to know whether the children are learning or

not, but we want to restore to the states decisions about what to do about the results of the tests that the students take. as the new york principal of the year wrote to us, wrote to our committee, we cherish our children too. what she was saying was just because we fly to washington once a week doesn't make us any more caring, any wiser about how to deal with 50 million children and 100,000 public schools from native villages in alaska to the mountains of tennessee. in fact, we're less able to deal with that because we're further removed from those students. the senator from south carolina, senator scott made that point eloquently. he said school choice is not a political slogan. school choice is an option and that we should look at it from the point of view of a of

someone who is low-income or someone who is growing up in a home with a single parent, which he did. he talked from his own perspective. we shouldn't look down. we should be looking up look up at opportunity. look up at the point of view of a single parent with less income and one or more children who's thinking how can i help my children rise. how can they look up? and probably the one thing that almost all of us would agree on is the better educational opportunity that child has the more chance that child has to climb the ladder. if you have money in your family, you have those choices. you may move to a different part of town or you may choose a private school if you have the money. if you don't have the money you don't have the choices. and so what senator scott proposes to do is to take $14

billion of federal funding and allow states -- this is not a mandate on states. this will be up to the state. and allow states to say that money can follow the low-income child to the school the child's parent wants it to attend, public or private. mr. president, there is often a lot of talk about what is the proper role for federal government for education. some people don't think there is any. i was in that camp. probably still am if i were the king. i remember going to see president reagan in the early 1980's and suggesting the federal government get completely out of elementary and secondary education let the states do it all. in exchange, the federal government would take all of medicaid. that would have been a good swap for the states, and it would have been good for education but that's not where we are as a country today. but if someone were to say what is the single reason why the federal government ought to have something to do with education one answer would be, well, to

prevent discrimination and another answer would be to help low-income children. what's the best way to help a low-income child? well the senator from south carolina is saying why don't we take the money we have got available and let it follow that child to the school that the child's parent thinks is best? that's what we allow the wealthier parent to do. why don't we do it for the child? why don't we send it through bush administrations and let other people make that decision? why do we look down when instead we should be looking up? as he also pointed out it's not such an alien thought this idea of legislate money follow a student to a school. he pointed out that since 1944, with the g.i. bill for veterans, we've had great success in this country with allowing federal dollars to follow students to the college of their choice. in fact, the g.i. bill for veterans is often described as

the most successful social piece of legislation in our country's history. it helped create the greatest generation, it said you can take your pell grant or your student loan to notre dame, to the university of arizona to maryville college in tennessee. you could go to howard university. that's your choice, public, private, nonprofit you go. if it's accredited, that's your choice. we also have vouchers, and that's a voucher, at the other end of the scale. we have something called a child care development block grant. it's a pretty big federal program, maybe $8 billion. it says to low-income mothers mainly mothers that here is a voucher which you can spend at a daycare center while you work or while you go to school so that you can earn enough money so that you won't have to have a government voucher anymore. so we have vouchers for parents with 3 and 4 and 5 and 6-year-olds. we have vouchers for students

who are 18, 19, 20 and 21 years old. and somehow we think there's something wrong with having vouchers for elementary and high school students. that line is changing all the time. i was in jackson tennessee recently and the president of the jackson state community college told me that 30% of the students of the jackson state community college are also in high school. we call that dual enrollment. that means while you're a junior or senior in high school, you might be taking physics or mathematics or some program at the community college or some apprenticeship there that might better prepare you for a job. at walter state community college in morristown, tennessee, i spoke at the graduation this year. a student there was graduating from jefferson county high school and walter state community college in the same week. that student had -- was going on to perdue university but he was going to enter purdue at the second semester of his senior --

of his sophomore year. in other words because he had been in both community college and the high school, he was able to save, he said, $65,000 by enrolling in the second semester of the senior year. so we have a voucher to helping pave his low-income to go to walter state community college but somehow there is a voucher that's wrong to allow him to choose among the public high schools that he attends. that doesn't make a lot of sense based upon our history. it would be rare that we have a social experiment or social legislation offered in our country where we have such two good pilot programs, the g.i. bill for veterans operating since 1944, the child care development block grant operating since the first president bush was in office, and reauthorized just last year by congress. we all vote for pell grant vouchers, we all vote for child care block grant vouchers, and then we have a big argument when it comes time to talk about vouchers for elementary and

secondary education. i think a way to resolve that is to take senator scott's advice. instead of looking down on the students, let's look up. let's look up from the perspective of senator scott the senator from south carolina when he was a child when he was growing up in a home without much money, with a single parent with limited educational options. he knows the value and option that a pell grant gave him for college. he would like to extend that option to elementary and secondary education for students who grow up as he grew up, and i would like to do that as well. we have an opportunity to do that by voting for his amendment when it comes time for a vote on this bill. i intend to vote yes and i hope my colleagues will, too. mr. president, i notice the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. casey: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: i would ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. casey: thank you mr. president. i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment and call up casey amendment number 2151 the strong start for america's children act an amendment to the every child achieves act that will establish a federal-state partnership to provide access to high-quality public pre-kindergarten education for low and moderate income families, and i would ask unanimous consent as well to add senators tester, reed of rhode island klobuchar and merkley as cosponsors. the presiding officer: is there objection to setting aside the pending amendment? mr. alexander: mr. president reserving the right to object,

mr. president, this is a very important amendment that was thoroughly discussed in the education committee when we considered this legislation. both senator murray and i believe it should be offered on the floor and that senators should have a chance to vote on it. the trouble is that the finance committee objects to the way it's paid for and in a moment on behalf of the chairman, senator hatch from utah, i will have to object, but my hope would be that the senator from pennsylvania who's a member of that committee, could work with the chairman and the ranking member to come up with a different way of paying for the bill so that senators would have a chance to vote on this important amendment today or tomorrow. so i object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. is there objection to adding the

cosponsors? mr. casey: mr. president just by way of response, i understand what my colleague from tennessee just mentioned as it relates to the objection to the so-called pay-for. i don't agree obviously for a couple of reasons. number one is i would hope that corporations who -- who get the benefit of retaining a lot of operations here in the united states and then seek to avoid taxes by so-called inversion that they would understand, i believe, the duty they have to this country the benefit from our workers our infrastructure, they benefit in so many ways, i would hope that those companies would understand and senators here would agree with the notion that they should have -- they should undertake the duty to -- to pay their fair share.

i understand that there is a debate about that. i understand that there is an objection, but i would hope that at some point we can get to the resolution of a basic question -- are we going to require companies to do more if they seek to engage in a tax avoidance scheme by so-called inversion. but i -- i respect what my colleague said, and we'll try to move forward constructively. mr. alexander: i have nothing more. i will yield to my colleague from new york. the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mr. schumer: thank you and first i want to commend my friend and colleague from pennsylvania, senator casey for his amendment and i appreciate the discussion between him and the chair of the committee.

i think that getting rid of these inversions is very important. i'm surprised people on the other side don't want to do it, but so be it. funding this program is the most important way and if we can come up with a way a bipartisan way to get the funding, that will help millions of american young children. educating our children and that's why i support this amendment so strongly. educating our children, mr. president, is not a sprint it's a marathon. no one just gets up one day and decides to run a marathon. they plan, they train heat right. we can avoid the most common problems if we start our kids out early with the right training. not just for some but for every student. the research has shown that children no attend high yowl preschool programs are more likely to be prepared for school and graduate on time. they're less likely to end up in the criminal justice system or

alie on the safety net. all too often we do what many groups, corporations and others in america do, we're unwilling to think of the long term. we may be spending a dollar today on this program but we're going to save tens of dollars for each dollar we spend over the long run. all the studies show it. so having quality pre-k programs for kids who need it is a great investment in america. and yet millions of middle-class and low-income children don't have access to these programs that would provide an immense benefit to them and our country. in short mr. president pre-k should not be a luxury for the wealthy. every child no matter where they live or how much money their parents make should be able to start their education in pre-k. for the good of them, for the goods of their families and for the good of america. senator casey's amendment helps us get there by helping states fund high-quality kindergarten -- prekindergarten for 4-year-olds from low- and

moderate-income families. it specifies all preschools be inclusive of children with disabilities and addresses the need for increased funding to support the needs and as i said nothing wrong with doing inversions it's the right thing to company do getting rid of them but if there's another way to do it, i'm certainly open to it and i know senator casey is, too. and, by the way, so we'll see where the pay-for is. but it's the kind of win-win that everyone can get behind and so i hope that my colleagues will come together and fully pay for this, if we can't do it with inversions which i think is right, i think most americans would think is right closing the inversion loophole, let's find something else. if new york there are cities and communities that are already making the investment to ensure access to pre-k for their children. it's working. but at a time when budgets are tight they shouldn't have to do it alone. under this amendment new york would receive the support it needs to serve an additional

137,000 kids over five years. states across the country would be able to help a similar number of their schoolchildren. all without costing the federal government a single plug nickel. as we debate how to ensure kids are ready for college and careers, we do them a disservice if we neglect to invest in early childhood education. i thank senator casey for offering this amendment. i urge my colleagues to vote on it in the only form, stand up against these inversions. but if that vote fails to have a vote to have a different proposal would be a good thing to do although i think we should have a vote on this particular amendment first. i'd like to just speak for a minute with the indulgence of my colleagues on the title 1 cuts that senator burr has offered with respect to title 1 funding which, of course, provides assistance to cools -- low-income schools and districts and schools that educate a high number of low-income children.

we can't forget that title 1 is the largest source of federal education funding and applies to a wide swath of school districts, includes many suburban middle-class communities as well as cities where poverty is concentrated. you you might say well, you know this only affects the poor. it doesn't. because if a school is going to lose its title 1 funding they may have to do it and spend the money on their own and take the money away from science or after school or sports or something else. so it affects everybody even though the title 1 since the days of lyndon johnson was aimed at poor kids, it's going to hurt everybody if we make the kind of drastic cuts in so many school districts that the senator from north carolina has proposed. what burr's amendment would do what not increase funding which is what we usually do around here when we want to try to change formulas as we should he simply robs peter to pay paul. it takes away money from a needy school in one state to give to a

needy school in another state. according to the congressional research service over 9,600 school districts across opportunity will lose title 1 funding under this amendment. and these schools count on title 1 funds year in,if year out. they budget for it, without the funding they could be forced to lay off teachers, cut after-school programs and make other dramatic cuts. so it's no answer. redistributing a limited pie is no way to make federal policy -- one of my disappointments with this bill, mr. president, is every american supporting increased funding in education particularly in things like title 1. the bill doesn't do it. at a time when america is competing against china and japan, against europe, against the world we're saying we shouldn't help with education? which is the ladder up for so many millions of american families. but we're not. but then to say while keeping the funding flat, we should

take huge amounts of money $300 million from my state away and give it to other states. to help the poor when, in fact, it doesn't even require that that money goes to the needy. that doesn't make much sense in my opinion. and that's not the way to legislate. mr. president, we should have a real conversation about our federal investment in education. one that recognizes that all of our school districts with low-income student populations would benefit from additional resources. one in which my colleagues across the aisle are fopped of saying in a different context we're not picking winners and losers. i think we would agree all of our low-income school districts need and deserve extra help. in conclusion, mr. president education is the cornerstone of the american dream. we need to keep that dream alive and there's no better way than funding education. i know my colleagues believe that. i hope my colleagues will oppose

senator burr's amendment to change the title 1 formula without increased support. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: i thank the senator from new york for his remarks. i know how passionately he feels about the amendment from the senator from north carolina, he's made that clear to me on more than one -- on more than one occasion and my hope would be that the senator from new york, the senator from north carolina could have a successful resolution of of that difference of opinion in the next day or two and i'll be glad and i know senator murray will be glad to work with them to try to do that. i hear him loud and clear and i appreciate him coming to the floor and making those statements. mr. schumer: if the gentleman would yield. i thank my colleague from tennessee and i know how much he both cares about this bill and education, i look forward to education this bill as good a bill as we possibly can make it.

and so i'm always open to any suggestion that he might make. mr. alexander: i thank the senator from new york. he has not been on the floor in the past at the beginning of the day, i've thanked both the majority leader and the democratic leader for their attitude toward this bill. while it's probably not noticed by people around the country it's noticed here. the democratic leader and the democratic leadership of which the senator from new york is a part allowed this bill to come to the floor without any delay. we have had a chance to offer and consider a lot of amendments. we've considered and adopted 22 on the floor already. senator murray and i have several dozen more that we will recommend to the full senate to be adopted and we have with about two dozen others that we would like to begin voting on soon. we seem to be moving, senators are cooperating there has been some developments this morning that are encouraging and i hope to be able within the next

few minutes to announce that we'll have a few votes, one or two -- one to four votes before lunch and that we'll have more votes at 4:00, but i'm not able to to make that agreement yet but for the information of senators that's our hope. and then tomorrow if we continue on this path we'll have a large number of -- large number of votes. i thank the senator for their cooperation. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: just a point of clarification. i may have said amendment number 215-something. it's 2152. i would yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. mr. vitter: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. vitter: thank you mr. president. i rise again for my sanctuary cities amendment and urge us to come together around sensible

legislation that will stop jurisdictions around the country from opposing and not following what is already federal law. mr. president, as you know, federal law is very clear. it says deportation and immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, but local law enforcement authorities need to properly cooperate with federal authorities regarding that. it doesn't mean they need to take it over or take on huge burdens or unfunded mandates, it does mean they need to properly cooperate with federal authorities. for several years mr. president, as you know, there have been hundreds if not thousands of so-called sanctuary cities in other jurisdictions around the country that have formal policy that is completely at odds with that.

these policies in various rather jurisdictions like the city of san francisco say straight out we're not going to cooperate in any meaningful way with federal immigration enforcement. i think that's flat-out ridiculous mr. president and tragically it leads to dangerous situations and horrible results. we saw one of those dangerous situations and horrible results just in the last few weeks with the murder of a completely innocent woman in san francisco by an illegal alien who had been convicted of felonies seven times, deported five times and released onto the streets of san francisco in part because of san francisco's sanctuary city policy. this absurdness, political correctes gone haywire to the

detriment, to -- detriment to the danger of american citizens has to end and that's why several years ago i brought legislation to the senate beginning in 2009 to put deet in what is already -- teeth in what is already federal law to put consequences when jurisdictions like san francisco don't properly cooperate with federal authorities over immigration enforcement. unfortunately, that has been blocked and blocked and blocked in the senate. i brought the same proposal as an amendment to the education bill on the floor now to revisit this issue to urge us to come together around sound sensible policy that ends sanctuary cities flaunting federal law and creating very dangerous situations and i urge my colleagues to come around a

commonsense solution to that. i've cooperated, fully cooperated with senator alexander, who has been the floor leader on this important education bill, and as part of that i agreed not to demand a vote on that amendment here on the floor this week if our judiciary committee the appropriate committee of jurisdiction takes up the issue in a timely way. and we reached that agreement just yesterday with senator grassley the chair of judiciary, that a vitter bill on this topic would be taken up appropriately at a markup of the judiciary committee this work period. well mr. president that's certainly progress, and so let's use this opportunity to make real progress and end sanctuary cities flaunting federal law and not properly

cooperating with immigration enforcement. let's come together around a strong, meaningful bill that doesn't allow that that puts consequences and teeth in present federal law that says local law enforcement has to properly cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. i very much look forward to doing that in the judiciary committee, the committee of jurisdiction thanks to the work of senator alexander and the agreement of senator grassley to take up this measure to work with me and have a markup this work period. i very much look forward to that being a very constructive path forward. if for any reason it's not i'll certainly be back. i'll certainly be back directly on the floor in the context of a highway bill or some other significant piece of legislation. because we can't allow this

ridiculous political correctness to continue to create truly dangerous situations in communities all over the country. federal law requires right now local law enforcement to properly cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. the problem is, there are no teeth in that law and that law is ignored flaunted all the time by many jurisdictions which advertise, which brag about their so-called sanctuary city policy. we will not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement in any way. really? seven-time convicted felon five-times deported from the country, and then once he was back in, still released onto the streets of san francisco to commit murder? rulereally?

that's really going to be your policy? and if it is, is it really going to be our response that we do absolutely nothing about it? so mr. president i urge appropriate action. i urge us coming together around commonsense change and reform to end this all-too-pervasive practice and i look forward to starting that very constructive path forward in the judiciary committee with the markup of the vitter bill. i'm already working with senator grassley and his staff this work period. thank you mr. president. i yield the floor. mr. alexander: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator tennessee. mr. alexander: i would like to say through the chair to the senator from louisiana two things. one is, i understand his passion on this issue. i've heard him speak about it. he's -- he's talked to us last week about how best to express that on the senate floor. there are a number of senators

who share his view on that, and he is a member of the judiciary committee and will have an opportunity to deal with it when the committee does work next week. the second thing i'd like to say to him through the chair is i agreat a appreciative the -- i greatly appreciate the way he's hand ldzhandled this. he not only gave us advance notice of his interest in this amendment last week, he's worked with the judiciary committee to find a way to move ahead on his interest without interfering with the progress of our bill to fix no child left behind. i'm not surprised by that, because he's made a major contribution to the bill to fix no child left behind; specifically we've adopted his language -- or, some of his language that would end the common-core mandate stop washington d.c., from telling louisiana, arizona tennessee washington state what its academic standard would have to

be. if a state wants to an academic standard it can have it. if it doesn't want it, it doesn't have to have that particular standard. so the fact that the senator has been willing to say, this is a very important issue and i worked with senator grassley in the judiciary committee and pursue it there leaves us free to move ahead on fixing no child left behind, which is foreign his state as well as to all -- which is important to his state as well as to all other states. so i greatly appreciate the way he's handled that and thank him for doing that. we're still hoping, mr. president, to have -- to consider three or four amendments and perhaps have one roll call vote before lunch but we'll know more about that within the next few minutes. i yield the floor. and i notice the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: mr. president i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: mr. president as we continue to debate this bipartisan bill to fix thed the badly broken no child left behind law i want to take a step back to lay out why this is so important. first of all the idea of a strong public education for all children is part of who we are as a nation. it is sewn into the fabric of america. providing a quality education is also an economic imperative. when all of our students have a chance to learn we strengthen our future workforce and that helps our country grow stronger. and we empower the next

generation of americans to lead the world. education is like insurance for our nation's future economic competitiveness in the years to come. it opens up more opportunities for more students and it helps our economy grow from the middle out, not just the top down. and, mr. president one of the best ways i believe we can strengthen our education system is by making sure more students start kindergarten ready to learn. so as we work to fix the no child left behind, we also have the opportunity to expand access to high-quality early childhood education and set standards on a path to success. i'm very proud of the bipartisan early learning grants that we secured in the base of this bill and i think we should continue to build on that bipartisan progress, to make sure more students have access to high-quality early learning programs. that is exactly what senator casey's amendment would do, and i urge my colleagues to support it. first of all it's important to

understand why early learning is essential. learning begins at birth. research suggests that before children set foot in kindergarten they've already developed a foundation that will determine all of the learning, health and behavior that follows. early learning programs can strengthen that foundation so more students can start their k-12 education on strong footing. preschool programs can be especially important for students from low-income backgrounds. a child growing up in poverty will hear 30 million fewer words by her third birthday compared to a child from a fluent family. biby the time she starts -- by the time she starts kindergarten, the deck will be stacked against her and her future success. studies have confirmed both the short- and long-term benefits of quality early learning. children who attend preschool are less likely to repeat a

grade, they are less likely to drop out of school, depend on social safety net programs or commit a crime and they're more likely to go to college and earn higher wages. research suggests that we give back $7 to $8 for every dollar we invest in high-quality preschool programs. simply put early learning is one of the smartest investments we can make four our families, our -- for our families, our children and our country. but today just 13% of our 3-year-old in america aren rolled in federal or state-funded preschool programs. if we are serious about closing education gaps in grades k-12 and if we are truly committed to making sure all students have the chance to succeed, we have to invest in quality early education. mr. president, i was pleased that during the committee debate on this bill we were able to

pass a bipartisan amendment for early childhood education and i want to thank my colleague senator isakson for working with me to include that in the committee markup. throughout this process i've appreciated the way he's worked with me on a bipartisan basis to improve the legislation before us. our amendment, which is now part of the base bill we're considering, would create a grant program for states that want to improve early childhood education coordination, quality and access. it would target resources to low- and moderate-income families. states that want to serve families from birth would be eligible. and it would help support the work that states like mine are already doing to make sure that more of our youngest learners have access to preschool. these grants will help schools improve the quality of their early childhood system. mr. president, while many a very

proud of what we've achieved in this base bill on early childhood education, this is not the last step we need to take to improve and expand access to high-quality preschool. the grants are a step in the right direction but we need to significantly increase investments to ensure that ever child in this country starts kindergarten ready to succeed. my colleague the senior senator from pennsylvania, offered an amendment that would expand access to high-quality preschool programs. it would provide federal funding to every state that commits to improve access to high-quality learning opportunities for all of our low- and moderate-income 4-year-olds and for states that already meet that goal, it will help them offer preschool to 3 3-year-olds. with preschool development grants these states will be able to build up their early learning systems. the amendment also provides

funding for early head start and child care partnerships to improve the quality of child compare for infants -- child care for infants and toddlers. and finally his amendment recognizes the importance of a maternal infant and early childhood visiting program which i helped to create to deliver voluntary parent and family support services to parents with young children. mr. president, inl i'm glad to say that amendment would be fully paid for by closing a wasteful cooperate tax loophole. our tax code is riddled with a lot of wasteful loopholes and special interest carve-outs and far too many are skewed too benefit the wealthiest americans and biggest corporations. some of my republican colleagues today objected to bringing his amendment up solely because it would close one -- one of those corporate tax loopholes. it is disappointing that they are choosing the biggest

corporations over our youngest learners. now, i urge our senate to consider this amendment. i support it because i believe investing in our youngest learners is so important for our children and their families, and it is one of the smartest investments we can make so students can start kindergarten ready to learn and succeed later in life. i don't believe this is a partisan issue. when i've talked to share riches in my state -- sheriffs in my state, they tell us that the young people they bring into the police station might have chosen a better path in life had they had a stronger start in school. that's why law enforcement officials across the country want congress to expand early learning. military leaders have stressed the importance of recallly learning investment -- early learning investments. a the a senate hearing last -- at a snaft hearing last year, douglas pierce said, how we prepare our youngest kids to learn and succeed has a profound impact on our military

readiness. business leaders have called on congress to support preschool programs. why? because they need the students of today to be able to create and take on the jobs of 21st century global economy. lawmakers from red states and blue states alike see early learning as a wise investment. alabama, kansas, michigan -- states with republican governors and republican-controlled legislatures -- have recently made strong investments in early learning. so mr. president it's timer now that the -- it's time now that the u.s. senate catch up with what state lawmakers business leaders, law enforcement officials and military leaders recognize: we need to invest in recallly childhood education so all of our students can start school ready to learn. you know, the importance of early childhood education is something i've actually witnessed firsthand. before i every thought of running for elected office, i taught free preschool. i remember the first day with

new students. it would always start the same way. some kids would not even know how to hold a pencil or turn a page in a book. but over the first few months they'd kawch. they learned how to line up for recess. by the time they left for kinder gatten, they had basic -- kindergarten they had basic skills. i have seen the tran formation that early learning can inspire. if we are serious about strengthening our education system, we have got to make sure more children have the chaiens to get a strong start in preschool. reauthorizing this education bill, we have the chance to help more students start kin gear garten ready to learn p. with the amendment that senator casey offers, we have the opportunity to set kids 0en a path towards success not just in grade school but into adulthood. and we have the chance to fortify our economic competitiveness for years to

come. i urge my colleagues to support his amendment to support this bill that already contains bipartisan recallly learning grants -- early learning grants and then take a step further and support the casey amendment. thank you mr. president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from ten tennessee. lockboxmr. alexander: i have five requests for committees to meet during the senate today. i ask that the requests be agreed to and the requests being printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: mr. president i would say to the senator, we

are hoping to be able to lock in an amendment but ware not quite -- but we're not quite ready yet. and so what i might do is request ask him to yield during his speech so that we can do that before lunch. i would say to the senator through the chair we look forward to his remarks. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. mr. schatz: i ask unanimous consent to speak as though in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schatz: mr. president, i want to join my colleagues in voicing my support for president obama's proposal to extend overtime benefits to nearly five million people across the country. these new rules will significantly enhance family budgets and add over $1.2 billion nationwide to workers' pockets.

one simple -- once implemented, the proposal would more than double the salary threshold for overtime eligibility from the current level of $455 per week to $970 per week next year. that means employees earning an annual salary around $50,000 or less will automatically become eligible for overtime pay. today the annual salary threshold for earning overtime pay is around $24,000. this is well below the poverty level for a family of four, particularly so for families in hawaii. the overtime salary threshold is long overdue for an update. since 1975, it's been updated only once. 40 years ago nearly two in three employees benefited from overtime pay. two in three. today it is one in nine. i appreciate the priority that this administration and especial ly secretary perez have placed on work and family

issues policies that directly impact the lives of average americans. according to the department of labor, approximately 20,000 workers in hawaii would become eligible for overtime pay with this rule change. by increasing the overtime salary threshold current employees would be able to earn more money and employers could hire more workers creating more jobs for our economy. our housing transportation and food costs in hawaii have made hawaii one of the most expensive places to live in the country. the high cost of living requires requires a large percentage of people in hawaii to work more than one job. the new overtime rules could allow workers to make a livable wage with one job. and if a worker is able to live without the need for a second or third job it creates more employment opportunities for individuals struggling with unemployment or underemployment to find work.

the potential change in overtime rules can offer more than financial benefits to americans. if a business doesn't want to pay overtime, then employees' hours would be limited to 40 hours a week. since they are salaried and not paid by the hour, they would have more time off with no loss of pay. this would allow individuals to better balance their work and family obligations and give them the opportunity to spend more time with their families, a chance to volunteer in their community, or perhaps further their education. the new rules would be subject to a 60-day public comment period and encourage my constituents from hawaii to let their voices be heard. this change in recovery time rules is appropriate and will -- overtime rules is appropriate and will lift our economy, offer families more choices and foster greater fairness in the workplace. thank you mr. president and i yield the floor.

i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: for the information of senators, i'm about to ask for a unanimous consent agreement. the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. alexander: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: for the information of senators, i am about to ask for consent which i expect to receive to have two roll call votes and two voice votes before lunch. and so i now -- i will now do that. i ask unanimous consent that at noon -- at 12:10 the senate vote in relation to the following amendments, scott 2132 booker 2169, portman

2137 bennet 2159, further at 4:00 p.m. today the senate vote in relation to the following amendments jackson 2194, bennet 2210, lee 2162, franken 2093 with no second-degree amendments in order to any of the amendments prior to the votes, that there be two minutes equally divided prior to each vote with four minutes prior to the vote on the franken amendment and all after the first vote be ten mint votes the scott and frank votes be subject to a 60 affirmative vote threshold for adoption and that it be in order to call up any amendments in the list not currently pending. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered.

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. bennet: thank you mr. president. i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: we're not in a quorum call. mr. bennet: thank you mr. president. i ask consent to set aside the pending amendments and all call up the following amendments en bloc on behalf of senator booker amendment 2169, bennet amendment 2159 and bennet amendment 2110. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the amendments by number. the clerk: the senator from colorado mr. bennet, proposes amendments number 2169, 2159 and 2210. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: i call up

amendment 2137. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from tennessee, mr. alexander for mr. portman, proposes amendment numbered 2137 to amendment number 2189. mr. alexander: i ask unanimous consent the reading of the amendment be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: i notice the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. alexander: i notice -- i ask consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: i yield back time on the first amendment. the presiding officer: all time is yielded back. the question is on the scott amendment number 2132. mr. alexander: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

irk vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or change their vote? if not on this vote the yeas are 45, the nays are 51. under the previous order requiring 60 votes for the adoption of this amendment the amendment is not agreed to. there are now two minutes of debate prior to a vote on the booker amendment number 2169. mr. alexander: mr. president the senate is not in order. the presiding officer: can we have order. the chamber will come to order. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. booker: i rise today in support of my amendment which i'm offering with senator inhofe with senator grassley, senator ayotte and senator wyden. the homeless youth population is at an all-time high in our country, for one in 45 children

or 1.6 million children are homeless in the united states every year. homeless students experience a significant educational disruption and only about 11.4% are proficient in math, 14.6% proficient in reading compared to their peers. homeless students are twice as likely as nonhomeless students to have to repeat a grade be expelled or drop out of high school. there are more than half a million foster children as well in the united states and foster children also have challenges and are not likely to be on grade level more likely to change schools during the academic year and more likely to crop out of high school. 67% of inmates in our state prisons are high school dropouts a disproportionate share come from these backgrounds. our amendment is simple. it adds a simple reporting for the graduation rates for homeless and foster youth to the state and school district report cards so we can begin to focus in on this important population that we should not leave behind. it provides --.

the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. mr. booker: i'd like to ask unanimous consent for 18 more seconds. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. booker: this amendment rides essential information for educators, policymakers and the public in improving the educational outcomes for these students. thank you. i would like to yield back three seconds. mr. alexander: mr. president the senate is not in order. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: i'd like to commend the senator from new jersey for his passion for education but suggest that i'm going to vote no because this amendment is premature. it's another burden on states it adds -- it adds reporting requirements instead of reducing reporting requirements, it adds two new subgroups for every school in the country, there are 100,000 of those. these populations are difficult to track due to the transinternature of the population. for foster youth, school

districts are poorly equipped to do it, probably child welfare agencies what do better. what we should be doing is recognizing we do not need a national school board this is a good argument but it should be made to the local school board or to the state school board. we do not need another federal mandate on 100,000 local schools. that's exactly the wrong direction for us to go. i urge a "no" vote. the presiding officer: question is on the amendment. mrs. murray: i asker to the yeas and nays. mr. alexander: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: on the portman amendment number 2137. vote: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: this is amendment 2137. it's about college -- early college high schools. this is working incredibly well throughout the country. both to increase graduation rates in high school, which is part of the objective of this legislation, but also to get them not just into college but to stay in college. all the experience indicates this. i had a recent opportunity to visit the dayton early college high school, the academy. 100% of their graduates from a

low-income area, almost every single student first generation college, are going either to college or into the military, and their retention rate in college is incredibly impressive. so this amendment encourages more of this. the early college high schools are working. it's part of the reform effort that's being undertaken in my state and others, and i strongly encourage a yes vote. a senator: mr. president? mr. president, i'm honored to join with the senator from ohio in cosponsoring this amendment. i, too have recently visited an early college high school in my home state the delaware state college, our historically black college. mr. coons: it has shown real promise in terms of access affordability, college colleagues and i urge an aye vote from my colleagues. the presiding officer: the question is on the amendment. all in favor say aye. those opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the amendment is agreed to.

there are now two minutes of debate prior to a vote on the bennet amendment number 2159. mrs. murray: mr. president we yield back our time. mr. alexander: we yield back. the presiding officer: all time is yielded back. the question is on the amendment. all in favor say aye. those opposed no the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the amendment is agreed to. mr. alexander: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: that concludes the votes for now. we're moving along very well. we expect to have votes at 4:00 p.m. today on amendments by senators isakson bennet, lee and franken. we may have other votes. senator murray and i have a number of amendments that senators have suggested to us. we'd like to move on through them today and tomorrow.

the presiding officer: under the previous order the senate stands in recess from reporters on the issue.

having to issue. having to impose politics saying crux and congress are serious about the iran deal. there's not much they can do to stop it. roll call reports boehner, house speaker hates the iran deal, but doesn't matter. can we do anything about it. on the israeli benjamin netanyahu says israel is not gone because they seek our destruction. yuki drazen reporting the iran president hasan rouhani wants to ignore the zionist regime of israel. one firm susan crabtree with the "washtington examiner." republicans considering an august hearing on the iran deal. we also heard from house members this morning they had their own part to hearing that you can find a c-span.org appeared here with some of the people involved come a number of experts say about what is in the deal. find the text of the deal.

"washington post" has that as well. we'll take a look at what the president said earlier today some of the presidential candidates as well. first, let's take a look at a couple of questions we have from a reporter in capitol hill an interview earlier with cq rollcall's rachel overmyer. rachel oswalt joins us. she is a foreign-policy reporter and she's going to give us some insight on the iran nuclear agreement that was reached earlier this morning here thanks for joining us. now that the nuclear agreement has been reached, what is the process for congressional review and whether they will approve or disapprove of the deal. >> well, the senate armed services foreign relations and the counterpart will hold a series of briefings with administration officials and outside x yours. we can anticipate some classified briefing for lawmakers to heal from the

administrations officials about the deal and then i think we can see three things happen in the 60 days congress have too reviewed the deal. they could have the 60 days go by and do nothing. they could take up a resolution approving the deal which is unlikely considered republicans hold both houses of congress and have come out mostly against the deal. a third option is congress would take up a resolution disapproval and passé. at that time the obama administration would have 12 days to veto the resolution, sending it back to congress and congress would have 10 days to override the veto. we will not see this fully resolved until the fall. >> rachel what are the key points we can focus on in this deal? >> one thing of increasing importance as the announcement that u.n. security council conventional sanctions on banning exports of weapons to iran but a less than five years

in the deal and the sanctions on the export of ballistic missile technology will be lifted within eight years. the president had previously said if you would consider nuclear sanctions by some in congress are likely to say missiles should not be listed as part of the deal, so there could be controversy with that and it will be interesting to see whether that's way some democrats previously declared position whether they will come out against the deal. >> he wrote about president obama, he would veto any legislation that blocks the iran deal. what can you tell us from the white house angle? >> the veto threat was long assumed. it essentially has always had the upper hand here. what congress did was give themselves a little bit more authority to review the deal.

but in order to stop the deal from going forward, to stop the listing of congressionally imposed sanctions will require the house and senate to have a two thirds majority to overcome the veto. that is pretty difficult. we saw shortly after the april announced was 150 house democrats signed a letter saying that so long as the final deal follows the framework of the april agreement they would stand with the president helping him to hold a veto. so it is going to be pretty hard for opponents of the deal to actually block it. it is not impossible, but it will be pretty hard. >> was focusing on lawmakers chair of the foreign relations committee, bob corker and the ranking member bob cardin -- ben cardin. what have many other democrats

or republicans? >> senator corker came out with a statement saying he was deeply skeptical in general a deal with iran would hold. he didn't completely condemn the deal, but he said he wanted to thoroughly review it and hold hearings on the matter. i do not know what benjamin cardin said about the deal yet. >> what is the timetable? when will they see the text of the deal and moving forward, what is the timeframe? >> according to a statement released by the iranians in european members we should see the full text of the deal released later today. i don't know if that means it will be formally sent to congress that it should be available online domain text and technical annexes. >> rachel oswald common lot of information. we'll keep following you on twitter. we will see you at@rachel oswald. you are a cq roll call.

>> thanks for having me. >> after 20 months of negotiations come in nearly two years the congress will now have 60 days to review the iran deal. taking a look back at lawmakers and presidential candidates, president obama, what they said as the iran deal has been unveiled today. first let's take a look at speaker of the house john boehner. he issued a statement to revamp our president obama steele bohannon iran billions in sanctions relief while giving it time and space to produce a nuclear bomb are without cheating. we also heard from minority leader in the house, nancy pelosi. she said aggressive restriction in the actions offer the best long-term plan to stop iran from building a nuclear weapon. congress will closely review the details of this agreement. the chair of the foreign relations committee, i want to read the agreement to fully understand that but i began from

a place of deep skepticism that the deal meets the goal of preventing iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. senator bob corker of tennessee. a couple of tweets coming from lawmakers. one talks about a gop lawmaker in particular who sent a letter to the leader of iran. he says congress will be the iran deal. you can read more about his comments in their entirety on the hill.com. also one that talks about a democratic senator who's not backing the deal. obama steele doesn't and the nuclear program. it preserves that according to bob menendez, democrat from new jersey. dan friedman say senator as well and in the national journal say obama holds history will prove him right on iran. the national journal having the full story there. we will show you a president obama sat in his comments from

this morning when he spoke with the vice president joe biden by his side. >> today after two years of negotiations, the united states with international partners has achieved something that decades of animosity has not. a comprehensive long-term deal with iran that will prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon. they still demonstrate that american diplomacy can bring about real and meaningful change, change that make our country and the world safer and more secure. the deal is also in line with a tradition of american leadership it is now more than 50 years since president kennedy said before the american people inside let us never negotiate out of fear but let us never fear to negotiate. he was speaking about the need

for discussions between united states and soviet union which led to efforts to restrict the spread of nuclear weapons. in those days the risk of a catastrophic nuclear war between two superpowers. the risk is nuclear weapons will spread to more and more countries particularly in the middle east, the most volatile region in the world. today, because america negotiated from a position of strength in principle we have stop the spread of nuclear weapons in this region. because of this deal the international community will be able to verify the islamic republic of iran will not develop a nuclear weapon. this deal meets every single one of the bottom line is we established when we achieve a framework earlier this spring. every pathway to nuclear weapon is cut off. the inspection and transparency machine necessary to verify the object is will be put in place.

because of the deal, iran will not produce the highly enriched uranium weapons grade plutonium that formed the raw materials necessary for a nuclear bomb. because of this deal iran will remove two thirds of its installed centrifuges machines necessary to produce highly enriched uranium for a bomb and store them under const and international supervision. iran will not use the advanced centrifuges for the next decade. iran will get rid of 90% of its stockpile of enriched uranium. to put that in perspective, iran currently has a stockpile that could produce up to 10 nuclear weapons. because of this deal the stock pile will be reduced to a fraction of what would be required for a single weapon. the stockpile limitation will last for 15 years. because of this deal, iran will modify the core of its react to

rid iraq seller will not produce weapons grade tony on and has agreed to shift the fuel from the react or out of the country for the lifetime of the reactor. for at least the next 15 years iran will not build any new heavy water reactors. because of the deal, we will for the first time in a position to verify all these commitments. that means the deal is not built on trust. it is built on verification. inspectors will have 24/7 access to iran's key nuclear facilities iran will have access to the entire nuclear supply chain uranium mines and conversion facilities and centrifuge manufacturing is rich facilities. it ensures iran will not be able to divert materials from non-facilities took over one's. some transparency measures will be in place for 25 years.

because of the deal inspectors will access any suspicious location. put simply, the organization responsible the iaea will have access where necessary when necessary. that arrangement is permanent and the iaea has also reached an agreement to get access that it means to complete its investigations into the possible military conventions past nuclear research. finally iran is permanently prohibited from pursuing a nuclear weapon under the non-proliferation treaty which provides the basis for the international community efforts to apply pressure on iraq. as iran take steps to implement this deal and will receiverom the sanctions they put in place because of iran's nuclear program. both america's own sanctions in sanctions imposed by the united nations security council. the relief will be phased in.

iran must complete key nuclear steps before it begins to receive new sanctions relief. over the course of the next decade, iran must abide by the deal before additional sanctions are lifted including tigers for restrictions related to arms in a use for restrictions related to ballistic missiles. all of this will be memorialized and endorsed a new u.n. security council resolution. if iran violates the deal all the sanctions will snap back into place. there is a very clear incentive for iran to follow through and very real consequences for a violation. that is the deal. it has the full backing of the international community. congress will now have an opportunity to review the details in my administration stands ready to provide extensive briefings on how this will move forward. as the american people in congress do the deal it will be

important to consider the alternative consider what happens in a world without this deal. without this deal there is no scenario where the world joins us in sanctioning iran until it completely dismantled its nuclear program. nothing we know about the reigning government suggested was simply capitulate under that pressure and the world would not support an effort to permanently sanction iran into submission. with the sanctions in place to get diplomatic resolution and that is what we've done. without this deal there would be no agreed-upon limitations for the iranian nuclear program. iran could produce, operating test more and more centrifuges. iran could feel the react are capable of producing plutonium for a bomb and would not have been inspection that allow us to detect a covert nuclear weapons program. in other words no deal means no lasting constraints on the nuclear program.

such a scenario would make it more likely that other countries would feel compelled to pursue their own nuclear programs threatening the nuclear arms race the most volatile region of the world. it would present the united states with fewer and less effect of options to prevent iran from taking a nuclear weapon. i've been president and commander-in-chief for over six years now. time and again i face decisions about whether or not to use military force. the gravest decision that any president has to make. many times in multiple countries i have decided to use force. i will never hesitate to do so when it is in our national security interest. i strongly believe our national security interest now depends upon preventing iran from obtaining in clear but then, which means about a diplomatic resolution, either i or a future

u.s. president would face a decision about whether or not to allow iran to obtain a nuclear weapon or whether to use our military to stop it. put simply no deal means a greater chance of more war in the middle east. moreover, we give nothing up by testing whether or not the problem can be solved peacefully. the worst-case scenario iran violates the deal, the same options available to me today will be available to any u.s. resident in the future. i have no doubt that 10 or 15 years from now the person who holds this office will be in a far stronger position with iran further away from a weapon and with the inspections and transparency that allow us to monitor the iranian program. for this reason, i believed it would be irresponsible to walk away from this deal.

but i'm such a tough issue it is important that the american people and representatives in congress get a full opportunity to review the deal. after all, the details matter. we've had some of the finest nuclear scientists in the world working through details. and we are dealing with a country that has been a sworn adversary of the united states for 35 years. so i welcome a robust debate in congress on this issue and i welcome scrutiny of the details of the agreement. but i will remind congress that you don't make deals like this with your friends. we negotiated arms control agreements with the soviet union the nation was committed to our destruction and those agreements ultimately made us safe. i'm confident the deal will meet the national security interest of the united states and our allies. i will veto any legislation that prevents the successful implementation of this deal.

we do not have to accept the inevitable spiral into conflict. we certainly shouldn't seek to emphasize it because the stakes are so high this is not the time for politics or posture. tough talk from washington does not solve problems. hard-nosed diplomacy, leadership that has united the world's major powers offers a more effective way to verify that iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapon. that doesn't mean the deal will resolve the differences with iraq. we share concerns expressed by many friends in the middle east including his rail and the goal state about iran's support for terrorism to destabilize the region. is precisely why we are taking this step because an iran armed with a nuclear weapon would be far more destabilizing and dangerous to our friends in the

world. meanwhile, we will maintain our own sanctions for terrorism and its ballistic missile program in human rights violations. we will continue our unprecedented effort to strengthen security, efforts that go beyond what any american administration has done before and will continue to work that began at camp david to elevate partnership with the goal states to strengthen the capabilities and iran are terrorist groups like isis. i believe we must continue to test whether the region which is not so much suffering, so much bloodshed can move in a different direction. time and again i have made it clear to the iranian people that we will always be open to engagement on the basis of mutual interest and mutual risk factor. our differences are real and the difficult history between the

nations cannot be ignored. it is possible to change. the path of violence and ideology based on threats to tax your neighbors or eradicate israel is dead. one of tolerance, peaceful resolution of conflict leads to more integration into the global economy and the community and the ability to prosper and thrive. this deal offers an opportunity to move in a new direction. we have come a long way to reach the point, decades of an iranian nuclear program many years of sanctions and many months of intense negotiations. today i want to thank members of congress from both parties who helped us put in place sanctions proven so effective as well as the other countries who joined in the effort.

i want to thank our negotiating partners the united kingdom france, russia, china as well as the european union for our unity in the software which showed the world can do remarkable things with a complex. we showed what we can do when we do not split apart. finally i want to thank the american negotiating team. we had a team of experts working for several weeks straight including secretary of energy and i want to particularly thank john kerry secretary of state who began his service to this country for decades ago when he put on our uniform and went off to war. he is now making this country safe in terms of commitment to strong, principled american diplomacy. history shows america must lead not just with our might go with our principles. it shows we are stronger not

when we are alone but when we bring the world together. today's announcement marks one more chapter in pursuit of a safer and more helpful, more hopeful world. thank you. god bless you and god bless the united states of america. ..

and occasionally for march by shouting that wafted beyond the closed doors. a senior iranian official speaking to western reporters on condition of anonymity said the agreement would be submitted to the u.n. security council within a week to 10 days and then be incorporated into a new council resolution that eventually will lift sanctions that have crippled iran's economy. also a couple of tweaks talk about what's going to be happening on capitol hill what some lawmakers have been talking about. "huffington post" reporting john

kerry says he doesn't expect congress to definitely reject the iran deal because you can read more there, "huffington post" and then from steven den is saying already vice president joe biden is calling lawmakers about the iran deal. he says make sure to watch senator schumer of new york. fox news same top democrat on the senate foreign relations committee, ben cardin says we will not rush to judgment. the white house readout of the presidents don't go with prime minister benjamin netanyahu of israel who is on the other side g a deal with iran announced today after 20 months of negotiations. we will take a look at what president rouhani had to seize. he spoke for about 40 minutes the want to let you know we could be hearing from lawmakers on capitol hill, specifically bernie sanders, presidential candidate. we will take you to the stakeout when and if he doesn't hear

while lawmakers are in the weekly meetings. for now here's what president rouhani iran had to say. [speaking in native tongue] and >> translator: progeny. just recited. greetings and salutations to the

prophet of islam prophet muhammad and his infallible household, and also imam of the martyrs and the martyrs particularly the nuclear martyrs martyrs. and salutations to the imam of the time. may god expedite his reappearance. the month of ramadan is the month of blessings. it's a month of seeking proximity to god almighty. and this year's month of ramadan ramadan, what i heard based on what i've heard, many people in

their prayers during the grand night they prayed to god almighty, praying for iran's nuclear negotiating team in order to reach a good deal. and now i announce to the great nation of iran that god has accepted their prayers and has responded to the prayers today. we are in a critical juncture and in the history, with respect to the history of our country and our revolution, and also the condition that prevails in the region. in fact in the past 12 years

that, in fact witnessed illusions by the major powers and such illusions were spread by them in the global community and for public opinion. you see that this page has turned and, in fact, a new chapter has been open. this new chapter is based upon the fact that the solution there are shorter routes with less cost. in order to come up with solutions for the problems speaking of iran's important nuclear issue that on the one hand it has turned into a

political and international issue. to the extent that -- it was -- chapter seven of the u.n. and there were several resolutions calling for sanctions against iran. and on the other hand, the issue had turned into a subject for spreading iran a phobia. dilution of the world claiming that iran is after manufacturing nuclear weapons over wmds. and on the other hand, you see that from the view of the science and technology and development that was from the

view of research and development anti-scientific progress. this was an important issue for us, and it has turned into a subject related to our national pride and dignity. economically speaking those imposing sanctions have sought to put us under pressure and that had created a difficult situation, difficult condition in the society. as i had earlier said the sanctions regime was never successful, but at the same time it had affected people's lives. i am pleased that today after 23

months of negotiations by the islamic republic of iran today we have managed to reach a new point. of course the month of ramadan has always been a month of blessing for the administration and it's been a fateful month and a day off, the month of ramadan on the iranian calendar was the day for investiture and then we had the day for the old taking and today you see that today is the day for the deal reached between iran and powers

concerning the joint comprehensive plan of action. in order to resolve this nuclear issue, we had to take the necessary steps in different sectors. from a political point of view we had to make the necessary political arrangements from the view of the public opinion in order to know that to negotiate, read out some text, some statements. to negotiate means to bargain.

it means you give money and you purchase your desired house. after benefiting from charities, we after negotiating we were after protecting our national interests, and we are after engaging in a just a bargaining process in order to maintain our national interest. we have all the stress that this is not going to be a win lose negotiation. it's not company it's not that you see one side becoming a winner, victorious, the other side becoming a loser. if it is a win lose negotiation it's not going to be sustainable agreement will not come up with

a sustainable agreement. in order to obtain a sustainable agreement, there should be a win-win situation for both parties, both sides. we did clarify this and our negotiators have started their talks and negotiations since 23 months ago. in order to have an achievement in the course of negotiations we were in need of domestic and national consent that is quite clear that politicians associations and political factions, they do not share common views. but with respect to subject pertaining to our national

interest and national security and national development such and the nuclear issues related to our national security as related to national development and also its related to our national interest. so easy but fortunately in this free democratic must be prevented in our society. we managed to reach a consensus in this regard. the path of negotiations, before the administration from the very beginning i denied this problem, i mean 12 years ago based on the view of the leader of the islamic revolution, the path of negotiations started from the very first day and we

have been negotiating since 2003 in tehran or the capital city of neighboring countries or the european capital. we have been witnessing these negotiations, and we continued the talks. in the course of the 2013 presidential election, our people expressed views and explicitly said that we want an administration that would actually protect the nuclear achievement of the country along with protecting peace and also contributing to the countries development and also obtaining public welfare.

and this was the path that the administration pursued. of course the great nation of iran is a symbol of courtesy and logic and rationality. from the very first day on the day of the old thinking, the old ceremony. i said that the west can interact with us provided that it sets aside, eliminates the approach of intimidation of threats and instead the west should choose the path of dignity and respect. once we have obtaining today idea within the framework of a comprehensive joint plan of

action it has roots in iran's interaction and shown by the p5+1 group. and in case of the absence of these parameters, we would not have been able to come up with any achievement. in the meantime in order to gain success in the course of negotiations we had to be able to actually improve our economy under sanctions and in the condition of -- when we started the negotiations we had an inflation rate of 40% and our economic growth rate was minus 6.8%. but in the course of negotiation

by improving our economic condition, we managed to contain the installation and we came up with a positive economic growth. this was the strongest message conveyed by the administration. the strongest message sent by us to the p5+1 group of countries. at the same time what mattered the most was the steadfastness and patience and resistance shown by the courageous nation of iran. and today with the grace of god it's been a year of steadfastness and resistance and at the same time brought about victory and success for us, and this was an indication of people steadfast and resistance and special

resistance and steadfastness robbie of the party to the negotiating table. in the course of these negotiations we were pursuing for objective. the first objective was to protect our nuclear capability and technologies and even nuclear activity to continue such activities inside the country. the second objective was to actually put an end to the inhumane and tyrannical sanctions, the objective was to address all the resolutions that from our point of view that those were illegal resolutions. we were after all these illegal resolutions issued by the u.n. security council. the fourth objection was to

actually take the nuclear dossier of out of chapter seven and take it out of -- and based on the deal reached today and based on the joint comprehensive plan of action, all four objectives. have been again. of course, in the past 23 months in order to observe the red lines and at the same time gain our objective, you are aware that an extraordinary effort was made by a renewed diplomats lawyers and economists, and also nuclear scientists continue. on an initial date the

negotiations, the other party told us that during the period of limitation, and you see that based on the deal have said they. of limitation to be eight years. during this period they said that iran should have only 100 centrifuges after continued the discussions and debate they came up with a figure of 1000 centrifuges. and after a great deal of resistance they said that they will agree with 4000 centrifuges, something cannot be changed anymore. but today the deal was reached. and based on this deal we have 6000 centrifuges 5000 -- the centrifuges will remain an all

these centrifuges in that time will continue their enrichment activity. they said that the limitation period must be set for 20-25 years. later they said that 20 years must be the final viewpoint. but this figure was reduced to 10. it was originally reduced to 10 years, and in the course of the final negotiation that figure was reduced to eight years. concerning enrichment development, they said that research and development must be only about they are one -- i are one.

it was a ridiculous statement. it was illogical because we already had i are one and it was operating in recent elements did not make any sense. later they said it's got to be maxxum ir tonight and eventually they said it must not go beyond i are 8. they were seeking ir 6 and i are 8. we wanted the deal said on the date of implementation of the deal the u.s. -- would be injected into i are 8 and today we have obtained such a deal today. regarding -- they said that a reactor can remain but heavywater has no meaning there. it's meaningless and to consider this as a red line.

but we've reached a deal today. and based on this this and deal, redline has been explicitly made to heavywater, and that arak reactor will become completed with heavywater based on the deal. regarding fordow they said that it's really difficult to your the name of fordow. do not name it and we are going, we will not hear it. and then they said that, and they said that there should be no centrifuges in fordow. at all so it's going to be sustainable isotopes and after several months of bargaining they said that 11 casket should

remain. 164. and let me tell you that they would be 1000 centrifuges in fordow and part of fordow will be allocated to our anti-concerning -- r&d concerning isotopes. regarding the lifting of sanctions they said that the sanctions will not be lifted at once and they said that the sanctions facility will be step-by-step and settlements of 2004 enable to gain trust and we are not going to lift the sanctions. do not speak of lifting of sanctions and they said that sanctions have to be first suspended and then in years to come the iaea gave a positive report and the sanctions would be lifted step-by-step. today, i announced to the great

nation of iran that they suffered a deal on the date of implementation of the deal. all the sanctions, even arms embargoes and even missile sanctions, as stipulated by the resolutions data, i'll be lifted. all the financial and banking sanctions, sanctions related to insurance, transportation and sanctions related to refineries of the valuable metals, precious metals and all the economic sanctions will be fully lifted. it will be lifted, not suspended. and even the arms embargo would be eliminated and the movie a sort of limitation for five years and later will be lifted.

and speaking of commodities or dual use commodities of goods, there will be a committee that the case will be looking to buy that committee. and in this way regarding the u.n. resolution, they said that how can we announced the resolution that has not been implemented. they told us to intimate these resolutions for at least six months. and in this way the resolutions will be announced. today based on today's deal in the upcoming days when this deal is endorsed by u.n. all the previous six resolutions will be announced. and also regarding the nuclear dossier or of iran, in order to take it out of the unsc they

said that the iaea should present a report that will include a 20 year -- 15 year period but today with regard, without considering the report by the iaea. after a limitation of the deal, -- dossiers will be taken out of the u.s. agency after 10 years. we may be asked whether this deal is based upon the confidence and trust of group of countries, and if that wasn't the case then there was no need for 23 months of negotiation and went 18 nights of continued negotiations. speaking of trust, the implementation of this deal will

be the starting point for a test of this deal. precisely implemented every step of implementation of this deal can gradually eliminate mistrust. it is quite clear that based on we are going to start and proceed by closely monitoring the implementation of this deal. and, of course, there are countries that have a very bad record some of these countries have a very bad record concerning iran, and some of them did not have a good record concerning iran. of course this is a mutual

deal mutual reciprocal deal. we have already examined such deal that was actually interim agreement reached in geneva. and regarding -- took steps to opt in the final do. today, final deal is reciprocal. if they abide and adhere to this deal, we will also comply with it. the iranian nation has always shown that it has always fulfilled its promise. and, of course history and we will fill our promise provided that the other party would also fulfill its promises. of course there are several steps and stages with respect to the deal today was actually the first stage.

that means all these seven countries have agreed annexes an action agreed with fulltext and annexes of the deal. speaking of the next stage in the days to come the tex and also the text that has been prepared for the unsc has been asked it has to be endorsed by the u.n. security council based on article 25. not in chapter seven. and in case related to annul that of previous resolution based on article 41. later, there are stages in other countries and stages that continue, and after

determination of the stages on a day that is that they don't as the day of agreement. in fact it was the date of a joint statement. several days later when the u.n. or the unsc endorses the statement, that would be the day of finalizing the agreement after almost approximately two months. we will reach the agreement and the day of agreement is a day when the eu and the u.s. will openly announce and declare the lifting of all sanctions. they