opposition? all those in favor say aye. opposed. the amendment is accepted. next is the ayotte amendment on energy. >> i have an amendment that would address very important provisions on energy deficit neutral reserve right providing assistance to those who are low income,. and also federal support for the land and water conservation fund. this fund will allow you to look at energy efficiency and how we deal with having we protect the environment.

all those in favor say i? >> opposed? it passed. next to senator baldwin. >> thank you. this amendment would restore a point of order that was eliminated in the against reconciliation legislation that would increase the deficit or increase the server us. i want to yield to senator white house the balance of my time. >> this must be the most important vote we take today. i support the senator. >> without objection. this takes us act two 2008 in the way the committee ran. i would ask for a no info on this. please pull the committee. -- please poll the committee.

>> the amendment has failed. as job training. -- next is job training. >> it would reduced under -- redundancy. it comes about training programs. we have done studies on this to show that we have 47 different programs spread over several different agencies, many have not been subject to a performance review.

some overlap with one another. i hope we would get support on both sides. senator kaine and i joined on this one as we did on the current technical education fees to ensure we have a trained workforce to close the current skills gap we have and get back to work. >> opposition? all in favor say i >> it is passed. >> senator merkley. >> thank you. this is the corollary to the current technical education, the stem program, stem programs are incredibly positive ingredient in schools across the nation. to advance the learning and

science technology and mathematics. an potential to do more good by enhancing these programs. i hope we can follow the model of having a voice vote as we did on the cte component earlier. >> it is my understanding that you amended this neck of? >> yes. cte was addressed by senator kaine's proposal. technical education that line has been struck on page stupid it addresses stem programs. >> any opposition >> amar --? that is passed. if anyone wants a recorded no vote on a forceful, they can have that.

senator sessions as to be recorded on the last vote. next to senator keynes amendment. >> this is deceptive -- deficit reserve fund to help with ongoing initiatives, to help basis do infrastructure and improvements to avoid the effects of climate change. this is important to my state because of sea level rises. shortages and water supply, not only good for the base, and that national defense, but will help our communities avoid climate effects. >> it's been 10 years since we have had a category three hurricane hit the united states the longest in the last 100 years. dr. filthy of colorado university said tornadoes are

down and hurricanes are down a rather significant degree. many of the predictions that we have seen, alarmist results of climate change have not occurred. i just think that we shouldn't be where passing legislation based on damages that might occur from climate change until we see those damages. i would oppose the amendment because if the sea levels rise and we need money we will have to spend it. if it doesn't, we don't. >> these are not prospective damages in virginia or elsewhere appear that our current. the flooding is arctic occurring.

-- the flooding is already occurring. >> are there any others who wish to change their vote?

>> that has passed. next, senator graham on defense. >> thank you. this amendment is about the overseas contingency operation count from 38 billion to mirror what the house has appeared the argument i made before is that the world in 2015 is different for the worst. what senator murray said about the sequestration is true, it is affecting the department of the fbi, the cia. a lot of programs are affected, but not more than the military. if you pull the sequestration trigger would it be like shooting yourself in the foot? he said it would be like shooting yourself in the head here and i have never seen more

threats to the nation, more money, more capability, more desire to hit the home of than i do now. this amendment is a trap -- step to try to stop that. >> opposition? >> this country went to war in iraq and afghanistan under president bush, but we did not pay for that war are those wars will end up costing us between $3 billion and $6 trillion. my republican colleagues tell us we have to cut social security, medicare, medicaid and education. the needs of the sick because of the large deficit. what this amendment does is use budget gimmick great to add another 38 billion dollars to the deficit. if senator graham wants more money for military, that's a fair point. let's argue. but don't go there process of budget gimmickry adding more

money to the deficit without a serious debate that we need. i fear very much the passage of this amendment were -- lays the groundwork for another war to be not pay for and i think that as a bad idea. >> sensing the need for a rollcall vote, pullpo --ll the committee.

>> the amendment has passed. mr. to meet defense amendment. >> thank you. if you voted no on that, you should be voting yes on mine to. it attempts to save card in attempt that this funding occurs, it does not permanently become part of the baseline. in the absence of my amendment there is an increased likelihood that we have a three hundred $80 billion increase that is not ups -- all set. what my amendment does, any funds that are allocated in 2017 above the original amount in this budget for 26 teen -- 2016 would be --

>> opposition? >> this is an amendment trying to undo the embarrassment of the past amendment where all of our deficit hawks spent another $38 billion. i propose no. >> clerk will poll the committee.

the amendment is adopted. senator white? >> for me and i talked at some length before. this is about the well-being of some of the most vulnerable people in american society. older people who depend on long term care facilities. 60% of nursing home residents get medicaid. have had a talk about a fresh approach and long-term care policy and have been interested in approaches, private savings for long-term care. given the number of seniors that are moving past 80 at this point, this is a good bet that a

lot of them are going to need medicaid assistance to cover long-term care. my hope is that this amendment will pass good i want to make it clear to colleagues that ranking democrat on the finance committee, i am interested in bipartisan approaches to deal with both medicaid and medicare. but this particular feature of the budget where it puts at risk older people, their families, grandparents, i we will reject it. >> the senate budget has approved medicaid modernizes the program a summit ship model which has been successful. our budget does not proposed a budget policies prescribed, the finance committee will be responsible for writing legislation to improve medicaid. i know the ranking member of have a major heart in that. >> i would only say in brief rebuttal, i don't know how you get those -- that level of

medicaid savings without cutting medicaid long-term care service. maybe other people have some way to proceed. i don't know how to do it. >> i would ask for a no vote. all time has expired. the clerk will poll the committee.

>> the memo is defeated. >> this is the amendment to terminate chokepoint. this is a program by the department of justice to identify disfavored businesses in- there are others. once they got caught with this they said we will illuminate our list of that actors, now they say don't make us stop doing this because we cannot stop. they could stop fraud before and they can stop it in the future. we don't need to allow this operation to continue. >> once is going against payday

lenders and breaking state laws and violating the payday loan contracts. the second is a situation in california where a freak credit cards were given over the phone to secure bank numbers and then the money was stolen out of customers accounts. in one case, in north carolina we are talking about $2 billion being stolen out of customers accounts. we need a unit within justice to go after this predatory activity. >> i remind everybody what those are being regulated, what banks and credit unions said. they said the senator's amendment would and in no way inhibit the enforcement of -- >> yes, shut down any operation that is related to going after legitimate activities i legitimate commerce. so that the effort to go against true predators would continue. that has been turned down. >> could i be added as a

cosponsor to the amendment? >> the clerk will poll the committee. the amendment has been passed. next is senator whitehouse on disaster funding. >> this is a climate change related deficit, rather like

senator kaine that we just voted on. instead of being related to military bases it is related to fema disaster money. i have already described it. i hope this can get strong support. >> mr. chairman, the amendment says may include problems or disasters caused by climate change. it does not limit it to that. i would just note again that according to the testimony droughts are not out hurricanes are down substantially tornadoes are down. we are looking forward to more evidence that will come out on it. >> the clerk will poll the committee.

>> this amendment is to provide information to require transparent reporting of the ongoing costs and savings to taxpayers for the affordable care act. i ask it be approved by voice vote. >> opposition? all in favor >> past. next is the warner amendment.

>> any opposition? that has been passed. next is the a amendment. >> this is a deficit neutral reserve fund to address heroine. . >> all those in favor? it is pass. senator king. >> this is an amendment which

requires the congressional budget office to publish his store data in a production of 10 years for tax expenditure. can we do this by voice vote. >> opposition? it is passed. senator sessions on metal -- medicare accounting. >> the cbo has said that though the conventions of accounting may suggest otherwise taking money by cutting social security, medicare expenses and spending it on different programs cannot be counted twice. that's what we did in the passage. it has been done before in other circumstances. this is one of the reasons we get into the long-term on to

funded liability situation that we are in today. how did it happen question we got more money from medicare when we cut expenses, medicare loaned the money to the united states treasury, they did not give it to them. the government borrowed it. >> opposition? >> medicare is part of the overall federal budget. medicare savings and health reform extend the life of the hospital insurance trust fund and reduce the federal budget deficit. the analogy i would make is, looking down this long table, we have a room full of athletes. this is no different than hitting a basket, scoring a goal , or a touchstone. you add to your team score and you also improve your personal average. batting average, basketball percentage, but neither

situation involves double counting. i mentioned earlier this has been done by both sides of the aisle and i think we should reject this amendment. >> time is expired. i since we need a -- we want a roll call vote? poll the committee.

>> it has been defeated. >> we have one more, the step no amendment. --stabenow. for the information of my colleagues, i plan to entertain one more round of amendments. i understand that my democratic colleagues have 10 and we have one left. it isn't necessary for everybody to offer all those unless they feel a burning desire. after those are debated we will hold a final series of photos and report the resolution as amended. >> mr. chairman, i want to

comment first. we have been going back and forth on this question. an amendment to make sure we are protecting medicare from cuts. this is very important to do. we will keep working -- i am not sure what the resistance is to going on record to make sure we are protecting medicare, but we will keep working if we are not able to do this here, we certainly lee will -- certainly what offer it. >> let's start with your side. >> i'm not have much luck on my part -- on bipartisan support. i will try again. i hope better we -- i hope we do better on this one. mr. chairman, this amendment would create a deficit-neutral reserve fund to fully audit department of defense, and the outrageous cost overruns and crackdown on the massive amount of fraud perpetrated by defense

contract is. -- defense contractors. we spend approximately $600 billion a year on defense department. and yet, the dod is the only major agency of government not to come forward with an audit. in 2001, one day before 9/11, secretary of defense donald rumsfeld said that the pentagon could not account for some two point $3 trillion in transactions. yet, 14 years later, the pentagon is still not audit-ready. according to a recent gao analysis the pentagon's $1.4 trillion accusation -- acquisition suffers from over $457 billion in cost overruns above original contractor estimates.

what i think everybody in this room knows is our military system weapons system after weapon system there are huge cost overruns. furthermore, there has been a lot of fraud associated with the defense contracting industry. virtually, every major defense contractor in this country has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and related settlements in this conduct over the past 20 years. we have the largest agency of the federal government, they dod some $600 billion, huge cost overruns unable to audit this very complicated agency. it is time for an audit. >> there are audits being done. this amendment is in line with the initiatives being laid out by the bipartisan -- letter by

the armed services committee. all sides need to be created to greater efficiency. one of the things i did getting ready for the budget was to get a copy of one of the later versions of how federal budgeting is supposed to happen. i think we have some things to clean up and our own yard as well. i have not seen the kind of financial statements that the government says they are putting out. we have a lot of room to make some improvements in this area. >> i would like to be added as a cosponsor for this. thank you. >> without objection. >> senator grassley? >> i want to be a cosponsor to. >> added. >> wal-mart is over 400 billion

dollars large and they go through an audit every year. this is possible and a good amendment. >> i have two amendments that i want to offer. the first one is on clean up for work at hanford site, i have worked very hard to make sure the government meets its legal obligation to clean up hanford. the department of energy has a responsibility to uphold the legacy responsibilities of the federal government. these are result of more than 50 years of nuclear weaponry and production from the manhattan project in world war ii. it is $200 million less than last year's budget request. still, 43 million dollars below

what congress appropriated. funding will be cut. the administration under both democratic and republican control has consistently failed to meet a threshold. this is of great importance to me as well as other senators that sit on this committee, who also have nuclear waste cleanup sites in their back yard. i urge the adoption of this amendment. >> opposition? the next amendment. >> my second amendment, we have been talking about this a lot. this budget process has artie demonstrated that there remains a very large felt between our potteries when it comes to fiscal priorities. one area of broad agreement is

the across-the-board cuts that impact defense and non-defense investments are bad policy. members of your party mr. chairman, have said it and members of my party has said it. we could come together to address. i have offered one way to do that. i am offering another one right now that will allow us to raise the cap for this coming fiscal year italy for defense and nondefense in a way that both nights should find acceptable as a short-term fix. all we have to do is update your budget to account for the most recent congressional budget office projections, and use those savings to increase the cap's that is all there is to this amendment. this is based on outdated projections, and the most recent projections include an additional $77 billion in revenue over the next several

years. using the most updated revenue projections gives us $77 billion of extra savings built into this budget which is more than enough to offset reasonable increases in by cap's for defense and nondefense for fiscal year 2016. it would not raise taxes, these numbers are simply what the congressional agent office already expects the tax code to generate. it does not increase the debt and your budget and would not cause residual problems, and most importantly, this also a serious budget problem that both parties want to resolve. while i believe the best approach over the long-term is by working together on a responsible placement to those automatic cuts, i think we are to take a stand and not go through another crisis this year ended up this amendment. >> this increases taxes to allow more spending.

i think what we need to do as a soon as we get an approved budget, which i hope is that by april 15 then we can begin discussions on the budget control act itself, which is a law, not a resolution. all we are doing is a resolution here. >> this does not raise revenue. this is based on cbo projections. based on the baseline. it does not raise any additional taxes whatsoever. >> a question for the patron. >> i have a question for the patron. senator murray, i raise this question yesterday. i want to make sure this is the point that i was raising yesterday, the budget prepared for this mark was prepared using january cbo figures. if instead you use march cbo figures then you would have both the revenue and expense projections have been updated and that enables you to cover

this without any additional increase in taxes. is that correct >>? >>absolutely correct. >> thank you. >> it is over 10 years. >> you want to create an expenditure for one year and pay for it with sand. >> it replaces sequestration which is the problem. we are racing to another government shutdown at another crisis that impacts the economy. this allows us to start moving forward. >> i see page two and it mentions increasing federal revenues. i have some hesitation. i know that which budget baseline we use will be taken into consideration by the time we do conference. we will start debating the budget bill next week. is my understanding we will start at 2:00 about 530 will

have our first boat on the first budget amendment. we will be on this monday. >> i asked for a vote on this today. >> i just wonder does this change the baseline? there are $77 billion. >> cbo made their projections in january. updated in march. we take the cbo projections from march, current law, and it allows us to have that flexibility for us to be able to allow our appropriations committee to be adopted and move forward and the sequester is replaced. it takes us out of the bind for today. does not change the deficit level. >> sounds good. >> thank you. i am moving away and talk about another subject. it does relate to health but a relates to cleanups when we have

an oil spill. back in 2010, we had a terrible oil spill in michigan, kalamazoo river. the cost to clean it up was over $1 billion. the oil was derived from tar sand. this is especially difficult to clean up. unfortunately, companies do not pay into the oil spill liability trust fund for oil derived friend -- derived from tar sand, this would subject them to the same liability fund, it would also permanently extend the tax which expires in 2017 so that all companies would be paying for it rather than property owners. it would make sure that oil companies -- it would make sure that they could not deduct the

cost of punitive damages when there is a judgment, a settlement against them resulting from an oil spill. right now, taxpayers are subsidizing the cost of punishing a company that is acting intentionally or recklessly and causing an oil spill. this would set up a deficit neutral reserve fund to equalize contributions to the oil's not spill liability fund. it would eliminate the tax write offs right now that are applicable to settlement and judgment that are unfair from a taxpayer standpoint. >> opposition? >> could i add my name to that amendment. >> yes.

>> senator merkley and senator baldwin are both adding -- both asking to be added. >> there is a legitimate concern over the punitive damages. that is being discussed. i am not able to support the amendment. i think it is worthy of serious discussion. >> any of the comments in opposition? do you have an amendment senator merkley? >> i have my final two. i will try to get it into three minutes. the first one is baldwin amendment nih and biomedical

research. i'm concerned that budget cuts that are mandate by the budget control act and further cuts that we have before us in the budget resolution marked continue to put biomedical research at risk. a concerned i know that many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle share. these policies are devastating for our nations young researchers, who are discouraged from entering the field altogether. some are leaving the country to pursue their research. nih director dr. collins cautioned we are putting an entire generation of scientists at risk. i ask my colleagues to support this amendment, to help ensure that our country remains at the forefront of innovation. of biomedical innovation. and also by supporting the next generation of innovative researchers.

the store chairman, my second amendment that i would like to offer his regarding creation of a deficit neutral reserve fund dedicated to investing in american manufacturing. recently, the amendment creates room to continue making investments in our manufacturing sector whether be in workforce training, research and development, or public-private partnerships. as many of my colleagues on the committee know, i come from a state where we are known for making things. in wisconsin, we know that a strong manufacturing economy creates economic security for hard working middle class families. this amendment seeks to support this powerful engine of innovation, whether it is through the manufacturing extension partnership, the national network for manufacturing innovation, or some future initiative, like the one that senator cowan's or i

along with senator graham are designating 25 universities as manufacturing universities, to help schools strengthen their engineering programs and meet the demands of the 21st century advanced manufacturing. i urge the committee to support this amendment and heal back my 23 seconds. >> we could oppose this as being duplicate, but i won't. other amendments? any other amendments? last call for amendments. that concludes amendments. we will go 30 amendments on voting now. first one the standards dod audit. there was no opposition to the

all those in favor? " mark that passes. next is a murray amendment. on nuclear waste. >> i urge a voice vote. >> without objection. that passes.

>> senator merkley is a cosponsor -- >> i have two more that we could do by voice. >> i wanted to add merkley as cosponsor. >> without objection. we have the bald men amendment for nih. and if further discussion? all those in favor say i? that is passed. and baldwin on american manufacturing. any further comments? that one passes.

>> mr. chairman? >> i had to be out of the room and i am the lead sponsor of this effort to audit the pentagon and i am very please we are doing it. i would just like to ask unanimous i -- consent. is acceptable? >> certainly. that is acceptable. since we were able to give advanced warning on what time the vote would be i do have a

couple people i am missing you are in another committee meeting who are coming back over here right now. i would ask your indulgence to give them a couple of minutes. >> i think as a courtesy, as we didn't -- we have done the voice bolts. >> which amendments are left to vote on? >> u.s. spill cleanup and the sequester amendment and final passage. >> for the record, i would object to the amendments request. the one that senator murray just offered. >> i am assuming we have three votes left and we will be done.

are you setting a time for us to vote on the final amendments? >> i hope it doesn't take that long. >> can we get clarification from staff? that would be helpful. >> while we are waiting, could i

ask you not to be added as a cosponsor to senator murray's amendment on nuclear waste cleanup? >> without objection. >> while we are waiting, could i

be added as a patron to senator murray's budget cap amendment? >> cosponsor. >>without objection. >> my next question is what your donation was going to be. i am sure she has several levels. we are missing one person on each side. when they get here, they should

be allowed to record their vote unless there is an objection. the capital contingent i think is getting here. senator whitehouse and senator corker are in meetings. we should be just a few seconds out of voting.

i will call on senator murray for her 30 seconds on the sequestration. >> it takes the current cbo projection to allow us to be able to replace sequestration for today. it is responsible. we could face serious consequences without this amendment. >> i raise the issue that i thought there was an increase in taxes and spending. it does say increasing federal revenues. we will be taking advantage of the baseline changes by the time that week it to conference.

that will be the normal time for doing that, since we just got them. i would ask that you vote no. >> mr. grassley?

>> it has been defeated. next amendment on oil spill. >> this is a taxpayer amendment to say that if you have an oil spill, that the oil companies a should be paying for that, the cleanup. the trust fund should have those types of spills covered by companies paying into it. we eliminate tax benefits that apply when there is a settlement or judgment because of oil spills, and there are punitive damages. if somebody is found to be reckless the taxpayer should not pick up a tap. -- the tab. >> i would ask for a no vote, this is an issue that needs to be deliberated at length in the finance committee. i know that senator wyden has

been here to hear the discussion. i don't think it is the intent of anybody to give people a special tax break on fines or penalties. i would recommend a no vote. poll the committee. >> dies on a tie. now to the final part, i move to

the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2016 be reported favorably. will the clerk poll the committee. >> the resolution passes and i would like to thank all members

for their cooperation getting this done. it is important that if you have any necessary documents to be filed it has to be done tomorrow in order that the resolution can be brought to the senate floor next week. the deadline for submitting night is no later than noon tomorrow. you must have a member's signature, we will begin debate at 2:00 on monday. steph can make technical and conforming changes. staff can make technical and conforming changes. thank you. thanks for that.

the contest committee completed its work and the budget was completed. the legislation will move to the senate floor for debate monday afternoon. the republican national lawyers

association holds its daylong policy conference today in washington. featured speakers are rob portman and senator corker. you can watch it live at eight -- at 8:45 on c-span2. here are some of the future programs on the c-span networks. c-span2 book tv saturday at 10:00 p.m. on afterwards, a lesser prize-winning historian eric foner and the formation of the underground railroad. sunday night at 10:00 of the delhi-based journalists hassan hassan on the rise and leadership of isis in the middle east. saturday morning at 9:00 eastern, and throughout the day on c-span3, american history tv joins at the abraham lincoln

symposium live from the lincoln theater. and -- from the ford's theater. find a complete television schedule at c-spine.org and let us know what you think about the programs you are watching. e-mail us at comments at c-span.org or send us a tweet. join the c-span conversation. like us on face it, follow us on twitter. coming up live washington journal. then live tonight at 9:00 p.m., martin o'malley. speaking at the scott county iowa democratic party red white and blue dinner.

coming up in 45 minutes, a look at the federal reserve open market eating, and potential interest rate increases by the fed. our guest is jon hilsenrath of "washington journal "the wall street journal." at 8:40, ron kessler. host: good morning. it is friday, march 20. today marks the first day of spring and the end of another busy week on capitol hill. among the stories we have been tracking on "washington journal" are the release of the congressional republicans' 2016 spending plan. congressional leaders rolled in iranian nuclear negotiations, the fight over attorney general