privileged? that's what's at stake here. a senior member of the trump campaign publicly said -- quote -- "we have three major voter suppression operations under way." unquote. one of those was operation project alamo, the campaign's custom online database that contained detailed identity profiles on 220 million americans. the point is they used this information on more than 200 million americans to target secretary clinton supporters with negative and misleadinleadg facebook ads, the goal being voter suppression as clearly stated by a senior member of the trump campaign. well let's go back to the principle laid out by president

ronald reagan, and again i quote him. for this nation to be true to its principles, we cannot allow americans' vote to be denied, diluted or defiled. so i call on my colleagues who have been the proper points of voter suppression, who have been the proponents of attacking the constitution, who have been the proponents of government of, by and for the most powerful and the most privileged rather than the people. the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. mr. merkley: thank you. i ask unanimous consent for two more minutes. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. cornyn: i beg your pardon, madam president. i didn't hear. how long? the presiding officer: two minutes. mr. cornyn: no objection here. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: thank you, madam president. those words should continue to reverberate in this chamber. colleagues, set your sights on the vision of ending your denying and diluting and defiling of the most fundamental

right close to the heart of americans and the foundation of government of, by and for the people. only then will we have a government that responds to real issues that americans face rather than the special goals of the most powerful and the most privileged. thank you. mr. cornyn: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. cornyn: madam president, i have five requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. these have been approved by both the majority and minority leaders. i would ask consent that they be approved. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. cornyn: madam president, yesterday i spoke about the 21st century cures bill that the house passed by a very large margin last night, and i'm looking forward to taking that legislation up here in the senate. and i'm particularly grateful that it includes some mental health reform legislation that i introduced here in the senate.

this represents the very first mental health reform in more than a decade, and it's high time to get it done. there's a lot of people who contributed to this effort and i think it's something we can all be proud of. with the mental health portion of the bill, we have two chief goals in mind. one, to help those who are mentally ill get the treatment they need and secondly, to help law enforcement and first responders know how to respond to a potential mental health crisis in order to keep the person they're responding to safe as well as the first responders themselves. it opens up existing funds so that they can be used for more outpatient treatment options. that way, local and state governments can help identify mentally ill offenders, assess their mental health need, and get them in the right treatment to improve their condition

rather than sending them to jails where they will be warehoused and their conditions will likely just get worse and worse. this legislation will also provide flexibility to state and local authorities so they can uses what works in their community to help mentally ill individuals in the criminal justice system get healthy. this could include things like assisted outpatient treatments where families can help their loved ones with a backstop of court supervision so they will remain compliant with their doctor's orders and take their medication which will allow them to lead productive lives. this legislation will make available federal grants so that our law enforcement officials have the resources to get the kind of training that they need. it's really important when law enforcement officials are called to the scene of an incident to -- when somebody is suffering from a mental health crisis, that they know how to deescalate that crisis both for the well-being of the individual

suffering that crisis as well as the law enforcement officials responding. it local allow the creation of more crisis intervention teams comprised of law enforcement and first responders and even school officials where appropriate so that they can rapidly respond and counter a threat of violence in the community. yesterday i received messages from some of the people who worked with us on this legislation and know all too well how mental illness can affect our families. one individual wrote -- quote -- after losing both a son and a husband to suicide and having an adult son with bipolar disorder, i know only too well the frustrations of the mental health system. thank you, she said, for your determination and hard work to bring change to this broken system. this is why these mental health reforms are so important. people need help and the mental

health system needs reform. and that's why we need to pass the 21st century cures bill for all the good it will do in addition to these important reforms in dealing with mental health challenges around the country. so i look forward to finishing the job next week and sending it to the president's desk. separately, madam president, i come to the floor today to highlight a pressing national security concern that just doesn't get enough attention. members often come to the floor to talk about specific military threats that other nations pose to the united states and that's good and right. for example, we've heard a lot about iran this week as the senate considers the iran sanctions extension act, a bill that will help ensure that president-elect trump and future presidents have the authority they need to reimpose sanctions on iran. even in spite of the obama administration's flawed nuclear

deal which provided relief to these same types -- from the same types of sanctions and others without getting a whole lot of meaningful concessions from tehran in return. this bill passed the house a few weeks ago with more than 400 votes, and i'm glad there's been significant bipartisan support to move it forward here. but madam president, today i want to talk about a problem that's partly of our own making, and that's threats to our long-term military readiness. it's no secret that our military leaders continually call on congress to adequately fund the weapons programs that enable our troops to defend our nation, but the major concern i have, one that's shared by leadership at the pentagon, is that our nation's militaries are -- military's technological edge on the battlefield is being whittled away by other countries like china and russia who are working at breakneck speed

investing millions of dollars to erase our advantage in many areas of military capability. and that means we have to wake up to the risks that are inherent in this situation and to do more to invest in the next generation of weapons to meet the challenges on the battlefields of tomorrow. the nations which are most belligerent and hostile to america and our interests are not cutting back on their investment in military technology, so we simply do not have the luxury of being complacent. recently i had a chance to meet with the under secretary of defense frank kindle, the defense department's top acquisitions person or top weapons buyer. he's charged with equipping our men and women in uniform and he's been thinking hard and long about the need to get the next generation of our military the very best capabilities possible. as he has said publicly in

speeches and congressional testimony, he is concerned that our enemies are rapidly expanding and building out their technological innovations for military applications, but it's important to understand that these countries aren't just building up their own militaries to simply defend themselves. no, countries like china and russia are doing all they can to invest in specific technologies to defeat our forces and to be used for purposes of aggressive activity, whether it's in the south china sea or whether it's in europe where russia continues to threaten the nato alliance. countries like china and russia are preparing not for next week but for the coming decades to effectively counter and defeat the united states militarily. that's a big concern of secretary kindle and it should be a major concern for all of us here in light of the responsibility of congress to provide for our military.

i have one chart that helps explain where we are headed. here we can see that research and development -- the research and development projections for the united states, china and the european union. and it's not hard to see that china will soon outpace the united states. now this represents total research and development spending for the countries involved, not just in military r&d but given a fact a large percentage of research and development is spent on defense-related efforts on military weaponry, it's a useful bellwether for understanding what the future holds in terms of chinese and russian military investment relative to our own. and clearly we can see that china is on track to overtake the united states in this critical area in the next deca decade. i should also point out that

according to one report, this isn't just because china is so committed to research and development. it's also because in recent years due to austerity measures in our own country. the united states investment in research and development are increasing at a historically low rate. why is this important? well, it's important because china is using some of this r&d to make weapons that are designed to undermine the united states' interest in the asian pacific region. one recent study made headlines just this week highlighting tt both china and russia are developing high speed, high altitude weapons designed to penetrate traditional u.s. defense systems like our ballistic missile defenses to attack not only our allies but to potentially attack the mainland of the united states as well. and reports continue to surface about chinese cyber theft of top

u.s. military and industry secrets. once they've stolen our trade secrets, the chinese military can create copycat or clone weapons for their own use without having to invest the years and billions of dollars that we have to do in this country for research and testing and development of those weapons. they can simply just steal the blueprints and copy them saving themselves a lot of money and a lot of time in producing those weapons. so while nations like china are doing all they can to build their capabilities and research the next cutting edge weapons, the united states military is extremely limited in the amount of money we are investing in our own future. instead of having to spend that money to maintain the readiness of current forces. that's where the money has gone, to try to maintain the readiness of our current forces, not looking out the next five years, the next ten years to the growing threat of our

adversaries providing for weapons systems that will have the capability not only to be used offensively but potentially to defeat american forces around the world. we know we need a robust military budget in order to allow us to walk and chew gum at the same time. to both maintain these world class forces of high levels of readiness and ensure our troops have the cutting edge weapons of tomorrow. back in march, the armed services committee heard testimony by the current secretary of defense ash carter. at the end of his prepared remarks, secretary carter made a point we all need to better understand when he said -- quote -- we don't have the luxury of just one opponent or the choice between the current fight and future fights. we have to do both and we have to have a budget that supports both. he went on to explain that that means being ready to fight the

battles of today and train our current troops but also to develop the technologies and perfect the strategies to fight the wars of the future. and we know from ronald reagan's doctrine of peace through strength that military readiness is much more likely to make sure that we don't have to fight those battles because it will deter the aggressive actions of our adversaries when america leads and when america is the strongest -- the strongest military in the world. but when our opponents see us pulling back both in terms of our investment or pulling back in terms of american leadership, they're all too happy to fill the void left by that withdraw withdrawal. unfortunately, the obama administration has apparently failed to see that national defense is the most critical function that the federal government performs and so every time we get into this discussion about how do we spend more money

to keep the american people safe and secure, then they want to enter into a discussion about how we can raise spending caps so we can spend more money on nondefense discretionary spending. and so it goes. but i believe that defense spending, making sure that our men and women in uniform have the training they need for the current fight, but also that we were preparing for the mid and long term so that they will have the weapons and the resources they need to fight the fights of the future, that that is job number one for us here in the united states congress. but it's not too late to eliminate some of these spending caps and to adequately fund the department of defense, and i look forward to working with all of our colleagues to make sure that we take care of job number one before we look then to other priorities in our federal budget. so we can't take for granted,

madam president, the fact that the united states military is the best in the world. we are the best in the world, but there is no certainty or guarantee that that will always be the case, especially when our adversaries are making the investments for the future, and as american leadership pulls back out of the world and allows others to fill that void. there are other nations at our heels, spending a lot of money specifically to neutralize our military advantages and defeat us. the threat extends far beyond china. north korea, for example, continues to threaten us and our allies with their nuclear weapons and their missile tests. and as i indicated earlier, russia continues to take -- to make tremendous advancements in areas such as cyber and electronic warfare, working to render our most effective and advanced capabilities ineffective. so we don't have any time to waste. we have to spend more time and

more energy looking not just at the threats of today but those of tomorrow and beyond because, frankly, once -- once the threat is upon us, it may be too late to do this sort of r&d -- research and development investment we need to do to be prepared. so i hope that the next congress, working with the new administration, will be able to move the needle in the right direction. we certainly can't just cross our fingers and hope for the best. that's not fulfilling our responsibilities and doing our duty as members of the united states congress. if we want to maintain our position as the most capable military in the world, we have to continue to act and act without delay. madam president, i yield the floor.

mr. blumenthal: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: thank you, madam president. madam president, the senate will soon act on a measure, the iran sanctions extension act that i have long advocated and am proud to be a main cosponsor of this measure. it's a critical step toward deterring and impeding support of iran's development of conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction, and i'm here to encourage my colleagues to support this ten-year reauthorization of the i.s.a., as it's known. we must act before it expires before the end of the year. we really have no practical choice because the practical effect of the iran nuclear agreement depends on our resolve , on our commitment to reliably and diewrably stop --

and durably stop an armed nuclear iran by using sanctions and other means, if necessary. this measure should remove all doubt and dispel all question that we have that resolve and commitment to make sure that the iran nuclear agreement is in force effectively. it must be in force effectively, not only for our own security but really the entire world's security, and that is the reason that i have championed efforts to stop a nuclear-armed iran and make sure that this agreement is both verifiable and enforceable. i've long advocated for this renewal, and most recently urged leader mcconnell to prioritize passage of this measure in the waning days of this congress.

i was joined in this effort by senators stabenow, merkley, wyden, klobuchar, heinrich and schatz, and i want to thank senator mcconnell for following through on this request and bringing this bill to the floor for a vote today. this important bipartisan bill has already been approved by the house. in fact, overwhelmingly passed in november, and now the senate must do the same. and it must leave no question or doubt that we have the resolve and commitment to continue bipartisan support for efforts to block a nuclear-armed iran. the i.s.a. is essential to ensuring that the joint comprehensive plan of action continues to prevent iran from realizing its nuclear ambition, and for the united states to

maintain its unambiguous ability to immediately snap back sanctions in coming years, the i.s.a. must be renewed, and i hope it will be by a strong and overwhelming bipartisan majority, or we will surrender this critical capability. reauthorization is a significant step, and it will send a strong signal to iran that our nation is fully and irrevokably committed to vigorously enforcing the nuclear agreement regardless of the administration, and irrespective of the congress. future administrations need this ability to snap back existing sanction, a step necessary for

enforcement that was consistent with the agreement and anticipated by it. there is noggin consistent in what we do today with the agreement. this strong message to iran is that we are ready, willing and able to hold iran accountable. we can ill afford to allow sanctions that deter and impede iran's development of conventional weapons and mass destruction to expire, as they would expire at the end of the year, and my hope is that as many as possible of my senate colleagues will join in this effort today. but holding iran accountable will scarcely end here. we must confront iran's maligned activities beyond its nuclear

program, its continued pursuit of intercontinental missile development, its suppression of free speech and other vital civil liberties in its own country, and of course its sponsorship of terrorism around the world, and we must fortify the security of both our allies in the middle east, most especially israel, as well as our nation. our major strategic partner in that region is israel. i look forward to working with my colleagues on the nbaa which will provide additional missile defense capabilities to that great ally, and we must see what we do today in renewing the iran sanctions agreement as a part of

an overall effort to secure the freedom and democracies that exist in that region insofar as they are always threatened and make sure that we protect our nation from a nuclear-armed iran. the iran sanctions renewal sends a signal and a message unmistakable to iran and the world that we are committed not just to the words of this agreement on paper but to the real enforcement of it, and to make sure that iran is held accountable if it violates this agreement in the slightest way. thank you, madam president, and i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator fromillinois. mr. kirk: madam president, i would ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. kirk: madam president, on december 1, 2011, the senate voted 100-0 to support the menendez-kirk amendment to impose crippling sanctions on the central bank of iran. as this chart shows the menendez -kirk amendment decreased the value of iran's currency by 73% the following year. on november 30, 2012, the senate passed the second menendez-kirk amendment by a 94-0 vote. this amendment cut off iran's energy and shipping sectors from

international markets. it also restricted iran's ability to borrow bold and other precious metals. these iran sanctions displayed the indispensable role of sanctions from the senate forcing iran to the negotiating table but the administration wasted our powerful economic leverage when it agreed to a bad deal with iran. since this disastrous deal, iran's behavior has worsened. iran has taken more american hostages, including bakhir and rezir tehani. it increased support to terrorist groups like hezbollah and hamas. it caused problems in yemen and iraq and iran and those places,

hezbollah and hamas. iran has conducted multiple missile tests. on october 10, 2015 and october 21, 2015, and march 8 and 9, 2016, and april 19, 2016. and july 11, 2016. in june of 2015, senator menendez and i introduced s. 1682, a bill to renew the sanctions act, the iran sanctions act of 1996, for ten more years. i'm glad to see the senate is again taking up a similar bill based on legislation by congressman ed royce that passed the house by 419-1. i urge p my colleagues to support this coming iran sanctions bill with these overwhelming numbers. president obama should immediately sign this act into law, the iran sanctions

extension act to make sure that happens. i urge the next president to join with the congress to do much more. our children should never be asked to clean up a nuclear war in the persian gulf. and iran, the world's biggest state sponsor of terrorism, should not have nuclear weapons. thank you, madam president. i yield back.

a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. peters: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. peters: thank you, madam president. i rise to express support for legislation the senate is considering today that will extend the iran sanctions act for ten years before it expires in just 30 days. i will be voting for this bill later today and i am proud to have cosponsored similar legislation earlier this year. the iran sanctions act, or the i.s.a., is an important aspect of u.s. sanctions on iran. the i.s.a. was enacted in 1996 to tighten sanctions on iran in response to its growing nuclear

program and support for terrorist organizations such as hamas and hezbollah. the i.s.a. provides the legislative authority for many of the sanctions on iran that were lifted but may be reimplemented if iran violents violents -- violent the joint comprehensive plan of action. these include sanctions on foreign investment in iran's oil and gas fields, sales of gasoline to iran and transportation of iranian crude oil. even though these sanctions were suspended by the jcpoa, we need this legal framework to address any iranian violations of the deal so that sanctions can be rapidly put in place if necessary. additionally, this framework maintains some sanctions that were not lifted under the jcpoa. the i.s.a. still requires the united states to sanction entities that assist iran with

acquiring or developing weapons of mass destruction, provide destabilizing numbers and types of advanced conventional weapons, or participate in uranium mining ventures with iran. these provisions remain in place, and it is absolutely critical that congress not allow them to expire at the end of the year. i believe the iran sanction act has been effective and must be renewed. tough sanctions were absolutely critical to bringing iran to the negotiating table, sanctions like those in the i.s.a. and the comprehensive iran sanctions accountability and divestment act of 2010 which i voted for as a member of the u.s. house of representatives. the jcpoa is the result of these and other tough, multilateral sanctions put in place through cooperation with international partners, but it is essentially

that the deal is strictly enforced. earlier this year, i led a letter to prernlings along with -- to president obama, along with s 14 of my colleagues to express our concern about the lack of details by the iaea in reports on iran's compliance with the jcpoa. while the iaea is the watchdog responsible for monitoring iran's compliance with the jcpoa, it is up to the united states and other parties of the jcpoa to respond to any violations. to ensure strict compliance, the iaea should also publish technical details, including the total quantity of low- enriched uranium in iran and the amount produced at natanz. specifics on centrifuge research and progress made in converting

iran nuclear facilities. these details will provide independent experts and members of congress conducting oversight of the jcpoa the opportunity to review the data behind the iaea analysis. iran opposes what we are doing here today, and they will say that renewing the iran sanctions act is a violation of the jcpoa. well, let me say, that is simply not true. reauthorization of the iran sanctions act in no way violates the jcpoa. the iran sanctions act has been the law of the land since 1996. it was in place when the jcpoa was adopted, and it remains so in effect today. with our vote today, congress will make clear that the united states will not hesitate to maintain sanctions on iran, and those that seek to provide the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism with weapons of mass destruction. we stand ready to impose rapid

and strict punishments for any violation of the jcpoa. this sanctions regime is how we hold iran accountable, strengthen our security, and deter iranian hostility towards our allies, especially the state of israel, which iran has singled out as a target for destruction. diplomacy a always our -- diplomacy is always our preferred course of action, but it does not work in a vacuum. it only works if it is backed up with credible deterrence. today we show the united states will continue our leadership against iranian aggression, work that must continue in the years ahead. madam president, i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: i ask the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: thank you, madam president. i come today to the senate floor to offer congratulations to the united states house of representatives, because last night in an overwhelming vote, the house passed what senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has described as the single most important piece of legislation the congress is likely to enact this year. this is the 21st century cures act, combined with the mental health law that is the most significant set of reforms of mental health programs in ten years. i.t. the result of bipartisan -- it's the result of bipartisan work of the last two years. it's purpose is to move cures

and treatments through the expensive investment process and the extensive regulatory process and into the medicine cabinets and doctors' offices of america more rapidly and safely at the same time. that also helps to lower costs, madam president, because we hear a great deal of cost -- of talk about the high cost of prescription medicines. if it takes more than 10 or 15 years and more than $1 billion to develop a treatment for alzheimer's, the cost is likely to be high. we'd like to lower that cost and speed that time up, as long as we continue to do it safely. i want to especially compliment the chairman of the house committee that worked on this, chairman fred upton, as well as

congressman pallone and congressman b beget. they have worked with senator murray, the ranking member on the senate's help committee, and with me for the last two years on a very complex bill but a very important bill. part of the bill has to do with money, and one part of that is $1 billion of funding for state grants for opioids. now, i suspect one reason there was such a large vote in the house of representatives yesterday -- only 26 members voted "no," 329 voted "yes" -- was because of this $1 billion for opioids. it would seem to me, at least in tennessee -- and i am a sure it's true in most states of the country -- there's no more urgent epidemic than opioid drug abuse. it is filling up the courts. it's filling up the jails. it's filling up the hospitals.

it's providing tragedies in families all across america. the senate passed important legislation earlier this year on programs authorize being new money -- authorizing new money, but, madam president, this is the money for state grantings to iowa, to tennessee, to california, every state to help deal with opioid epidemic abuse. so i suspect one reason that so many members of the senate voted yes -- so many members of the house voted "yes" yesterday and so few voted "no," is because of the state grants for opioid abuse. there was almost $4.8 billion of funding to the national institutes of health, which frances collins, the distinguished director, calls the national institutes of hope. $1.8 billion is for the cancer moonshot, led by vice president

biden; $1.4 billion is for the precision medicine or personalized medicine initiative, a special project of president obama; and $1.6 billion is for the brain initiative, that remarkable advance is being made in the ability to identify alzheimer's before symptoms are evident and then to retard its progression. and it's hard to imagine how much grief that would end and billions it would save if we could do that. so that's -- those are other reasons why there are only 26 members of the house of representatives who voted "no" yesterday and 392 to voted "yes." the mayo clinic has sent a letter to me. "on behalf of the mayo clinic, i write in enthusiastic support of the 21st century cures and salute your leadership on this. we're pleased to see inclusion of dedicated streaming of funds for the food and drug

administration, national institutes of health." madam president, i ask unanimous consent to include this letter in the record following my remarks. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: so, madam president, on nextman day, the senate -- on next monday, the senate will have a chance to see if we can do as well as the house of representatives. i would ask my colleagues to think long and hard about a big vote. let me give you one reason especially why. this $6.3 billion that's in the 21st century cures bill is designated for opioids, the precision medicine, for cancer, for brain, for f.d.a. -- has to be approved every year by a vote. that's the wait our appropriations process works. i would say to my democratic friends, as well as my republican friends, that if you're concerned about whether the $6.3 billion will be available next year and the next year and the next year, the best way to ensure that it is is to cast a big vote on monday for it

this year, because it will be very hard to explain if you vote for $6.3 billion this year spread over the next few years, why you did not vote to support it next year and the following year. the big vote in the house should give assurance to democrats as well as republicans in the senate that these are real dollars, that they're done in a fundamental and responsible way, and to republicans who look at the $6.3 billion and say, i like the idea of funding opioids, like the idea of improving funding for the national institutes of health, let me say that this is done in a responsible way. speaker ryan, who everybody knows is a conservative budget hawk, created the mechanism for this funding. it was approved by the budget chairman, and it goes like this. $6.3 billion over the next several years for these dedicated purposes.

it can only be spent for those purposes. it has to be approved every year. it does not increase the overall spending of the budget by one penny because it is offset by reductions in mandatory spending on the other side. so $6.3 billion up here, $6.3 billion down there over the next ten years. in fact, it's $6.3 billion for each of the next ten years as we go down the road. so this is a compromise, but it is a magnificent compromise, madam president. it is, as senator mcconnell has said, the most important piece of legislation we'll deal with this year. the house passed it with a huge bipartisan vote, 392-26. i hope that we in the senate do just as well on next monday. because the real winners will be the american people as they look forward to treatments from alzheimer's, for cancer, a vaccine for zika, a nonaddictive

pain medicine which will help deal with the opioid epidemic, degenerative me medicine, which will help restore hearts and perhaps even eyesights in miraculous ways. this is treel truly an exciting time and this is truly an effective piece of legislation that deserves our support. come to the floor on monday and then pass on tuesday and wednesday. i thank the president. i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call: quorum call:

quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. a senator: madam president, it appears a quorum call is not present. may i ask unanimous consent that that be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection.

a senator: than -- thank you. mr. coats: 54 times i've been down here to highlight and document waste, fraud and abuse. i told my staff i hope we can reach a hundred billion dollars or so, some target. do you think there's that much waste, fraud and abuse floating around here in the federal government? well, we hit that hundred billion a long time ago. and we know i think about the 20th week and we now have moved to a pretty staggering number which is a third -- more than a third of a trillion dollars of waste that has been documented by independent agencies of the government and supporting us with information as to why this money should not have been spent or how it was wasted or lost through fraud or abuse. now, today -- i've had a number of serious issues here that run

into the billions and billions of dollars that easily could be fixed. some of them we've started by pointing this out with gislation to try to fix these things, but it just keeps piling on here. and so every once in a while i throw in something so ridiculous, people will understand the fact that there may have been some benefit to that program. we don't understand what the benefit was, but surely, surely these ridiculous examples of money spent, hard earned tax money spent is not used for this purpose. tell me it's not true. unfortunately it is true. so today i'm adding to more examples of something where people say how can this be possible. mr. coats: the total ends up to about another $1.5 million. one of the studies was funded by grants from the national science foundation totaling $1.3

million. the researchers' application stated they would use the grant funds to examine a variety of factors one of which was how does humidity affect the heat that we feel? so, you know, if you go to florida and it's 90 degrees, you got to shower three times a day and you're sweating and it feels like it's 110 but the temperature says 90. if you go to arizona and it's 90 degrees, you don't have to take a shower at all because you can go out and take a run but it's so dry, you don't feel that heat that you would feel in florida. i had the same situation in indiana. northern indiana is up near the great lakes and it's much cooler, fresher, lower humidity than southern indiana which lies along the ohio river. and so the same temperature down in southern indiana as northern indiana, people really feel that it's different. so i think we all know this.

we've all experienced this through summers, through dry days and through humid days. but, no, national science foundation said we need a grant. let's -- i mean we need a study and let's give a grant for someone who made an application, $1.3 million, to see if we can prove that humidity makes it feel like it's a lot hotter. so what they did -- this is what they did. folks, i can't make this up. this is true. their initial study was, they took beer cans and coosies. you know what those are? coosies are those things you wrap around a cold bottle of coke cola or a cold bottle of beer or a can of this or that and so forth and so on in order to keep them cold or keep the temperature inside. they put these beer cans, coosies around to see if it was successful in moderating the

humidity or what it would do to it. the researchers' official founding -- round of testing was done in a basement bathroom where researchers adjusted the temperature and humidity turning on the hot water shower and a space heater. now you think, okay, nsf gave us $1.3 million to try to put a study together. you'd think they'd go to some kind of lab ndz get -- lab and get sophisticated equipment and so forth. instead they went down into the basement bathroom, shut the door, turned on the shower, hot water, and that wasn't enough so they put a space heater in there to heat it up and guess what? the coosiess worked. when you buy a product, christmas time, everybody is going to go out and buy stuff.

companies test something they want to sell if they think it's going to be bought by the american people. they're successful. do we have to provide a government grant to help determine whether or not this works? can't we just go to the company and say hey, you developed this. you had studies. what did you learn? well, $1.3 million. i think we have here a photo -- oh, yeah, here it is. here essentially was what $1.3 million bought. they got a little something to measure with here and they put a can over this -- looks like gatorade or some kind of powe powerade or whatever. i suppose the money went to buy some of this -- some of this equipment here to test that. but does the taxpayer have to do this? is it $1.3 million of money

taken from taxpayers' paychecks? is that what it's used for? well, i guess this is great news for beverage drinkers but it's mind boggling that we spend that kind of money. the second thing i would like to highlight here is another study, this one by darpa. darpa is the defense advanced research projects agency. i admire this agency. it's done a lot of good things. this little known agency states that it is held to a singular and enduring mission. it's on their literature. make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security purposes. that's a needed essential use of federal dollars to make sure that our war fighters have the kind of equipment and have the kind of research backing up what they're doing. so that's a legitimate expenditure. but then why did darpa decide that the understanding as to why

coffee sometimes spims when you're walk -- spills when you're walking. maybe it's hot and gets on the soldiers' hands or whatever -- the. the presidinpresiding officer ht know as military command you would authorize the study, moving when you had a cup of coffee in your hand you were more likely to spill the coffee than you were if you were standing still. trust me, folks, this is what this study was all about. and they concluded -- here was the conclusion of the study. to prevent a spill, you need to pay attention to your coffee while you're walking because the movement might result in a spill. now, confession here. on my way to work, i drive in from virginia.

i have to go by a bakery shop on lee highway, and i flip in there every morning. it's become a habit now, gotten to know the people. for a donut and cup of coffee. but i don't want to waste time getting to work so i jump into the car and eat the donut and drink the coffee while i'm trying to deal with traffic in washington, get over the bridges and get to work. i have noticed over time that if i have to put the brakes on a little hard or start a little fast or make a quick turn, my coffee slurps out of the cup. and so all they would have had to do is buy my coffee and i could have proved to them that movement would require liquid to move also and if you're worried about coffee spilling out of the cup, i could have proven that if all they had to do was buy me a donut and a cup of coffee.

so where's all this come down? where this all comes down in serious nature is the fact that we are nearly $20 trillion in debt. we cannot balance our budget. we spend more every year than what we take in, and we have to go out and borrow that money on which we then have to pay interest. by the way, interest rates are going up. and when you're in this kind of a fiscal situation, can we not at least, at least as a body stop this waste, fraud and abuse and these stupid expenditures and ridiculous expenditures of taxpayer money. this is just a drop in the bucket here. we've got much bigger things to do to save the taxpayers' dollars. but at the very least could we not address these waste, abuse

and fraud that is taking place? i've offered legislation of a number of ways to do that. i know the majority leader is moving to the floor so i need to wrap up so i will. 54 times down here on the senate floor, we have a total of $351,587,239,536 of documented, certified waste, fraud and abuse. and we wonder why the american people are fed up with the status quo of what is happening here in washington. madam president, with that i yield the floor. mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask the chair to lay before the body the message to accompany h.r. 34. the presiding officer: the chair lays before the body the following message. the clerk: resolve that the house agreed to the amendment of the senate to the bill h.r. 34

entitled an act to authorize and strengthen the tsunami detection forecast warning research and mitigation program and so forth and for other purposes with an amendment. mr. mcconnell: i move to concur on the house amendment to the senate amendment to h.r. 34 and i send a cloture motion to the desk on the motion to concur. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: cloture motion, we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to concur in the house amendment to the senate amendment to h.r. 34, an act to authorize and strennen the tsunami detection and so forth and for other purposes signed by -- mr. mcconnell: i ask that the reading of the names be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i move to concur on the house amendment to the senate amendment to h.r. 34 with a further amendment. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from kentucky, mr. mcconnell, moves

to concur in the house amendment to the senate amendment to h.r. 34 with an amendment numbered 5117. mr. mcconnell: i ask the reading be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask for the yeas and nays on the motion to concur with the amendment. the presiding officer: is there sufficient second? there appears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. mcconnell: i have a second-degree amendment at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator there kentucky mr. mcconnell proposes an amendment numbered 5118 to amend numbered 5117. mr. mcconnell: i ask the reading be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i move to refer the house message on h.r. 34 to the committee on health, education, labor and pensions with instructions to report back forthwith with an amendment numbered 5119. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from kentucky, mr. mcconnell, moves to refer the house message on h.r. 34 to the committee on health, education, labor and

pensions, with instructions to report back forthwith with an amendment numbered 5119. mr. mcconnell: i ask for the yeas and nays on my motion. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. mcconnell: i have an amendment to the instructions. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from kentucky, mr. mcconnell, proposes an amendment numbered 5120 to the instructions of the motion to refer. mr. mcconnell: i ask the reading be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask for the yeas and nays on my amendment. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. mcconnell: i have a second-degree amendment at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from kentucky, mr. mcconnell, proposes an amendment numbered 5121 to amendment numbered 5120. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule 22, the cloture vote on the motion to concur occur at

5:30 p.m. on monday, december 5. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to the consideration of h.r. 6297, which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 693, h.r. 6297, an act to reauthorize the iran sanctions act of 1996. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the clerk will read the report for the third time -- the bill for the third time. the clerk: calendar number 693, h.r. 6297, an act to reauthorize the iran sanctions act of 1996. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll.

vote:

vote: