a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. mr. coats: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coats: mr. president, i'm once again down here on the senate floor for my waste of the week, this time the 37th edition of the waste of the week. disclosing and learning about wasteful spending, fraud and abuse of taxpayers' dollars. and it's never ending it seems because after 37 weeks, i feel like i'm just scratching the surface of this. last week as some will remember, i talked about how the national science foundation spent $31,000

of hard earned tax dollars giving a grant to researchers to study whether or not being an bring is the real thing. -- hangry is the real thing. most people don't know what it is. everybody ran to the dictionary to see the description. it's one of those new words that hangry means that you are both hungry and angry. and you're angrier than you normally would be over a situation because you're more hungry. now, i wasn't hungry last week when i was talking about hangry, but i was an gray. i was angry over the fact that 331,000 -- $331,000 of taxpayers' money was being used to offer a grant from the

national science foundation to study whether or not this was true, and they came up with this crazy situation of giving voodoo dolls to husbands and wives, and every time that a husband was angry with his wife, he would take a pin and stick it into the voodoo doll. or if she was angry with him, she would take a pin and stick it into the voodoo dolls. i don't know who ended up with the most voodoo dolls. probably the wife had the most voodoo dolls -- most pins into the voodoo dolls. then a glucose test was taken to see if they were actually a little short on glucose in the bloodstream, meaning they were hungry. well, the conclusion was, yes, if you were hungry, you tended to be a little bit more on edge, a little bit more testy. that might have been a fun study

to be engaged in, just for laughs, but this was paid for by taxpayers' dollars. this was a grant issued by the national science foundation. you know, we tell people about the national science foundation -- oh, that's probably one of the better government agencies. sure, we need a national science foundation, and this is the kind of stuff they're doing at the national science foundation? so that was last week. and i wasn't sure anything could top last week, because i said -- i was quoted as saying, who can make up stuff like this? i mean, do people sit around and try to think, let's see if we can get a grant to do some kind of research project that is nothing but crazy? the amazing thing is that someone over at the national science foundation went through all this and went, hey, that is good idea. let's give them a $331,000 grant. so we added that to our chart. now we're here for the second week. so this week i want to talk

about something that maybe is even scarier than sticking pins in voodoo dolls, and it's called the master death file. now, this is not the name of a new novel on "the new york times" best-seller list. this is not the name of a new movie that's coming out. it's the master death list. this is something, folks, you don't want to be on. but the federal government, by law -- the social security administration has to maintain the master death list. and, obviously, those of us on social security or of social security age are involved in this. but we don't want to see our name on that list, because if your name is on that list, you're no longer are eligible for social security payments because it's a death list; you have a he died. and so -- you've died. and so as sinister as it sounds, it's probably necessary that we do this, that we have at least

some list that let the social security administration know that it's time to stop the social security administration checks from going to dead people. the beneficiary or recipient has died and, therefore, procedures will be made so that next year's check doesn't keep rolling out and rolling out and rolling out. now, a lot of us here in the senate, we get on different kinds of lists -- voting records, awards for standing up for certain issues and policies that people respect, and i've had a number of those. one list i don't want to be on -- but know that as a human being i'm kind of careening towards -- is the master death list. we thought, let's see how this works. we went to the general accounting office, government accountability office, and said what about this master death list stuff?

and we did some investigation on that. and out of that came an example of one agency that -- the g.a.o., the general accountability office had examined. it is the u.s. department of agriculture. the department of agriculture sends out checks -- payments for conservation, disaster relief and crop subsidies, but what did we find? well, we found that between 2008 and 2012, $27.6 million in payments for conservation disaster relief and crop subsidies were made to people who had died, who were did he seed. and what's more disturb something that many of those recipients had been dead for more than two years. and this is just one department out of all the federal agencies. the hundreds of federal agencies that issue checks for all kinds of different purposes.

so it's important to have a master death list because what we want these agencies to do -- in fact, by what they are obligated to do under the law -- is check the master death list to make sure that the checks aren't going to people that are on that list. well, obviously, this one agency, the department of agriculture, one of two things happened -- either names didn't get on that list or names were on the list but they didn't check it. either way, there's a responsibility here for the federal government in handling taxpayer dollars to make sure that, one, those who are deceased, names get on the master death list -- as scary as that is -- and/or if they're on thely, they don't receive the payments -- if they're on the list, they don't receive the payments. now, in this digital age, it shouldn't be too hard to keep that master death list updated. every state has records that have to be made in terms of --

sent by the coroner or authorized by the hospital or whatever. there are a number of sources of finding out. particularly in the digital age, it is pretty easy to enter a name, when you get the certificate of death, enter a name, it goes into the master death list, and it ought to be relatively easy for agencies sending out checks to coordinate with that, either probably by pushing a button or ghoog an -- or going into an app or whatever, does bill jones or bob smith still qualify for social security payments? that ought to be pretty automatic. but, unfortunately, it isn't, particularly when you find that people have been receiving these checks even two years after they have died. so something is amiss here. now, in the old days you probably had to call farmer bob out in rural america and say, you know, father joe down -- farmer joe down the road, is he

still living? have you seen him in town lately? what's happening? did you go to the funeral? we don't have have shall -- we t have to do that anymore. this tough is all digitized and very accessible. so here we are with the social security administration. you need to do what you need to do to make sure that list is kept up to date. i see all the young pages down here saying, i've got a long way to go. and they're looking at this senator thinking, you are a he a lot closer than we are. i hope they're not saying that. this is taking money from hard-earned tax dollars, hard-earned by people who have to make the bills paid by the end of the week, that have to cover the mortgage, have to provide for the education of their children, have to buy food

at the grocery store, have to buy gas at the gas pump. people are scraping by, and when they see this kind of thing or hear about this kind of thing, they're outraged. we're seeing that played out here in these nominations processes on bodge sides -- on both sides, the democrats and the republicans. people are frustrated with the inefficiency of the federal government and their tax dollars. i'm here to illustrate that, not to spur continued anger and outrage, but to get people seriously focused on the fact that their dollars are not being wisely sent and they need to call their congressmen and senators and they sai need to s, you need do a better job of managing our money to protect this nation to provide for roads, bridges, health care, and so forth. there are some essential things government needs to do. but surely it doesn't need to put out $331,000 for a hangry

study with voodoo dolls and doesn't need to west millions of dollars in checks for people that are de-ssessed and no longer eligible for that. so another $27.6 million. $157,619,14,000 -- this is the waste clock it is not a clock. $157,619,142,953 and we'll be back next week with the next edition of "waste of the week." mr. chairman, thank you. and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. barrasso: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming.

mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, last week, the prime minister of canada came to washington for a visit. president obama used that opportunity to take yet another cheap shot at american energy producers. the administration has made a deal with canada to cut methane emissions from oil and gas production facilities. now, they want tough new restrictions to cut emissions almost in half over the next decade. the very same day the environmental protection agency said that it plans to come up with more regulations for methane. well, the obama administration is already trying to limit the methane that gets released from new oil and gas wells as they get put into production, but now the administration wants to go back and impose those limits on existing wells, ones that were built to actually comply with the current rules on the books. so here's what i find most

interesting about this, mr. president. this was an official state visit by a foreign leader to the united states. it was the first trip for the new prime minister of canada, justin trudeau. so president obama decided that the most important thing the two countries could talk about was methane. not syria, not trying to stop radical islamist terrorists, not dealing with isis, not the hostile regimes of north korea, of iran or of russia, no. not what we could do to actually help our economies grow. instead, president obama chose to focus on methane. why is president obama so fixated on this? well, let me tell you. the president is bitter, bitter that the supreme court is blocking his clean power plan and he's pouting and he's

pandering. he's going after coal, he's going after oil, and now he's going after natural gas. it is a vendetta against american energy producers. the president and other democrats are pandering to radical environmental extremists and to their billionaire donors. mr. president, we all want to make sure that we have a clean environment. my goal is to make american energy as clean as we can, as fast as we can and do it in ways that don't raise costs for american families. that's why the people that i talk with back home in wyoming believe that this new regulation is the wrong approach. my local newspaper, the casper star tribune, had a front-page article about it on friday. the headline was cuts to methane emissions proposed. the article quotes john robatti. he is from the petroleum association of wyoming. he says that the environmental protection agency -- quote --

has failed to recognize the economic burden placed on -- placed on replacing equipment on existing wells as opposed to new wells, ones that are still to be built. now, john robatti may say failed to recognize. i say the administration deliberately refuses to recognize, refuses. for washington to come in and demand expensive new equipment for all of these oil and gas wells would be a huge cost. it would drive up prices for consumers, and it would mean that some of these wells just wouldn't be economically worthwhile anymore. the oil and gas would just stay in the ground where it does nothing to help power our economy or power our country. mr. president, states are already doing their part. states are trying to limit methane leaks where they find a problem.

colorado has a leak detection and repair program that will help keep ozone and methane from escaping. wyoming, my home state, is looking for ways to get more up to date equipment on new wells as they get going. so the states are already taking the lead and they're already coming up with solutions where they are needed. now, this is not a one-size-fits-all regulation coming out from unelected, unaccountable washington bureaucrats, but that's what we're having to deal with now in this administration. what we prefer are state solutions, and what i have just described are state solutions that strike a commonsense balance between a strong economy and a very healthy environment. and it's not just the states that are taking action. oil and gas producers also want to reduce how much methane escapes from these wells. producers would prefer, when you think about it, producers would prefer to capture that gas and then to sell it so it can be used. that's why the industry reduced

methane emissions by 13% between 2008 and 2013. over the same years, the u.s. shale gas production grew by 400%. so the industry actually cut emissions even while the gas production went way up. this happened because of the action that the producers and the states have already been taking, not because of more regulations coming out of washington, d.c. energy producers need the flexibility to tackle these admissions when and how it -- these emissions when and how it makes sense. there are already too many rules on the books. the bureau of land management has another rule in the books. more duplicative regulations will just raise costs for americans at a time when our economy is weak, and the missions already are -- and emissions already are dropping. this new red tape would add hundreds of millions of dollars every year onto the cost of producing red, white, and blue

energy. if the obama administration really wants to ee dues emissions -- reduce emissions from oil and gas wells, it should help the industry to capture this gas and to use it. now, this was the subject of bipartisan legislation that senator heidi heitkamp of north dakota and i offered last month. it was an amendment to the energy bill legislation. our amendment bipartisan would have expedited the permit process for natural gas gathering lines, the lines that gather this gas on the federal land and on indian land and then help take it to market. gas-gathering lines are essentially pipelines that collect unprocessed gas from oil and gas wells and then ship it to a processing plant. at the plant, different kinds of gases, methane, propane, they're separated from one another. they are then shipped out again to locations where they can be sold and used by people. that's what the producers want to do. the problem is we don't have enough of these pipelines now to gather up the gas and to send it to the processing plants.

lots of times there's only one option, and if you don't have the gathering lines, it's to flair or vent the excess gas at the well. now, if there were more gathering lines, there would be a lot less waste of energy. we would have a lot less of these methane emissions that president obama claims to be so worried about. so senator heitkamp and i offered a better way to deal with the problem, and 43 democrats here in the senate blocked our amendment. that hearing at the energy and natural resources committee last month, i asked interior secretary jewel about the idea. even she had to concede that speeding up the permits was something that they should be looking into. mr. president, this doesn't have to be a fight. we all agree that there is too much of this gas that has been vented or burned off at the oil and gas well. republicans know it, democrats know it, energy producers know it, so why can't we agree to let

the industry build the gathering lines to help them capture the gas where it makes sense and how it makes sense. why do we need more washington regulations that impose higher costs? america's energy producers have increased production while reducing emissions. they have provided what may be the only bright spot in our economy over the past seven years. we should be doing all that we can to help them, to encourage them. we should be looking for voluntary, cost-effective ways to make sure that we can make american energy as clean as we can, as fast as we can, without raising costs to american families. mr. president, the obama administration is going in the wrong direction. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from la. a senator: -- from louisiana. a senator: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, if there is an ongoing quorum call, i would ask unanimous consent to end that. the presiding officer: without

objection. a senator: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise today to honor my longest serving staff member, my chief of staff, campaign manager, and close friend kyle ruckard who is departing the senate this week to start an exciting new career. kyle was one of my very first hires when i was first elected to the u.s. house of representatives in 1999. mr. vitter: he started as my legislative director in the house under the really wonderful tutelage of my first chief of staff marcy greceler. we're both indebted to marty who is deceased for getting us started on a wonderful foot in congress. then kyle became my chief of staff upon marty's retirement in 2002. and i guess i would sum up the bottom line in a very simple and important way. there's not been one moment

during these 17 years when i've regretted placing my complete trust in kyle to lead our office and serve the people of louisiana, not one. from day one kyle set the office standard of serve to constituents and set it as a top priority. he establishes -- he established offices throughout the state and one of his most memorable decisions instituted a mobile office on wheels so that we could reach out to those hit hard by hurricanes gustav and ike in 2008, folks who could not otherwise reach our permanent offices. i say memorable because for the staffers who actually had to man and woman that vehicle, it was an adventurous ride. now, of course, kyle's leadership style and commitment to service comes from his wonderful parents, and i take a

moment to thank his parents john and ellen who are with us in the gallery who have also come to know and respect. i think also a big part of kyle's commitment to serve others comes from his time at jesuit high school in new orleans where the motto is "add majorem, for the greater glory of god, and where all students are expected to accept the challenge of becoming a man for others as part of the ignatius tradition. he's probably one of the best ambassadors for jesuit even playing a role in my son going there. in 2004, kyle moved down to louisiana to manage my first senate campaign. he quickly earned the respect of national political prognosticators on the campaign side who quite frankly belittled our chances from the beginning.

kyle reacted to the conventional wisdom that we couldn't win a runoff against our so-called moderate democratic opponent in a pretty straightforward way. he simply made sure we got more than 50% of the vote in the open primary so we never went to a runoff. problem solved. kyle's disciplined and strategic thinking are largely to thank for that win and after that he immediately returned to manager our senate office as chief of staff. unfortunately, our first major test in the senate was a tragic one. in 2005, hurricane katrina devastated louisiana and was followed very shortly by hurricane rita. constituent service, always a top priority, took on even greater urgency and seriousness, and kyle led our team to help, to console, to serve, all for

the greater glory of god, acting as a man for others. kyle led our staff managing an effective operation, first and foremost assisting constituents on the ground and then in congress helping put together emergency assistance legislation, making sure that people in real need received what they absolutely needed. this was one of the most chaotic times for all of us from louisiana, but kyle was always calm and methodical, always steered the ship with a steady hand. kyle's leadership is contagious. his expectations are very high, be at work, give over 100%, get the job done. if that means working at night and on weekends, he would expect that of everyone on the team and, unlike some other so-called leaders, he would be right there leading the way in that regard. and our staff has become

stronger because of that leadership by example and that contagious work ethic. besides his calm, disciplined, methodical leadership style, kyle's strongest attribute is his loyalty and trust he places in those he works with. he always encourages staff to take chances, to be bold in pushing new reforms, in negotiating amendment votes, in pushing important stories with the press. when staff would run ideas by him and ask him what he thought, he would say, if you think it's the right thing to do, go for it. just don't [bleep] it up. his leadership was tested again on the campaign side in our 2010 reelection race, where again the political commentators largely bet against us and again kyle

made sure they were wrong in a big way. we won that race by 19 points. since then, i've had the rea realfortune of serving in leadership positions huer in the senate -- here in the senate as the ranking republican on the e.p.w. committee in 2014 and currently as chair of the small business committee. aside from our many legislative accomplishments under kyle's leadership, what i'm perhaps most proud of is the close-knit team we've built together. those are more than just words in our office. we both look at our staffs an extension of our immediate families. certainly my wife wendy, our kids, and i definitely think of kyle and his family as part of ours. kyle set the goal standard for thinking of staff as a family, for treating them that way, perhaps in part because he

married another one of my former staffers, rose lynnelle. lynn started working with me in 2002 in the house. she worked there until 2004 and then joined that first winning senate campaign. and it's interesting. kyle and lynnelle started dating secretly, not telling anyone in the office, certainly not me. i think they were first discovered when my first chief of staff marti greisler got a call from her daughter, had ho had witnessed them being -- who had witnessed them being weekend tourists in philadelphia. i was still kept in the dark months after that, even though marti discovered their courtship. lynnelle, too, always stressed constituent service understand a brilliant political strategist. they truly were meant for each other in all sorts of ways. and lynnelle has continued her

ex-stromblex--- extremely succel career, most recently serving as majorit-- serving for majority p steve scalise. kyle and lynnelle and their two kids, jack, now nine, and mary kyl, now six, are getting settled now in baton rouge, as part of a new exciting chapter of their lives. and it's going to be fun -- we're going to miss them, but it's going to be fun to see this new chapter for kyle and their family develop, especially when we get to see kyle, who is a new orleans native and an avid two-lane green wave alum, having to start wearing purple and gold around baton youth at the urging of their son jack. who knows, maybe he'll even

develop a superstition before l.s.u. games, something a lot of folks don't know about kyle is he is incredibly superstitionous, knock on word. he'll detour his monday morning drive in new orleans to pass by the super-dome if the saints won on sunday, he'll sip the same type of burea bourbon. i'll tell you a quick story related to that about his green polo. on election day in 2004, kyle was wearing a campaign t-shirt, but he wasn't going to be able go to the polls that way to vote and do some poll watching. sod asked around the office if he could borrow a different shirt and matt abrams, now dean heller's chief of staff and who was a key staff member in my office and campaign at that time, loaned him his green polo.

well, we won that race big and kyle hasn't returned the green polo yet, and he wears it every election day, although we're not sure if that's pure superstition or also because he's so darn cheap. now, while kyle will now be living in louisiana, his impact will remain strong in our work and our office and our culture. he'll be able to see it in legislation which helped louisiana and the country and thousands and thousands of constituents who he and our team effectively reached out to and in the great example he set for so many staffers and interns and others on our team. so let me end really where i began, by paying him the highest compliment possible, repeating that there hasn't been one moment in these great 17 years where i've regretted placing my

complete trust in kyle ru covment ker -- ruckert to lead our office, to help lead us in serving the people of louisiana -- not one. kyle, thank you for your service to louisiana, for the countless hours you have spent helping me, for the fun memories and laughs we've shared, and most importantly for your friendship. you truly are a part of my family. i have the greatest confidence that you'll continue on ad ma -d mmajorum. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: