senator cantwell as well.last august, i had the privilege of meeting -- i'm strongly in support of the amendment as well. voice phot is fine. -- vote is fine. >> not a problem. i wanted to share that i was pleased to ask the agriculture community to lead a delegation of women senators to africa. one of the things we were struck by is the significant, in fact majority of those in agriculture are women and work very hard all day, all night, are not able to own the property that they farm. they they are not allowed to get loans, not allowed to have an inheritance laws that allow them to pass their work past there were can land on to children. we found that women were not afforded the same equal opportunities to be able to develop their businesses and their farms. after meeting with women from at least 15 different countries and the leaders of different countries it became clear to us that we should make sure that agoa is clear about the importance of moving forward and sending a strong message to our african trad

thank you. >> thank you senator cantwell.ell thank you, chairman murkowski, ranking member cantwell and other distinguished members of the committee. i very much appreciate the opportunity to discuss with you the quadrennial energy review and also thank you for the patience of the committee in terms of the scheduling of this hearing. i am going to ask for your indulgence to take a slight detour picking up on what senator cantwell said of our other missions. i want to say a little bit about the accomplishments of the department of energy within the last several weeks. we have many missions nuclear security, waste management and cleanup and i wanted to note that within the last four weeks, as you saw the -- our laboratories, et cetera, have been a major support in the iran negotiations. on energy we're here today to discuss the qer which just came out. on science, we just completed the coral announcement which is the next big step on supercomputing and on the waste side we had the important decision a few weeks ago to pursue de

i agree with everything senator cantwell said. and the reality is we have to have this credit agency and the ability to compete because other countries around the world are doing it at much higher levels than we are. we are pikers compared to the vast majority of other countries. they subsidize way more. but senator toomey is right we should have an international forum to resolve this and knock down all of the subsidies. that way we would have this i think it ought to be an objective of the united states government to go to our trading partners and work to get rid of these, they are trade distorting, and we would not have to rely on this. but in the meantime it is shooting ourselves in the foot and hurting a lot of suppliers in my home state of ohio if we simply unilaterally stop providing this support. >> senator toomey has withdrawn this amendment. i don't see any reason for further discussion. i want to commend them for what he is talking about. commend the senator from washington for what she said. it something we will have to

senator cantwell, you're next. senator cantwell: thank you, mr. chairman. i'm always struck when you two gentlemen are before the committee that there are many things that you actually agree on. and work force training and ex-im bank seem to be two of those. do i have that right? you're both supportive of like apprentice programs for job training? mr. trumka: we don't have enough of them. mr. donahue: the private sector spends something in the area of $60 billion a year on it. the public sector, rich and i have talked about this, the bill -- there will have to be a bill that job training and trade adjustment assistance, to follow all of these trade deals, but we really believe that has to be thought out more. we are doing all old things in job training. we can do new things to train people for new industries. we both agree we need to do those things in the private sector and in the public sector. senator cantwell: good. we are proposing some new things, but i definitely am a big supporter of t.a.a. and don't think we should be doing t.p.a. or t.p.p. without

senator cantwell, you're next. senator cantwell: thank you, mr. chairman.'m always struck when you two gentlemen are before the committee that there are many things that you actually agree on. and work force training and ex-im bank seem to be two of those. do i have that right? you're both supportive of like apprentice programs for job training? mr. trumka: we don't have enough of them. mr. donahue: the private sector spends something in the area of $60 billion a year on it. the public sector, rich and i have talked about this, the bill that will have to be a bill that job training and trade adjustment assistance, to follow all of these trade deals, but we really believe that has to be thought out more. we are doing all old things in job training. we can do new things to train people for new industries. the we both agree we need to do those things in the private sector and in the public sector. senator cantwell: good. we are proposing some new things, but i definitely am a big supporter of t.p.a. and don't think we should be doing t.p.a. or t.p.p. without i

i agree with everything senator cantwell said. and the reality is we have to have this credit agency and the ability to compete because other countries around the world are doing it at much higher levels than we are. we are pikers compared to the vast majority of other countries. they subsidze way more. but senator toomey is right we should have an international forum to resolve this and knock down all of the subsidies. that way we would have this level playing field. i think it ought to be an objective of the united states government to go to our trading partners and work to get rid of these, they are trade distorting, and we would not have to rely on this. but in the meantime it is shooting ourselves in the foot and hurting a lot of suppliers in my home state of ohio if we , simply unilaterally stop providing this support. >> senator toomey has withdrawn this amendment. i don't see any reason for further discussion. i want to commend them for what he is talking about. commend the senator from washington for what she said. it som

ranking member cantwell. >> thank you madam chair. i'm going to continue captain sullenberger and i want to say i think your testimony guided the debate as skillfully as you guided that plane to land in the hudson. and that is that this issue is about a broken economic model and about whether we're going to pay pilots enough money. i think that's the bottom line of your statement is that if you pay them they will come. and the fact that you hit on so many of the issues that concerns me about the regional carriers who take a bran name from a major corporation, everybody thinks they're meeting the same standards as the brand they're not. they think that they are meeting the same qualifications, they may not be. to me we're here because some people are suggesting that we take the 1500 hour requirement that is now required for pilots and for those who want an airline transportation certificate and reduce that. prior to colgan air we were at 250 hours. so if you could is maybe talk a little bit about why it's so important to have 1500 hour

>> aye. >> miss cantwell? >> aye. >> mr. nelson? >> aye. >> mr. menendez. >> aye. >> brown. >> no. >> mr. bennett? >> aye. >> mr. chairman. >> no. >> chairman votes no. >> clerk will report the vote. >> the final tally is 10 ayes and 16 nays. >> the amendment is defeated. are there any other amendments? >> i had noted in regards to nicaragua on this bill and customs bill. if we don't take these issues up we're making a policy by neglect. i think this is an issue that's important for our committee to exercise our policy of jurisdiction. i would hope we would have an opportunity to consider these issues. >> there's clear there ought to be a follow up. >> we appreciate the comments of everybody. >> mr. chairman? could i just say i appreciate the acceptance of my amendment on the out door performance where this industry is very important to the economy with millions of jobs. the change in tariffs will help consumers. i'm pleased it's been included in this legislation. >> mr. chairman. >> yes. >> i'd like to add my thanks to senator cantwell for her le

senator cantwell? >> mr. chairman? yes, i wanted to thank you and ranking member wyden for including my amendment to approve collection of labor statistics in the chairman's modified mark on the customs and enforcement bill. i filed two amendments that i believe are critical to our competitiveness. one amendment is the expansion of the apprentice program and work force development which i think is a very important one as we talk about how we're going to open up economic opportunities in other countries. we also have to talk about how we train and skill a work force. we had two witnesses yesterday at the hearing. both labor and business supported the apprentice program. so i would hope that we can look at this moving forward so appreciate looking at that. the other one is obviously the clean energy tax credits which, you know, i'm -- we have many jobs here that the u.s. would continue to be competitive in if we get this done. we look forward to working with you and senator wyden on both of those amendments in the future

>> thank you chair ayotte, ranking member cantwell and members of the subcommittee. regional airline safety carried about 157 million passengers last year operating just under half the nation's passenger flights. we swerved 623 airports and at 394 of those we provide the only source of scheduled air service. regional airlines have made continuing voluntary advancements in safety and have implemented or enhanced important safety programs that, in fact, are now universal across the major regional airline sector. these include gold standard safety standards like the aviation safety active program and aqp to name a few. in fact, the most wholistic safety innovation has been the on going implementation of sms which as ms. gilligan reflects focuses an organization's entire culture around safety. this defines modern regional airlines. as this committee knows well federal regulations enacted in the past six years have brought about additional improvements, among these is the first officer qualification rule requiring airline first officers to hold an atp. to be clear, this r

. >> i urge my colleagues to support the cantwell amendment. this goes right to the heart of what citizens say. they say you are all passing these agreements and why do you spend more time on trying to make sure the implementation and enforcement works. what senator cantwell is doing is laying out strategy to ensure the implementation and enforcement go hand-in-hand. the fact is failure to implement as sure as the night follows the day is going to cause people to be interested in enforcement. i hope that colleagues support the cantwell amendment and i urge in aye. >> i recommend we adopt the amendment. any objection to adopting the amendment? without objection show it adopted. >> mr. chairman? >> anybody else? senator bennett i agreed to go to you. [inaudible] section 301 of the trade act of 1974 provides u.s. government with real enforcement powers. right now the president can take all appropriate actions if one of our trading partners laws or policies violate the international trade agreement. president -- burdens or restricts u.s. commerce.

i'm going to call on senator cantwell who has additional questions. >> thank you, madam chair. i know we're trying to wrap up here and i wanted to get in a few things i wanted to be clear on. mr. hart, you believe that we should close this loophole as it relates to cargo pilots on the sleep rule, is that correct? >> that's correct. medical fitness is one of our most wanted items and a huge part of medical fitness is fatigue and fatigue applies to everybody operating complex equipment. >> miss gilligan, the faa did make that recommendation before and it didn't get through the process at omb or something of that nature? >> the notice that proposed the change to flight duty and rest rules did include the cargo community, but as we completed the process for that rule, it was determined that we could not sustain that requirement, but as i pointed out we do believe there are other ways that that risk is being fully addressed and that our inspectors are working with the cargo carriers to make sure that through their safety management systems the cargo carriers are looking at their sch

senator cantwell. >> thank you madam chair. mr. secretary, i had to step out for a moment, but i know that several members have been talking about the grid in general. i mean, of this quadrennial

particularly in the renewable not sgee and senator cantwell. who understands that the policies that have been successful they can build out the supply chains. vital and renewable independent streechltz i consider this a priority business. on the energy committee. and the appreciate the colleague's handling of this today we will work closely together. thank you. am i understanding correctly this are withdrawing. yes. senator from virginia? i would like to thank you and the ranking member for your work. have you done. i think that the taa bill that is before us is terribly important. and proud to support senator brown's amendment. and though i was unsuccessful. i this i that most of usa dry on both sides of the aisle that second west relation is stupidity on steroids and i was a little bit disappointed that we included an extension of the see quest relation as part of the pay for taa. i think that it is hurting the hospitals and the health centers. it is unfortunate. and i proposed a to a place the medicare see quest relation with the bipartisan

senator cantwell. >> thank you madam chair. mr. secretary, i had to step out for a moment, but i know that several members have been talking about the grid in general. i mean, of this quadrennial review, the key recommendation for the immediate focus is about infrastructure, and the grid is a big part of that, is that right? >> oh, yes, absolutely. one of our four kind of major core areas. >> right. so part of my question is we've in previous legislation did a lot of focus for states to help us in discussing where to go on grid modernization and try to get various schematics in place and microgrid systems and figuring out how to get those microgrids connect to the larger grid. and then, obviously, frequent -- the issue of cybersecurity becoming a larger issue, and that's mentioned in the report as well. and obviously d.o.e. plays a major role in this. what are the schematics that you think that we should be looking at, you know, on the grid? what kind of r&d should we be doing? maybe you want to talk a little bit -- i almost wanted

maria cantwell, small business.n with the women who are just so dynamic and prior to mccullski and i comes here, the answer is question. the country is ready for a woman to be president of the united states and of course the senate's ready for a woman being -- it's just a question of time until they will replace reid and schumer, there will be leaders that come from the ranks of women who serve so adequately here in the senate. >> in terms of -- i guess in terms of women and men being different and female and male senators havinging different styles, you said something to my colleague john harwood about john mccain. senator john mccain, i told john harwood, had threatened to kirk the bleep out of you. was john mccain actually threatening to beat you up? >> this is so timely. yesterday on the senate floor john mccain came to me and told me, that little incident we had together where i said -- because you did this, i'm going to kick the bleep out of you and i said to you, if i were in your position, i would do the sam

take a look at one of clint cantwell's latest creations, the bun is made of grilled candy bacon rolled with cinnamon roll dough and then baked on the grill. the burger patty is seasoned with coffee dry rub and then topped with a sunny side up egg and swiss cheese. leon: that's the kind of stuff you started to see when the roman empire fell. you knew had gone way too far. alison: gluttony? leon: of course there's only like 25 calories in that thing. alison: you're not thinking about calories if you eat that. you can have one of those beers with it. leon: your stomach will explode. alison: let's check in with doug today regardless of what you're eating. leon: we're tracking a few showers. take a quick look at that. showers are diminishing. you see them mainly west of the metro area. zoom in for a quick second here. a few more from bluemont south to warrenton. won't cause much of a disruption and won't have much if any, effect at the ballgame tonight. while we're dealing with temperatures in the 70's and parts of the country are dealing with winter weather, real deal. let's go back to arl

have been working on this, and i truly appreciate how you have intersected with not only senator cantwell and myself, but smart senators alexander and feinstein on the issue, but why did we not address this in the q.e.r.? >> again, that was on infrastructure and moving energy around opposed to the -- nuclear power, could have put it in there in terms of transportation of spent fuel, for example, and we have in the budget request for fy 16 -- 6.9 million specifically to address the transportation questions of spent fuel including the kinds of rail casts you would need, et cetera, so that's -- so that's in there, but otherwise, yeah, we did not address that in the q.e.r., but, again, i'm happy to talk about that including the storage options and the transportation option, developing consent based processes, and looking at the defense waste pathways that we can now pursue, so i think it's a full agenda. >> it is. >> and i look forward to working on that. >> it is a full agenda and we're going to be having a hearing on it -- on our nuclear waste legislation in the next month and a half or so,

senator cantwell? >> i know we're closing out as we get to the noon hour. i just again want to thank the secretary for the report and heading that up in coordination with other agencies. i certainly appreciate the climate goals that are in the report as well. more specifically want to work with you on -- i think it was something like 1 million people currently work in energy transmission but we think there will be an additional 1.5 million by 2030. that's the need. i have no doubt that we need to skill up a lot of the american workforce if we're going to meet that demand and that goal. it's, as you said, i.t., meeting the grid and it's an exciting opportunity. but i think at the base level there's a lot of work to do, whether that's through d.o.e. or inner agency work or apprentice programs or many other things. but i think skilling the workforce that we need for the things that we say we want to do is going to be a critical aspect of meeting the needs of the future. >> we have formed not so long ago a jobs strategy council at d.o.e. under the leadership of

i'm going to call on sorcantenator cantwell. >> we're trying to wrap up and i want today get in a few things i wanted to be clear on. mr. hart, you believe that we should close the loophole as it relates to cargo pilots on the sleep rule. is that correct? >> that's correct. we have medical fitness is one of our most wanted items and a huge part of medical fitness is fuatigue fatigue, and fatigue applies to everybody operating complex equipment. >> and the faa did make this requirement and it didn't get through the process. >> the notice that proposed the change did inform the cargo community, but as we completed the process for that rule it was determined that we could not sustain that requirement. but as i pointed out, we do believe there are other ways that risk is being fully addressed and that our inspectors are working with the cargo carriers to make sure that through their safety management systems, the cargo carriers are looking at their schedules to determine whether in fact fatigue is an element and if so, that they -- >> made the recommendation before, right? it's a matter w

this volatility question of the contents of those cars which i've discussed with you and senator cantwelland others. thank you for your testimony. >> thank you. >> thank you. senator capito. >> thank you. thank you, madame chair. i want to thank the secretary for being here today. i want to ask talk about the tank cars. as you know, an accident occurred in west virginia and the fayette county. 109-car train was carrying more than 3 million gallons of balkan oil from north dakota and 21 of the cars derailed. i'm sure you saw the pictures. thankfully, nobody was hurt, and we were really pleased about that. but it's my understanding that this rule that was supposed to be finalized in january if i'm correct and that many people not just on the safety side but on the business side too need the finality of that rule that which would provided by either requiring that they replace or retro fitted because in the accident they had the 1232 cars as i'm sure you're aware. they were i guess not blanketed or weren't -- so i'm very very interested in that. you have talked about the status of the rule bu

senator cantwell? >> thank you, mr. chairman. and i am reminiscing of the time that we had a major discussion about use of just and reasonable and the end run of energy markets. and even though just and reasonable was in place, the majority of commissioners still had a long time, struggled with a long time about whether manipulated rates could before just and reasonable. so i would suggest that that interpretation of just and reasonable is probably going to be left up to the determination of whoever's in the majority of the commission. so hopefully people will get some common ground on that and a framework. but thank you for your work. i'd like to follow up on senator fisher's question, as it related to the auction of spectrum, since, you know, people are saying, well, we want to get it right, but we also want to get it done. and when we're talking about a delay for a third time, i just want to make sure that we have all the tools and all the information we need now, resources to get us there, given that i think this is for our r

senator cantwell? >> i am reminiscing of the time we had a major discussion about ferks' use of justin reasonable in enron's manipulation of energy markets. and even though justin reasonable was in place, the ferks commissioner struggled for a long time about whether manipulative rates could ever be just and reasonable. so i would suggest that that interpretation of just and reasonable will probably be left up to the interpretation of whoever is in the commission. hopefully people will get some common ground on that and a framework. but thank you for your work. i'd like to follow um on senator fischer's question as it related to the spectrum. people say i want to do it right but i also want to get it done and when we're talking about a delay for the third time, i want to make sure we have all the tools and information we need now, resources to get us there given i think this is for our rural communities something that we really need to pair with resources so that we could get robust broadband networks

cantwell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. ms. cantwell: mr. president, i want to thank the senator from oregon for his leadership on this legislation and on health care in general. i will always think of him as the senator who has been an advocate for reforming our health care system and oftentimes wanting to move faster than everybody here. i'm with him in -- and the northwest is with him and that is why tonight is a proud moment for him as the ranking member of this committee to see through monumental shift in the way we've been dealing with the payment system and the medicare access system and the children's health care program. tonight hopefully we'll put behind us a long debated issue of how physicians are paid but it will also start us on a new path to make sure that people in america are guaranteed better outcomes and a process by which we will help reduce the cost of health care by focusing on both the cost of health care and the outcomes. so my colleague entered into the record tonight -- and i want to thank him for that -- a colloquy