services, and the o.c.c. has refused to act in response to this effort by the financial institution to evade oversight. as a result, the bank l tokyo, which is a former client of the current head of the o.c.c., mr.e supervised by his office and appears to have successfully dodged an active investigation into his client's potential evasion of u.s. sanctions on foreign adversaries, in this case north korea and iran. so that's the person that was installed by the trump administration during these first months from the beginning of the year until now, using this underhanded method. and so finally we now have the

nomination put forward for the person who will permanently be proposed to head up the o.c.c., joseph otting. and in mr. otting, we have another example of somebody whose entire career has been spent working with banks and other major financial institutions to try to evade important consumer protections and taxpayer protections. in fact, mr. otting and his bank were able to profit very handsomely from the mortgage crisis. the c.e.o. of one west during part of that crisis was the person who's now secretary of

the treasury, steve mnuchin. he was the head of one west during the foreclosure crisis. during that time, one west had what many have called a foreclosure machine in place. and mr. otting, who is going to be in the, the head of the o.c.c. and who we would hope would be more independent as required by the charter of the o.c.c., he was there working for the secretary treasury, steve mnuchin, at one west. and mr. otting was there working at one west when the bank foreclosed on nearly 40,000 americans. and one west received more than $1 billion in taxpayer money to cover one west's losses. those are exactly the kind of losses that we're trying to avoid in the aftermath of the crisis, that we're trying to

avoid by adopting the wall street reform bill, dodd-frank, so that taxpayers, our constituents, aren't left holding the bag for decisions made by people like mr. otting and mr. mnuchin. according to one media summary, one west bank, quote, rushed delinquent homeowners out of their homes by violating notice and waiting period statutes, illegally back dating key documents and effectively gamed foreclosure auctions. end of quote. in the reverse mortgage business, one west controlled firm financial freedom engaged in practices that led to more than 16,000 foreclosures, a far greater number than would be expected based on the company's market share. elderly individuals who had

recently suffered the death of a spouse were victimized. in one case, mr. president, financial freedom attempted to evict a 90-year-old woman from her home over a 27 cent error on her insurance payment. in another case, a new york state supreme court judge called one west's foreclosure practices, quote, harsh, repugnant, shocking, and repulsive. unquote. and yet, the person that has now been nominated to lead the o.c.c., the office of the comptroller of the currency, a person who is supposed to be looking out for consumers and taxpayer interests and providing for a sound banking system that doesn't melt down our economy,

is mr. otting. he was the person who was in the middle of these bank one west foreclosure transactions. and so, mr. president, i hope that this body will not support that nomination. now, mr. president, i started by talking about the tax bill. and i want to get back to making a few more remarks about that tax bill, because there's one thing that's in common between the nomination of mr. otting to oversee much of the banking system and the tax bill, which is that both of them are part of an effort to provide big gifts to big banks and to corporate america.

we're seeing the trump administration trying to use government power to help these large, big financial institutions at the expense of consumers and at the expense of taxpayers. let's just take a look at what happened yesterday and is continuing to happen in the senate finance committee. republicans on that committee and the republican tax plan couldn't have sent a clearer message than they did just yesterday, that the republican tax plan puts big corporate interests first and leaves the rest of the country behind, including millions of people in the middle class who will be left holding the bag. so under the new tax plan, the

tax cuts for corporations, those big tax cuts reducing the rate from 35% to 20%, they go on forever. they go on for the first ten years. they go on for the next ten years. they go on forever. but for everybody else, for those other americans that get some tax cut under this bill, all those tax cuts go away after ten years. they get sunset. so if you're one of the folks in the middle who republicans say, hey, this bill's for you, and you will get some benefit, it's going away. but the corporate tax cut is there forever. i want to be clear, there are lots of folks in the middle, millions and millions, who

aren't even going to see any initial tax benefit. in fact, they're going to be paying more in taxes. we also saw as part of this bill yesterday an effort to repeal important provisions to the affordable care act. changes that will result in 13 million americans losing access to affordable health care and premiums being jacked up by 10% on the individual market. so let's do the math here. 13 million americans lose access to affordable care act. premiums go up by 10%. middle-class families, millions of them pay higher taxes all to finance a permanent corporate tax cut. now let's take a moment and look at who these multinational corporations are, because ultimately the benefits, the

profits, they go to the c.e.o.'s and executives, and of course they go to the shareholders. so let's look at who some of these shareholders are that are going to get this whopping big tax benefit from cutting the corporate tax rate. mr. president, when you dig under here a little bit, you discover that 35% of u.s. corporate stock is owned by foreigners. people who aren't americans. 35% of the people who get the benefit of that gigantic corporate tax cut are foreign stockholders. and according to the institute of taxation and economic policy, those foreign stockholders are going to get a $31 billion windfall from the republican tax plan in 2019

alone. now even before the sunset of the individual taxes, corporate tax rates go on forever, millionaires and billionaires are the biggest winners under the plan. you know, president trump reportedly made this phone call to a number of senators just the other day saying, hey, guess what? you know what? i'm going to be a, quote, big loser under this republican tax plan. that's what president trump said. well, mr. president, prove it. president trump release your tax returns as presidents have routinely done for decades, and show the american people that this plan doesn't enrich the trump family and the trump businesses. because here's what the chicago tribune says, quote, trump says

he's a big loser in g.o.p. tax plan. experts say it could save him tens of millions of dollars. unquote. in fact, just one part of the republican tax plan, cutting the taxes on large estates, could give president trump's heirs a windfall of $4.4 million. and that's because the plan doubles the amount of money that is exempt from estate taxes. i'm talking here about the senate plan. the senate plan provides that $4.4 million windfall because the exemption today is for states under $11 million. in other words, if you're a couple with an estate under $11 million, you don't pay a single penny in federal estate tax. the senate republican plan takes that up to $22 million, and in doing so will provide president trump's heirs with a big windfall.

in fact, if you use the house plan, which repeals it entirely, we're talking about a windfall of over $1 billion. the republican plan also eliminates the alternative minimum tax. now that was a provision put in the tax code to provide some equity because a lot of wealthy people with good lawyers are able to take advantage of lots of deductions that many americans until the middle are not aim -- many americans in the middle are not able to claim. and so we want to make sure that folks who did make a ton of money couldn't escape all of their responsibility to the rest of the country to pay their fair share of taxes. and that's why we adopted the alternative minimum tax. well, we know that back in 2005, president trump when he

filed his tax returns had to pay a tax in that year because of the alternative minimum tax. in fact, in that year it was $31 million. so let's get rid of that provision. and that will help a lot of very wealthy people escape any tax obligation, even as folks in the middle pay theirs. now there's another way that trump enterprises will benefit from this republican tax plan, and that's through the so-called pass-through business provisions. these are businesses that don't pay corporate taxes. their profits are passed through and taxed on their individual returns of their owners. and a lot of people want the public to think that all these pass throughs are small mom and

pops. mr. president, i want to be there. we want to help mom and pops. we should be providing some tax benefits and relief to mom and pops. but everyone who looks at this knows that a lot of those are not mom and pop. in fact, many of them are on the fortune 500 list in the united states, the 500 wealthiest entities. in fact, some of these pass-through entities are in the fortune 100 list. not mom and pops. and guess who owns more than 500 pass-through entities? the trump organization. they will get a big windfall. so president trump, show the american public your tax forms before you go around telling people that you're going to be a big loser out of this plan.

now it's not just about president trump. this is one example of the very wealthy americans who are going to get a windfall under this plan. a provision that was put into the senate republican plan will help a lot of very well-heeled lobbyists here in washington, d.c. so if you're a married lobbyist under the senate republican plan making up to $500,000 a year, you get to claim a deduction for 17.4% of your income. that's an $87,000 tax deduction if you're making $500,000 a year. but if you're the secretary working for that lobbying firm or you're somebody hired to help clean up the firm, sorry, you're

out of luck. you don't get that special lobbyist pass-through tax rate. now, mr. president, the question is who's going to pay for all of this at the end of the day, because we're providing this huge tax giveaway to big corporations. we're providing tax breaks to the very wealthiest estates in the country. it's, by the way, only about two out of 1,000 taxpayers. there are less than 5,000 taxpayers in the country each year who end up paying that estate tax. the very wealthiest in the country. but who is going to pay for all of this? well, millions of middle-class taxpayers are going to pay under this plan. and we know from the joint tax

committee that in 2019, the senate republican plan will raise taxes on more than 13 million middle-class families, people with incomes below $200,000. by 2025, more than 21 million middle-class families are going to get a tax hike. right. this is a plan that's being sold to the public as something to provide middle-class tax relief, but the joint committee on taxation, these are the pros, the nonpartisan experts here in congress tell us that that plan is going to raise taxes on 21 million middle-class tax families. one of the biggest sources of this increase in taxes for middle-class families is the complete repeal in the senate bill of people's ability to

deduct state and local taxes. more than 100 million american families use this deduction today. repealing it is double taxation, pure and simple. those taxpayers now pay a dollar in tax to their state, whether it be the state of maryland, the state of oklahoma, waldorf it may be. now they are going to be paying federal taxes on the dollar that they sent to support the state government, and the senate bill, mr. president, is a whole -- even worse than the house bill. the house bill is bad on this issue, but it was hard to believe but the senate actually made this provision even worse. and if you look at this chart, it's interesting because what you find is that the huge corporate tax cut which helps a

lot of foreign investors. in fact, as i indicated, 35% criminal of all those stockholders are foreign investors, so that's going to give them in just the year 2019 a $31 billion tax break. right? this is money we are sending to foreigners, foreign stockholders. and in that same year, we find out that americans, many folks who are in the middle, middle-class americans are going to pay $34 billion more in taxes. so you're asking middle-class american families to finance big tax cuts for foreigners who own stock in american corporations.

what a gift to american middle-class taxpayers, a direct transfer from them to foreign stockholders. when you also deny people the ability to deduct their state and local taxes, you're also taxing decisions by state and local governments, which is ironic since our republican colleagues have always said that it's best to leave most decisions to our local and state leaders because they're close to the people. now you're taxing the decisions that they make to support their schools, to support their firefighters, to make investments locally. now taxpayers in those communities have got to pay their local government or pay their state, and then they have to pay the feds on that same

money that they just paid to their city or to their state for important services like schools for our kids. and, mr. president, here is the crazy thing about this republican tax plan. even after you ask middle-class american families to pay more, millions of them, millions and millions of them to pay more so that foreign stockholders will get a tax break, even after you do all that, it raises the national debt by $1.5 trillion. $1.5 trillion. now, for many years, i served as the senior democrat on the house budget committee, and at that time the current speaker of the house, paul ryan, was the chairman of that committee. he talked all the time about the dangers and risks of adding to

our national debt. and do you know what? that is actually an area where we found some agreement, because we shouldn't have an ever-rising national debt, and yet this republican tax plan is calculated to increase the national debt by a whopping $1.5 trillion. so people cared about our national debt when that was used as a reason to propose cuts to medicare and medicaid and social security, but when it comes to financing tax breaks for foreign stockholders and big corporations, apparently that debt doesn't matter. mr. president, i have a prediction to make. i have a prediction that if this tax bill goes through and we blow up the national debt by $1.5 trillion, speaker ryan and

everybody else who told us about the risks and dangers of a big national debt, all of a sudden they're going to rediscover their commitment to reducing the national debt. forgot about it when it came to financing big tax breaks, but you know what? gosh, it really is a big deal. and then they're not going to talk about rolling back the tax breaks they just gave the big corporations. they're going to go about cutting important investments. cutting medicare, cutting medicaid, cutting education. and do you know why i'm very confident that we can predict that's what's going to happen? because our republican colleagues are told us. it's right there in the budget. it's in their budget that passed the senate and passed the house. just open up those budgets. almost a $500 billion cut to

medicare. $743 billion, to be exact. $1 trillion cut to medicaid in the republican budget. big cuts, big cuts to domestic investments, and that's the category of our budget that funds education, modernizes our infrastructure, medical research. it's all right there in the republican budget. so i hope, mr. president, that the american public is going to have a chance to focus on this. i understand why people are trying to speed this through, speed it through the house before thanksgiving, speed it through the house and senate before the end of the year. but people are beginning to wake up to this, and i can assure my colleagues that when they find out exactly what's in this republican plan c. consent they are going to be very, very

angry, because all those middle-class families that were sold a bill of goods thinking that they are going to get this big tax cut, huh-uh. millions of them are going to see a tax increase to finance tax breaks for big corporations and very wealthy americans, and pay for it by rising national debt and ultimately cuts to important health and retirement security programs, as well as education. so i hope that people will turn back now. the way to do this is the way tax reform was done in 1986. in a bipartisan transparent fashion. mr. president, let's get back to doing this the right way.

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: the

senate not in a quorum call. mr. mcconnell: i cuck that notwithstanding rule 22, that at 11:30 a.m. on thursday, november 16, there be 30 minutes of postcloture time remain on the otting nomination equally divided between the leaders or their designees. following the use or yield back of that time, the senate vote on the confirmation of the otting nomination to qualify -- to confirm, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. i further ask that following disposition of the otting nomination, the senate vote on the pending cloture motions on the coggins and friedrich nominations in the order filed. if cloture is invoked, the postcloture time on the nominations run consecutively. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of the

following nominations, calendar number 486 and 487. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will report. the clerk: nominations, department of justice, bobby l. christine of georgia to be u.s. attorney for the southern district of georgia. david j. freid of pennsylvania to be u.s. district attorney for the middle district of pennsylvania. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that the senate vote on the nominations en bloc with no intervening action or debate, if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, en bloc; the president be immediately notified of the senate's, a that no further motions be in order and that any statements relating to the nominations be printed in the record. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: is there further debate? if not, all in favor say aye. those opposed, say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nominations are confirmed en bloc. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to legislative session for a

period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 258, s. 807. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 257, s. 80, a bill to provide anti-retaliation protections for antitrust whistle-blowers. the presiding officer: objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h.r. 3949 which was received from the house. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 3949, an act to amend title 38 united states code and so forth. the presiding officer: there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection.

mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the committee on veterans' affairs be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 1545 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 1545, an act to amend title 38, united states code, and so forth, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the committee is discharged, and the senate will proceed. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the bill be considered read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate now proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following senate riewlings amended earlier today. s. res. 332, 333, and 334. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, the senate will proceed to the measures en bloc. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles where

applicable be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. thursday, november 16. further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning business be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day and morning business be closed. finally, following leader remarks, the senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the otting nomination. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: so if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order, following the remarks of senator merkley. the presiding officer: without objection.

mr. merkley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: mr. president, climate destruction is the seminal challenge of our generation. it affects everything from our farms to our forests to our fisheries. we're seeing huge impacts around

the world. disappearing ice in the arctic, melting permafrost, dying coral, raging fires, more powerful storms. everywhere you look, it's having an impact. and it's certainly an impact that we need to pay a great deal of attention to because it is hurting human civilization, and the impacts are just beginning. they're going to become worse over time. in response, communities across the globe are transforming their energy economies. they are certainly making their economies more energy efficient, from increasing the insulation in buildings to improving vehicle mileage to having the greater efficiency in appliances, and to replacing fossil fuel energy with clean renewable energy. how much do you know about the changes under way, about the dramatic modifications of our

energy economy and the impacts of climate disruption? let's find out. welcome to episode eight of the senate climate disruption quiz. here we go. first question. researchers predict that there will be an ice-free arctic by the summer of what year? will it be the year 2020, three years from now, the year 2030, the year 2075 or will it be 2100, the end of the century? lock in your answers. here is the correct answer. that is b, the year 2030. researchers say that as early as 2030, the arctic ocean could essentially lose all of its ice during the year's warmest months. we see here a map of what was happening in the past.

the red outlines, in addition to the pink and white, represent where the ice was in the summer of 1980. 1998, less area covered. 2012, yet less area covered. and in the last two summers, the northwest passage has been free of ice, and that is what has enabled a ship called the crystal serenity to move up and then essentially take tourists through the northwest passage where you see this ice in 1998 and 1980. so that's a big change. so if we have an effort to address the improvements made in paris, then the estimate is there would still be ice here in that year of 2030 in an area that's about the size of india. that's a substantial amount of

ice, but as you can see, it's really shrinking quickly. okay. on to our second question. over the next decade, the number of u.s. wind energy technicians is expected to decline by 10%, grow by 100%, that is to double, remain about stable, or disappear completely. lock in your answers. the correct answer is grow by over 100%. in other words, it will double. and these are jobs that are good jobs. last year, more than 100,000 people were employed in some manner by the wind industry, and the median pay was about $51,000 a year. a good middle-class job. we're seeing the jobs grow as the demand for wind energy grows throughout the country. the american wind energy

association says that in just the first three months of 2017, 2000 megawatts of wind power were added, which is almost a fourfold increase over what happened in the first three months of 2016. so big changes happening quickly. question number three. president trump's administration released a study in november, the national climate assessment, and president trump's study attributed the major cause of climate disruption to volcanic activity, or did his study say that the major cause was natural cycle or human activity or solar activity? lock in your answers. the answer is on this study from president trump's team, not

volcanic activity and not solar activity and not a natural cycle. it was, in fact, human activity. a study from the trump administration. they produced a chart that said when you look at the temperature increase, how much can be attributed to human-caused activity, and you can see a massive chart here. how much can be attributed to solar flares, solar activity and being closer to the sun? very little impact. and how much can be attributed to volcanic activity, and that was actually negative. so from the trump administration, a huge statement that human activity is causing the increase of the temperature of our planet. turning to question number four. why did india shut down new delhi's schools -- and that's

4,000 schools. why did india shut down new delhi's 4,000 schools for several days in november? was it, a., lead in the water? b., religious tensions? c., record air pollution? or four, a population explosion? lock in your answers. the correct answer is, in fact, record air pollution. and you can measure this, but you can also see it. and so i'll put up a picture of that pollution in new delhi. now, you can barely see these people from a short distance away riding a motorcycle with the father clamping his hand over his son's face, hoping to reduce the impact of the air

pollution on the children. this air pollution was considered to be equivalent to smoking 50 cigarettes a day. and the doctors are saying that the kids who come in, young kids who come in who should have pink lungs have dark lungs, gray, black lungs. so it's having a huge health impact. the health industry measures it by p.m. par tis late matter, and it has 2.5micrometers or less. it can cause all kinds of problems in the lungs and as they absorb into the bloodstream. the e.p.a. standard, the environmental protection agency

standard, considers anything between 151 and 1200 -- and 200 as unhealthy. what they registered on this day was 1,000. it topped the 1,000 mark. and, i would, you can understand how dangerous this is and this is from burning fossil fuels, burning coal, specifically. and that brings us to our final question, question five. what percent of american voters support staying in the paris agreement? and this, of course, is the international agreement in which every country of the world is now involved. recently there were two countries that had not signed up, and that was nicaragua and syria, but they both signed up now. of course, president trump has said that he plans to leave.

technically we're still signed up because he can't leave under the agreement until november 2020. still because he said he's planning to leave, it has produced a lot of action by american citizens. what percent of american voters support staying in? is it zero percent, 15%, a little more than one out of eight, 45%, just shy of half, or 70%? lock in your answers. well, the yale program and climate indication did a poll, released earlier this year, and the answer is that 70% -- seven out of ten americans -- say stay in. now, this support is more than

half for every party including the unaffiliated voters, or independent voters. it is very high among democrats, 86%, among independents, it's 61%, but 51%, more than one out of every two republicans say, yes, stay in. they looked at self-identified voters for president trump, and there again one out of two, a majority, say stay in. there you have it, folks, episode eight of the senate climate disruption quiz. questions ripped from the headlines on the most important issue facing human kind. carbon dioxide levels are accelerating. our planet has caught a fever and there is no doctor for the planet. we have to address it. we have to act.

we are the first generation to experience the impacts and the last generation that can head off catastrophic consequences. we're racing the clock. there's no time to spare so stay engaged, and in the future, i will bring you episode nine of the senate climate disruption quiz. thank you. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until senate stands adjourned until >> the senate going on.they conr secretary. now to the senate finance committee. lawmakers are viewing the gop tax plan. >> it would raise premiums 10% on the individual market. were told it will be to $25 billion in medicare credit.

this is the opposite of what we need a will colorado when there is not enough coverage. not enough competition. my amendment provides a backstop for world communities in my state and country. if rule areas leave loose health coverage which is what is predicted by people have looked at the plant, the amendment would onto the tax plan entirely. if the majority is so confident in their proposal in terms of deficit reduction they should support this amendment and provide peace of mind to small towns across colorado. the effects of passing this bill are going to be felt hardest in areas where there's little competition already. and where people have a hard time affording insurance and

many rely on medicare and medicaid. i urge a yes vote on this amendment. >> i have to rule it non- germane. it's outside of the scope of this. >> i would argue, i respect your ruling, but i would argue is very much inside the cope of the scope of the bill because in pitcher mandate will drive up prices. >> okay. i will relent. >> i will relent. >> okay that means a lot to me personally. senator carper next. >> colleagues, this would be amendment to 28 deals with veterans. several on the committee are veterans. i spent 23 years of active

reserve duty. when my favorite days of the years veterans day. my guess most of us back home in our respective states on friday saturday veterans organizations and those whose reserve we will veterans day's 11th month of the year, 11th hour, 11th day. when that i spoke with in delaware talk about the benefits were injured in delaware and i move there 1973 was eligible for the g.i. bill. at the time we had a bill that gave us $250 a month, those it. folks coming home today who serve three years receiver g.i.

bill worth they want to go to a state university tuition free. tutoring fees paid for. in a housing allowance. looking around to see if we have a but here from idaho, we do. the housing allowance for 36 months for veterans $1100 a month. not sure what that buys in idaho, but that's a fair amount of money. in delaware the monthly housing allowances $2100. the monthly housing allowance in new york state is $4000 a month. in my state we had a veterans hospital that's a world war ii relic hospital. that moron not great care.

we had no community outpaced clinic serve veterans home. today, that hospital is regarded by many as a gold standard for healthcare delivery. we have outpatient clinics or hospital in every county in delaware we have a virginia facility. i suspect we may be the only seen the country who may state that claim. not every veteran gets their healthcare coverage through the virginia. many folks get their coverage through medicaid and medicaid covers about 2 million veterans, one in ten.

since the affordable care act went into effect number working age veterans who are insured has decreased. , not by just a few percentage points, by 42%. that is due in no small part to the affordable care act establishing marketplaces and expanding medicaid. mr. sherman and colleagues, the amendment before's would ensure no veterans or the families see reduction or access to the healthcare as a result of the bill. it would ensure no veterans or their families see reduction and access to their healthcare as a result of the bill. i must heard 100 times last weekend on veterans day hundreds

of times people thinking one another for their service. i have been thing for my service and i think a lot of people for theirs. had we make real those words? th the stipulation that no veterans or families receive reduction in healthcare as a result of this bill. everybody in this room believes we have an obligation to honor veterans and to not reduce their benefits. >> your time is up. >> i think senator isaacson wants to speak with this.

>> i was proud of where the 14 people were honored in the building last week leading up to veterans day. as chairman of the veterans committee we pass seven of the bills to bring veterans health care and choice bill to full fruition. the remaining bill will be marked up 29th of november when we fully fund choice so the private-sector multiplier is a part of the system. i appreciate the credit to the veterans and i share the comments and compliments. the veterans committee is doing is see that every veteran gets the benefits they were promised when they signed up. everyone in this room has been a part of that effort. i want the committee to continue

to take care of our veterans. i would object to the amendment on those grounds. >> 30 seconds to respond? >> i give you 30 seconds. >> i'm not familiar with the legislation you describe. we are also considering legislation that affect what's going on in the exchanges. many veterans get their healthcare in the exchanges. i'm asking for a statement that makes it clear we don't want to let anything or doing to reduce access to veterans. >> the clerk recall the role.

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