mr. franken: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. mr. franken: thank you, madam president. i would ask that any quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. franken: thank you, madam president. i rise today to speak in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. please proceed. mr. franken: i rise today to join my colleagues in calling on the senate to pass an extension of the emergency unemployment insurance. i am deeply disappointed and frustrated that millions of hardworking americans are now wondering how they will put food on their family's table and a roof over their heads because washington has been unable to extend critical unemployment insurance. a few weeks ago, we had a bipartisan vote to move forward with debate on the extension of what is called the emergency unemployment compensation. i hope we can build on that vote and move forward as -- as quickly as possible to restore this vital lifeline before more americans who have worked hard and followed the rules their entire lives, before

mr. franken: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. mr. franken: i would ask that any quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. franken: mr. president, i ask to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. franken: mr. president, i'm very pleased that we're able to vote on and pass a badly needed and long overdue five-year farm bill today and that we are finally on the verge of enacting the legislation into law with the president's signature. with one in five jobs in minnesota connected to agriculture, passing this bill has been a top priority of mine. i've been working on it for over two and a half years along with a large number of my colleagues, and i've gone all around minnesota talking to farmers and businesses, and they tell me not only did they want a five-year farm bill, but they needed a five-year farm bill so that they could plan for the future. well, we finally have gotten it done. there are so many im

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator franken. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for your service and all that you're doing to address what is really a troubling situation. we do have someone on the second panel who will testify or talk about women being con finded in solitary for reporting abuse including sexual abuse by their bureau of prisons staff. i have a series of questions regarding this situation. are you aware of this happening in the system? rare as it may be, we hope? >> yes. >> same question. then what do you have in place to prevent this kind of abuse from happening? >> well, what we have in place is our staff being active in ensuring rounds are made. we have also addressed concerns with ensuring the inmates are able to reach out and let us know and being comfortable with that. we have zero tolerance. >> so you have zero tolerance, so does that mean that that inmates that this is happening to feel free to come forward and report? who would they report this too? certainly, it shouldn't be the person that, you know, has power over them and wh

mr. chairman. thank you, panel. >> thank you, senator grassley. senator franken. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and i'd like to thank the versight board for its work. all my questions are basically on transparency. on page 190 of your report you say that, "transparency is one of the foundations of ance." tic govern and i couldn't agree more. the american people hasn't given the american people even a rough estimate of how many people have had their information collected under section 215 or how many numbers have been collected. under current law the government doesn't have to. i have a bipartisan bill that would fix this. the surveillance transparency act. it would mean that we -- the government would have to say how many numbers, how many people's numbers have been collected and how much of -- how many have been queried, how many people have been queried. recommendation 9 of your report echos my bill. it says the government should give the american people more detailed report about section 215. what specific information should be included in these public reports, do you think? do you think thi

mr. chairman. thank you, panel. >> thank you, senator grassley. senator franken. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and i'd like to thank the versight board for its work. all my questions are basically on transparency. on page 190 of your report you say that, "transparency is one of the foundations of ance." tic govern and i couldn't agree more. the american people hasn't given the american people even a rough estimate of how many people have had their information collected under section 215 or how many numbers have been collected. under current law the government doesn't have to. i have a bipartisan bill that would fix this. the surveillance transparency act. it would mean that we -- the government would have to say how many numbers, how many people's numbers have been collected and how much of -- how many have been queried, how many people have been queried. recommendation 9 of your report echos my bill. it says the government should give the american people more detailed report about section 215. what specific information should be included in these public reports, do you think? do you think thi

franken. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'm just a little confused from my first set of questions. so i just, because it seems a little at odds with the report. any of you can weigh in on this, place. page 205 -- let me first go on, the recommendation nine says the government should publicly disclose more details to provide a more complete picture of government surveillance operations. and then on page 205, you say, if the statute such as section 215 continues to be used as bases for individualized collection and a bulk collection, the mere number of section 215 orders could be misleading. so when i asked about transparency before, and putting up the number of -- right now this "washington post" article is speaking to the issue of how many numbers are -- how many phone calls are being collected, that's collected, it just seems to me, and since the number of orders is, as you say, misleading, i don't understand your answer. i don't understand why repealing the number, numbers that are caught up in this collection isn't more transparency and doesn't give americans a better idea of th

franken. he was hysterically funny on saturday night live and then he had a show called late-night. and then he came to washington , mrbern what side, as far as i can tell. even at hearings when we could be leavened by some humor, he pretty much sticks to being, just like his fellow senators, kind of grim and serious and somewhat informed. >> all right then. there is a chance for you in washington, two. thank you both. back in a couple of minutes here on market makers. stay with us. ♪ >> the odds of an immigration overhaul this year just got decidedly slimmer. that's because of a few things john boehner said to reporters. either cook was listening and joins us now with more. what is it that boehner said that kind of changes the picture here? up his weeklypped news conference, and at that news conference, he made pretty clear that a couple things have to happen before republicans move forward on immigration. he was waiting to get feedback from members. by and large, any things is conference is supportive of moving forward on immigration reform, but he went on to say that he does not think the president has built up eno

franken. >> thank you. withld associate myself the chairwoman's remarks. and he an outstanding nominee. -- is an outstanding nominee. mr. attorney general, thank you for your service. i want to talk to you about a matter that is pressing right now. a number of other states are experiencing a shortage of propane and the cost of propane is skyrocketing. this is a real crisis. i wrote the president about it over the weekend. an hour or so ago with the secretary of energy. one of the things that the administration can do is to work with the industry to make sure propane is getting to the regions of the country that really need. at areare 25 states ther in crisis here. one of the challenges is there might be a concern over antitrust violations. however, i know this issue may radar. willon your you commit to working with me to make sure that any of those issues can be addressed and avoided in the midst of this crisis? >> we will certainly do that. we will try to do all that we can to make sure that the relief people need with regards to the provision of propane occurs. we will look at what we can do to be as flexible as we c

franken and i had gathered together a bipartisan group, including the former u.s. attorney under president bush, to advise us on a replaimple replacement for jon before the time we confirmed mr. jones because of our concern over the problems in the office, many of which were on the front page of our newspaper. we were able to get a recommendation from our committee for a replacement, mr. andy lugar, a respected litigator, former 123457b9 assi. attorney. it has now been 196 days since we made that recommendation to the president. it has been 187 days since director jones was confirmed with no full-time u.s. attorney again in the office. while the office has continued to provide the united states with the high-quality legal representation it deserves, minnesota needs a full-time u.s. attorney. mr. lew tkpwar sailed -- mr. lugar sailed through the judiciary committee. he passed all the testifies including the f.b.i. tests. he has the support of law enforcement that i've spoken with, has the support of our republican congressmen in the area. i want to thank senator grassley who also supports him and has raised issues with the u.s. minnesota attorneys office because of the fact t