mr. whitehouse: mr. president i ask unanimous consent that chris stavish an education fellow and karen armitage both from my office be granted floor privileges for the remainder of this congress? the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: mr. president may i ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 15 minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you. mr. president, the evidence of climate disruption caused by carbon pollution is clear and overwhelming yet the u.s. senate is sleepwalking through this history. i'm here today for the 97th time to say that we must wake up. climate disruptions are felt in every corner of the globe from every fleer to the reaches of the -- floor to the reaches of the atmosphere and pole to pole. the united states is antarctic nation. we have been since secretary of state seward negotiated the purchase of alaska from russia in 1867 for about $11 million. from our vantage point of the arctic circle we're witnes

whitehouse. >> thank you, mr. chairman. we have different but it does buy a great respect for you in the process of the committee and chairman price i appreciate being here. it's great to have another michigander on the committee. it is great to see you as well. the budget process is our opportunity to have a debate about our values and priorities. that's really what it is. we should ask ourselves how do we make sure every american has a fair shot to work hard and to succeed. that is really i hope the goal of overdue in terms of the budget. in other words, how to make sure everybody has a chance of what we've always called the american dream. to me the answer is clear. to make sure our country's better works for the middle-class and those we are working hard to get into the middle class. unfortunately, the republican budget passed by the house and senate do not do that. there is some good news in the economy and deficit. we are not hearing that much today, but there is in fact good news when the president took office we ran

mr. chairman. senator grassley: senators flake, whitehouse and purdue. senator flake: thank you. tough act to follow. i made my concerns regarding operations streamlined known to the department and to the department of justice. as you're aware operation streamline has been a very successful zero tolerance policy we've had in the southern border, particularly the yuma sector, and most in that sector attribute the success at bringing that portion of the border under control through operation streamline. yet, the u.s. attorney's office for arizona has ordered kind of a pullback on that policy. i just toured the border, toured yuma and all along the border couple of weeks ago and there's a lot of concern there that as word filters back that we don't have a zero tolerance policy anymore that we'll start to see movement again and there's a lot of concern in those communities along the border that we're going to see an uptick. it won't take much, as you know, word travels fast as we learned in spades with the unaccompanied minor issue that we had. what can you tell me -- let me ask you

mrs. clinton is expected to travel to early voting states beginning with iowa. much more on at announcement at 11:30. >> michael rubio is expected to launch his run for the whitehouse tomorrow, the 43-year-old is expected to make the announcement in his hometown of miami. he is son of cuban imgrant and invited people to a historic site in downtown miami that serves as memory of generations of cuban americans that risked everybody. >> sdrird as ellis eye land of the south. >> canada's for service here in philadelphia brought their campaigns to west oak lane today. they took part in political forum held by universal muslim businesses association. candidates for mayor as well as those for council and other offices were asked about the vision for thecyy fruit fewer. pennsylvania primary is may 19. >> it was a physician perfect surprised. meteorologist mel smell live with does he tailtz. hey, melissa. >> hey, walter, nice treat yesterday with temperatures in the 60s. once again we max out upper 60s in philadelphia. numbers across the mid-atlantic region and 50s and 60s at this hour. biping hamilton 53. 52 in philadelphia. up are 60 sz in charleston west viing virginia.

whitehouse of rhode island. senator carl levin of michigan. senator don riegel of michigan. senator gordon smith of oregon. mrs.ator of hawaii, senator inohe. senator paul kirk of massachusetts. ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the senate. [applause] please be seated. i would like now to ask members of the house of representatives who are with us today thank you all for being here and please be seated. i would also like to knowledge the governors from the commonwealth and the city of washington to join us today attorney general laura healy state treasurer deb goldberg, and rosenberg, state speaker of the house robert delauro, and mayor of boston, marty walsh. [applause] and next i am especially pleased to see so many future senators in our midst. there are 50 students here today, as their badges show from every state in the nation and thank you all for being here. [applause] and of course, our thanks to the kennedy family, who made all of this possible. would the kennedys all stand up, all 370 of you? [applause] [laughter] vice president biden: thank you so much. and thank you for this honor. we are in thi

mr. whitehouse: mr. president as americans celebrate the 35th earth day this week, i rise for the 96th time -- i seem to be coinciding with the presiding officer's schedule so he's been treated to his share of these speeches -- to urge this body to wake up to the threat of climate change. it's real, not a hoax. it's caused by carbon pollution. and it's already making changes that we are already seeing in the world around us. we must cut our carbon pollution to prevent even bigger climate changes, changes in our atmosphere and oceans and human habitat potentially unprecedented in the history of our human habitation of this planet. yet the polluters who are producing this problem would have us do nothing. they make money when we do nothing. so we do nothing. the polluters run a racket. they offload on to us the costs and damage from their fossil fuel product. the costs of heat waves of sea level rise, of ocean acidification, of dying forests and more. the polluters happily dump those costs on to everybody

mr. whitehouse: mr. president may i ask, first of all, that the pending quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: may i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business for up to 15 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you very much mr. president. mr. president, the distinguished majority leader, the senior senator from kentucky, is resolutely opposed to any serious conversation about climate change. under his leadership, the republican party and the senate has exactly zero legislation for addressing carbon pollution in any serious way. and the majority leader has even written to governors around the country urging defiance of the climate change regulations of the united states government, namely the environmental protection agency's forthcoming clean power plan to cut presently unregulated carbon pollution from our power plants. so i thought i should take a look at what kentucky is doing about climate change. well it turns out that kentucky is already crafting a plan for complying with president

whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president i am very pleased and also very proud to follow my senior colleague and to join senator reed in congratulating our providence college men's ice hockey team in wing its first ever national championship. the friars edged out boston university 4-3 a week ago sat saturday night in p.c.'s first trip to the frozen four in 30 years. the bupc event was a southern new england showdown that brought more than 18,000 hockey fans to boston's t.d. garden. playing so close to home, p.c. had plenty of support from the stands. they also had a little bit of good luck. but it was more than luck that put providence college over the top. those kids played their hearts out. and forward bran deny tanif f's goal was no fluke. the pry yarrs earned that victory and rhode islanders couldn't be more proud of them. head coach nate liman said that when it gets to be that late in the season, and when there's that kind of

toomey, johnson, ayotte, wicker, corker, perdue sanders murray, wyden stabenow whitehouse, warner, merkley baldwin mccain. mr. enzi: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. enzi: i ask unanimous consent that the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. enzi: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session at 2:00 p.m. on thursday, april 16, to consider the following nominations. calendar number 1 and calendar number 51. that the senate vote without intervening action or debate on the nominations the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table that no further motions be in order that any statements related to the nominations be printed in the record, the president be immediately notified of the senate's actions and the senate then resume legislative session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. enzi: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today it adjourn until 10:00 a.m. th