mr. donnelly: thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you both for being here. ms. patenaude, during your recent visit we discussed the crisis in east chicago in indiana where the lives of more than 300 families were upended and put at risk due to the presence of significant levels of lead and arsenic in our soil. h.u.d. has helped most of thes remain kenlts -- residents find newhousing. local officials are pursuing emergency h.u.d. funding for the safety and the security and the ultimate demolition of the complex. can i have your commitment that if confirmed you'll advocate for h.u.d. to dedicate the resources needed, including emergency funding, to assist these residents in their local officials in getting this situation taken care of? ms. patenaude: yes, senator. you have my commitment. and i believe that secretary carson is committed to this issue as well. mr. donnelly: i think we're working right now with his staff to find an exact date for him to come to east chicago. so he can witness it first-hand. when i was in the house of representatives, i served on the

mr. donnelly: i'd like to put it in a quorum call. the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. the presiding officer: the majority leader. the senate is in a quorum call. mr. mcconnell: i ask that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask that the vote on executive calendar no. 108 occur at -- tomorrow morning after the reichening -- ripening of the disposition of the long nomination. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. donnelly: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator will suspend. under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of morning business until 5:00 p.m. with senator permitted to speak therein up to ten minutes each. mr. schumer: madam president, i ask unanimous consent to speak under leaders' time. the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: thank you. first, madam president, before i begin, i want to express ho

mr. donnelly: i would like to invite you if you have the time, we have naval warfare service center in indiana, and they do terrific work for the corps and figure out a way to get there, we would love to have you. >> the parents of this young man lives in your state. senator donnelly: one of the many areas of crane's work is the netted navy vision. tell us about your current plans and what we can do to support that vision? >> we would provide a complete level of connectivity between our navy and other joint service nsors and private sector sensors. key to that will be making sure that we have the confidence in all of our systems down to the chip level that these things are free of tampering, that they are integral and can't be hacked into or don't have any kind of software in them. this is the type of work crane does for us to get what we paid for. senator donnelly: general, what is your biggest concern right now as commander of the corps, the biggest challenge that you face? general neller: i think the overall readiness of the force and that's more than just the material readiness, the airpla

mr. chairman, with that thank you. my time has expired. >> thank you. senator donnelly. >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you both for being here. ms. patenaude, during your recent visit we discussed the crisis in east chicago, in indiana where the lives of more than 300 families, upended and put at risk due to the presence of significant levels of lead and arsenic in our soil. hud has helped most of the residents find new housesing. local officials are pursuing emergency hud funding for the safe safety and security and ultimate demolition of the complex. can i have your commitment that in confirmed you'll advocate for hud to dedicate the resources needed, including emergency funding to assist these residents their their local officials in getting this situation taken care of? >> yes, you have my commitment and i believe secretary carson is committed to this issue as well. >> i think we're working right now with his staff to find an exact date for him to come to east chicago so we can witness it first hand. when i was in the house of representatives i served on the house veterans affai

senator donnelly thank you mr. chairman and thank you both for being here. >> mr. patenaude during your recent visit we cries the east chicago and indian. many families were up ended and ut put at risk due to lead and arsonic in the soil. hud has helped most reents find housing. local officials are pursuing emergency hud funding for the safety and security and the ultimate demolition of a complex. can i i have your commitment if girmd you'll advocate for the resources needed to by hud including emergency funding to assist the residents and local officials in getting the situation taken care of. >> yes, senator donnelly you have my commitment. and i believe that secretary carson is committed to this issue as well. >> i think we're working right now with his staff to find an compact date for him to come to east chicago so he can witness it first hand. when i was in the house of representatives i served in the house veteran's affairs committee and far too are too many veterans as we know that serve our country find thepz without a home or place to put heir head down a

donnelly: thank you mr. chairman. as leaders you both made a strong commitment to improving the mental health and resiliency of our service members and families. i appreciate your leadership on this issue. as discussed in section 701 of congress ndaa, requires every service member active guard or reserve receive a robust mental health assessment every year. the department has said in the past this requirement would be fully implemented across all services by october 2017. secretary matus, will this be fully implemented by october 2017? sec. mattis: i don't know right now. i will get back to you with the best estimate i can give you. as you are no doubt aware, that is a significant requirement. it is a very labor intensive requirement. a number of mental health professionals would be needed to do that. let me get back to you on that date. sen. donnelly: that would be great. it is critically important. we discussed one time the challenges with a proper transition. general corelli has worked on this extensively on the ha

donnelly. >> thank you, mr. chairman and i want to thank our witnesses for being here with us. as leaders, you both made a strong commitment to improve the mental health and resil yinssy of our service members and their families pirt appreciate your leadership on this issue. as we've discussed before in section 701 of the fy '15 ndaa congress passed an enactment which requires every service member, active guard or reserve receive a rowe robust mental health assessment every year. the department has said in the past that the sexton act requirement could be fully implemented across all services by october, 2017. secretary mattis, will this be fully implemented by october of 2017? >> i don't know right now, senator. i will get back to you with the best estimate i can give you. as you are no doubt aware, that's a significant requirement. it's a very labor-intensive requirement for the number of health professionals that would be needed to do that but let me get back to you and tell you where we're at on meeting that deadline date. >> that would be great. it's critically regards to

on behalf of the chairman, senator donnelly please. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for your service. i appreciate the commitment you've made to improve the mental health and resiliency of our service members and their families. i brought this up earlier this week. congress passed the act requiring for every service provide a robust health assessment for every service member. it is the law. i've been told in the fact that the requirements would be fully implemented in the navy and marine corps by the date of october 2017. admiral can you confirm you're still on target? >> sir, we're still on target. >> general can you confirm you're still on target. >> yes, sir, to the best of my knowledge. >> thank you. general, i would also like to invite you, if you have the time, we have naval surface warfare center crane in indiana. they do a lot of work for the corps, a lot of terrific work for the corps. and if you can figure out a way to get there, we would love to have you. >> i'll do that because the parents of this young man that lives in idaho, i need to see him

mr. donnelly: mr.resident, for all of the discussion about delays, politics, the process, vote counts, budget scores and analysis, it's critical we remember that this health care debate is first and foremost about people, our friends and neighbors, and their families. it's about moms and dads, sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, grandmas and grandpas. we all agree everyone needs access to quality, affordable health care. regardless of how healthy you are today, everyone needs the peace of mind that if you get sick, you'll be able to get the care you need. we all know someone who has fought cancer or diabetes or multiple sclerosis or has a child battling a chronic season or disease. in our shared experiences and relationships are shared values. each of us wants our loved ones to be healthy and to live long, full, happy lives. we want what is in the best interests of our families and our friends and our neighbors. i've seen these values firsthand through the stories of hoosiers who recently wrote t