ayotte: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. ms. ayotte: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be vacated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. ayotte: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i come to the floor today to talk about an amendment that i will seek to offer on the pending bill, amendment number 2603. we all sympathize with those who are struggling to find work in a difficult economy, and i want to see people get back to work. certainly a short-term extension for those who are relying on unemployment insurance, if it's paid for, will allow a transition for those who are out of work to do what we need to do most in this chamber, and to give them an opportunity to get a good-paying job. the focus in this chamber most of all needs to be on enacting pro-growth policies that will encourage both small and large businesses to thrive and grow in our economy and to create jobs. i have voted today to begin debate on the legislation to provide a temporary extension of unemployment insurance. and i voted to begin this debate becau

senator ayotte was on the floor speaking before me. senator portman, all proposing ways in which we can offset the cost of the. we know we are adding to our debt and deficit on a daily basis. we haven't come grips with that. yet, the future consequences for this country, our economy, our children, our grandchildren, future generations is something that we're all going ashamed of if we don't try to impose some discipline. how do we do that? we start -- well, we tried many efforts going all the way back to simpson bowls and the major effort and unable to get the president's support for any of those. even though he commissioned the group which is bipartisan. but nevertheless, we have, not to this point, able to get the large effort in place that will put us on the path to fiscal help. but one thing we can do, when we have programs, new pranls, extent of programs like this come before us, we can say, well,let, one, we're form it so we can achieve what we want to achieve. number two, let's make sure we both add more taxpayer dollars to our

>> where he will, ayotte wanted to solve a couple of problems. he wanted to restore the military pension cuts and two, she wanted to help pay for the unemployment insurance extension that everybody is fighting about here in washington. and she said how can we do that? she focused on a tax credit called the additional child tax credit. government pays out billions of dollars every year and it's not very careful about who it pays. >> 1.2 billion in 2011. >> there's a lot of fraud in this, especially involving people who are not in the country legally. and they don't have to give a social security number in order to collect the credit. and ayotte pointed to a group of eight addresses in north carolina, eight houses from which 1,000 tax returns had come. if we can stop this fraud and the treasury inspector general estimates it can save $20 million over three year. if we can stop the fraud simply by having people provide a social security number, stop that fraud, save that money, pay for the pensions and pay for the unemployment insurance. >> they hav

senator ayotte, you have followed this as well as anybody. can you tell us, from your point of view, the unanswered questions and whether or not you think there's evidence that this was a preplanned terrorist attack versus a protest? ms. ayotte: i want to thank my colleagues, the senator south carolina and the senator from arizona, who have been relentless in finding the truth about what happened in benghazi where our ambassador and three brave americans were murdered. let me -- there are so many questions. i would start with the accountability question that the senator from south carolina raised. no one has been held accountab accountable. who's been held accountable for the failures? and if you look at this intel report, it's very clear that the intelligence community, according to this report, provided ample strategic warning that our people in benghazi were at risk. there were failures, and no one has been held accountable. why? i would like to know, as i lukei would like to know, as i look at those talking points, why was the researchers

we're told by casey hunt of nbc news that four republicans are onboard, new hampshire senator kelly ayotte, lisa murkowski of alaska and susan cohen of maine. that's a positive sign. moments ago, senators reid, a cosponsor of today's bill and senator schumer made their case. >> we extended these benefits unpaid for 89-8. and yet now we have to pay for these benefits. well, what we've done, senator heller and i, listen, we need to help these people now. >> what i'd say to my colleagues is, if you believe in unemployment benefits and extending them, pass them clean and simple. don't play games. get it done. >> president obama, who spent yesterday reaching out to republicans on the phone, will speak from the white house. we're expecting him at approximately 11:40 a.m. eastern time to talk about what democrats have called an unprecedented loss of a lifeline for millions of americans. a reminder of what's at stake, aid to about 1.3 million americans. their three-month extension expired on december the 28th. the bill would have added $6.5 billion to the national deficit. how to offset that cost

you get the last word here. >> i love kelly ayotte. the rob portman has had a really good idea. getting social security disability because you can't work, you shouldn't be getting unemployment benefits. so how many people are? is a staggering number. so if we could look out waste and fraud and abuse, harry reid cannot convince my fellow citizens that we can't find enough waste and fraud and abuse in congress. and i don't think he can persuade us that that is where we are fiscally. lou: as always it is good to have you with us, sir. taking up the issue of immigration among many others in my new book called the people. it is on bookstore shelves online right now. if you are in new york you can get that book signed in person. from seven to 10 pm on barnes & noble at the upper east side. but loudobbs.com for more information. up next, a brand-new report. private sector job creation is on the rise. art laffer tells us how the president's newest efforts could destroy the new momentum. welcome back. how is everything? there's nothing like being your own boss! and my customers are reall

new hampshire's kelly ayotte. she will role out on amendment which would prevent illegal immigrants from claiming the child tax credit. john thune a payroll tax break for businesses that hire long term unemployed. tom coburn wants to block jobless benefits from those receiving disability benefits. does this sound familiar? new york democrat chuck schumer proposing that congress end tax deductions for companies that move operations overseas. something that gets brought up a lot. other democrats want to pay for the extension with cuts to agriculture subsidies. even if the three-month extension were to pass the senate it does face a very uphill path in the house. speaker boehner made it clear yesterday in addition to demanding that an extension of expired benefits be paid for, he would also tie it to republican priorities like building the keystone pipeline, expanding exemptions from the health care law and opening energy exploration on federal land. all, of course, are nonstarters for the white house. house republic

the adoption of the ayotte amendment would go entirely counter to that belief. with that, madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate the previous order, the senate on other facebook page we post ad question asking you how long is too long for unemployment benefits? jeffrey says, unemployment insurance should be abolished and wrapped into welfare because that is what it is. don, don simmons says the situation really sucks but the cold hard truth we can not afford to take care of people the rest of their lives especially when we get nothing in return. this from terry. she says until the unemployment rate is below 5% asking unemployed is somehow control the economy is absurd. you can post the comments and join in on the conversation at facebook.com/cspan. the house is also in special today and news from the other side of the aisle. "politico" reporting democratic congressman bill owens of new york will not run for re-election in november according to several sources. dealing another blow to the party's prospects

among those republicans, senator kelly ayotte who says the extension should be paid for by not allowing illegal immigrants to defraud the federal government by claiming what's called the additional child tax credit. >> the joint tax committee has estimated we can save -- close to $20 billion over ten years by fixing this fraud in our tax code. and so in addition to fixing the military retiree issue, we can also pay for the unemployment insurance three month extension on the floor right now. >> majority leader reid, however, today slammed her proposal and a separate proposal saying we could pay for jobless benefits by delaying the obamacare individual mandate. >> so far, all we've heard from republicans is this. take a big whack out of obamacare. or they've got another one. go after children. children with the child tax credit. >> the senate majority leader meant illegal immigrant adults who defraud the federal government fraudulently claiming those tax credits. there is still no word on how senator reid would move forward now or whether he will, in fact, allow votes on those amendments.

senator kelly ayotte, one of the six who voted yesterday, is coming out with a proposal today dealing with tightening restrictions on child tax credits that could go to undocumented immigrants, and that could be used as a way to pay for it, she says. i'm not convinced that will have the votes to pass the senate either, so getting out of the senate will be tough and getting out of the house will be even tougher. i think its prospects are in serious doubt. >> i thought the headline in "the hill" was great, it read, "destructive senate gop says not us." here's what senator dan coats, one of the six gop senators voting yes said on "the daily rundown." >> he was hoping it would fail yesterday and blame republicans for being heartless and cruel. what i wanted to do, what the six of us wanted to do, get to the point where we could go down on the floor, offer our alternatives and put it before the american people. >> ron, what do you think, how complicated is this debate now? >> this is maddening. these people need help. these benefits need to be extended. it's not the fault of the unemployed

budget, according to, again, just in the last hour, those key republicans, rob portman and kelly ayottevote for this bill to finalize in the senate or to be the republican 59th and 60th vote that will be needed, as you mentioned, in order to make this happen in the senate. >> all right. thanks, dana. we'll continue to watch. lots at stake here. >>> so what's up on wall street? information now being released by the federal reserve within minutes. we're going to see what that is. we're tracking new job data. and all of this affecting the stock market. >>> stocks are seeing mixed rating with what strength there is tied to what is seen as a recovery on the labor market. christine romans is joining us from new york right with a closer look. what are you seeing over there, christine? >> you know, these little pieces of data keep coming in, wolf, saying the end of the year hiring really started to pick up. you've got this adp report, this is a private sector payroll company, you know. they cut the checks so they see what's going on. >> 238,000 private sector jobs created in december. that woul

i don't think we should wait. >> thank you, senator ayotte. senator reed. >> thank you, there are two clear issues emerging with broad consensus. one is we have to correct this issue and my sense is it has to be done very quickly, immediately. for many reasons. one is the issue of what signal we are sending to forces on the field. i understand, correct me or respond that we could move such a bill without a form. is that accurate? >> that is accurate. one bill which has been referred to the committee, we are double checking this, the bill of senator hagan that does not have a pay for. if there is the pay for, an offset in other words, that i believe will be referred to a different committee but this committee i believe will have the ability to act promptly on a bill. and i hope we will and not wait for the commission because there is a clear consensus we should clear the air on this issue. >> because of the obligations of these costs that are building up and have been building up because of congressional action. can you comment on that? >> the

>> kelly ayotte's idea is to put down a social security for a child, they're getting hammered for thats a battle over how to pay for it it. the other bat over poverty is ideological. do you continue with the programs that have been place since 1964 and the other ones that have been added since then or do you fundamentally revamp the whole system like snork marko rubio said by taking all of the federal dollars, giving them to the state and let the states administer them. >> they probably love that independent. how unique is the perspective of each of your guests today that go head to head on this topic? >> well, it's as unique as it is when you're playing party politics. the republicans wanted to create an environmental as marko rubio said and closing the opportunity gap as opposed to the income gap and democrats believe many of these programs have done very well to help people in part. the big argument, though, jamie is do you help people in poverty to get by or help people to get out of the property? >> in terms of the question of the 8 million jobs that have been developed and it's s

ayotte: thank you, madam president. i want to thank my colleague from indiana. as he said, i, like my colleague from indiana and my colleague from ohio, moved to allow this bill to go afford for debate, and i thought it was important that we have a debate on, obviously, the situation of struggling workers in our country and on the issue of whether to extend unemployment benefits for them. and i've been clear that on the pending bill, if there is a way we can responsibly pay for this temporary three-month extension do that, that i would be willing to support that, except the current bill does not have a way to pay for it, because i don't believe that we should be adding to our debt -- $17 trillion -- and our yearly deficits in order to do this. but let me just say that i have a very commonsense amendment. it is amendment 2603. let me just say what it is about. my amendment fixes what is abuse in our tax code. the treasury inspector general found that individuals who are not authorized to work in this country are collecting billions of dollars in tax refunds by fi

speaking of billionaires, she and other sometimes like to at least travel by ayotte, so more people areand buying and chartering them than ever before. i spoke with a broker about growing demand. >> for the majority of people who actually want to own or by the yacht, there is a leaning more towards spending money and being ok with conspicuous consumption. things have settled down. they feel more positive and say, let's go have some fun. >> when you talk about people ofing money, what groups people are able to trade up with bigger and price syria? are they wall street people and entrepreneurs? from which categories are you seeing the demand? >> sure. inherited wealth. in actual fact, the majority of these owners are self-made and have made their own money and do not mind spending their own money. they are in control of their own assets. activity on the buying side in america than anywhere else. >> more in europe than in asia. >> correct. the leading levels of activity, followed closely by the middle east, russia seems to be coming back. then we have new businesses coming out in brazil, a

we'll talk with the senator who proposed that plan, republican kelly ayotte, new hampshire, coming up. hey kevin...still eating chalk for heartburn? yeah... try new alka seltzer fruit chews. they work fast on heartburn and taste awesome. these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already. [ male announcer ] new alka seltzer fruits chews. enjoy the relief! we are thinkers. the job jugglers. the up all-nhts. and the ones who turn ideas into action. we've made our passions our life's work. we strive for the moments where we can s, "i did it!" ♪ we are entrepreneurs who started it all... with a signature. legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses, turning dreamers into business owners. and we're here to help start yours. jenna: well, as bill to extend unemployment makes its way through the senate, we have new polling. 58% of overall voters polled think that congress should approve a three month extension of unemployment benefits for people who are currently out of work. but when broken down along party lines, these are the results. it's split. 83% of democrats approve a three

chairman. >> senator ayotte. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thanks so much for the shooting but it's a very important topic. let me just ask you, admiral winnefeld, i think it's been clear, and secretary fox, not one dod official was consulted on this cost-of-living increase cut, were they? >> not to my knowledge, there were no dod officials consulted. we heard about it in the in game as other people did. >> just to be clear, the way this went down is that many of us sitting around this table action also serve on the budget committee, and as a member of the budget committee and a member of the armed services committee, we were not consulted about this cut to the cost-of-living increase. as far as i know the chairman of the armed service committee was not consulted on this cost-of-living increase cut. and, in fact, the cut action violated the principles and her own law that we passed that said if you are going to be any changes to retirement, that they would be grandfathered, isn't that right? >> that's correct. >> wonderful that we can reach a

senator ayotte says for those who are filing a so-called i-10, that is those who don't have a social security number but work in america and pay taxes as they are required to do, she would cut them off so that they couldn't claim this child tax credit for their children even if their child is a u.s. citizen. and that's the requirement under the law. so she would cut off child benefits for citizen children to pay for temporary unemployment benefits. you know, we can clean up the child tax credit situation, and i think there are ways to do it in a reasonable fashion. but to cut off millions of children who are legally here in the united states eligible for this child tax credit, is that what we've come to? cut off a child tax credit? eliminate the help for those who are working in sheltered workshops, disabled people across america, eliminate the protection under the affordable care act for discrimination against families for children with preexisting conditions. those are the republican alternatives to pay for unemployment benefits. does that define the difference between parties? i'm

new hampshire senator kelly ayotte says -- deeply saddened by passing of a real sharon, a courageousleader who devoted his life to pursuing security for the israeli people. ariel --ority leader eric cantor calling sharon a giant of a leader of israel, a skilled warrior in battle and a valued friend of our nation. another tweets -- my condolences to the people of israel on the loss of a great letters -- a leader. democratic senator tom carper said -- ariel sharon spent his life working for peace -- may he rest in peace now. with arieldown sharon back in 1989. he was a guest on our series "look notes," were he talked about his autobiography "warrior." that is next in his little over an hour. pre happiness,s, victories, defeats. it was a long story, a long struggle. looking forward, one can some of the influence israel should provide over the .eople of the future >> one of the most interesting things i learned when i looked through your book is that you were born and raised in israel. how may people that live there today that are involved in government are actually born there? generally

and senator ayotte's amendment would do that. all of these amendments, mr. president, would deserve debate which i'm trying in some small way to provide here. but others have their india have their way of talking about it, and they also deserve a vote. again, the majority leader, senator reid, is the traffic cop on the senate floor. and as senator mcconnell pointed out yesterday, the senate has been radically transformed from a place where we used to have, we used to be able to claim the senate as the greatest deliberative body on the phraepbd but no more. -- on the planet but no more but we can return to the way the senate used to be by having this constructive, bipartisan, fulsome discussion and votes on good ideas and make legislation better and not settle for something less. well, i said that -- and it's true -- that senator have a right to debate and offer legislation. now i'm not sure that many people across america have thought very deeply about what that means. this isn't about the presiding officer's rights as a united states senator or my rights as

ideologically i thought it was interesting when we saw kelly ayotte in new hampshire being one of the few people that stood up during the government shutdown saying enough is enough. you people are killing me up here.

party going forward and people like susana martinez and potentially nikki haley and possibly kelly ayotte, a senator from new hampshire. so i think that there are a number of women candidates. but of course between now and 2016 and when these women may or may not declare this, i think the party still need to figure out how to we address these issues but how do we talk to women. >> host: than next call comes with david in missouri. >> caller: thank you for having me. listen, it is kind of ironic. we have socialist democrats better and we are there to suppose the socialist police state because we did a stand up for the constitution like the tea party does and we should be more sensitive and that is her leadership system. >> host: david, when you say that you stand up for the constitution, could you give an example of what you mean by that? >> caller: i hate having the voting rights being curtailed by those that commit voting fraud and then when you try to correct it with proper id laws, people say you are discriminating against them when it comes to voting. and also the same ids to get thei

. >> now majority leader harry reid said democrats have dismissed ayotte's proposal in the past and don'tthink it's a serious one this time around. >> go after children with the child tax credit. those are the two pay-fors at this point. that's a little scary. we're waiting for the republicans' suggestion how to pay for the full-year extension of unemployment extension. they say they want to pay for it. let's hear what they want to do. >> other proposals include rolling back the bulk of the federal healthcare law by a year as a way to pay for unemployment insurance. democrats say that's a non-starter and not going to happen. that's why they're not allowing amendments to move forward. regardless unemployment insurance in the senate, the house is a much steeper climb. that's because house speaker john boehner not only wants to see how it will be paid for, he wants to see elements to jump start the economy and try to get more jobs out there for the american public. democrats for their part in the house say time is of the essence, they want these benefits reinstated because they expired decem

kelly ayotte was are in c.for the game and -- >> i was cheering alongside with a torn rotator cuff this year. i was there. >> we learned a lot about each other as people and our families and to was a great time to build camaraderie and establish a lot of friendships that have blossomed into other thanks spent and i know all their rbis. [laughter] >> congresswoman wagner, a little more strictly. republicans have had an issue in terms of having the same kind of numbers in congress. i know you have spent time this year try to change that recruiting to you talk about those efforts? >> it is an absolute passion of mind. there are 19 republican women in congress. we have a conference of 232. it's the failure. and one that absolutely must be addressed. i look out, icy susan molinari and icy barbara comstock and others i've worked with over the years on the program that got women involved across the country in politics. and we're doing this now. on how the involving project grow, it has a messaging component reaching o

ayotte and other republicans say there's plenty. she's offered a proposal, so has some of her colleagues but there remains a fundamental differences of opinion. gretchen. >> the gridlock. mike emanuel, thank you so much. >> thank you. >>> another story new jersey governor chris christie apologizing and firing his deputy chief of staff today 24 hours after the aide orchestrated traffic jams on george washington bridge to punish a political rival. governor christie speaking publicly since e-mails and texts revealed his aides were involved. christie said he was embarrassed and blind-sided by the whole thing. listen to this. >> i am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on my team. there's no doubt in my mind that the conduct that they exhibited is completely unacceptable and showed a lack of respect for the appropriate role of government and for the people that were trusted to serve. >> a fox news contributor, bernard whitman pollster for bill clinton and democratic strategist and part of my political panel to

susan collins and lisa murkowski and ohio senator rob portman and new hampshire kelly ayotte. and dean heller who cou-sponsord the bill. before the senate vote, minority leader mitch mcconnell tried to hold unemployment assistance hostage to a one year delay of the individual mandate. as with all things related to congressional rpz, things remain hilariously and irresponsibly unpredictable. another vote must take place before a final vote on the bill which is possibly later this week. then the legislation will travel down the rabbit hole to the lower chamber where speaker boehner said it will face resistance. in a statement he said one month ago i personally told the white house that another extension of temporary emergency unemployment benefits should not only be paid for but include something to help put people back to work. to date the president offered no such plan. if he does i'll be happy to discuss it. right now the house will remain focused on growing the economy and giving the unemployed the independence that only comes from finding a good job. joining any now is squa

the others kelly ayotte, coats, collins, portman and murkowski had president obama pressing for approval including appearing with some that have lost benefits. >> these are not statistics. these are your neighbors, your friends, your family members, it could at some point be any of us. >> joining me right now, nbc news capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell. it made it through the senate surprisingly does the future look good though? >> reporter: it's an incremental step and hill is freezing over if that they got more than expected in terms of republican turnout as you outlined. six republicans. that is a genuine surprise to some of the democrats who have been pushing this forward. what happens now is a complicated process where senators will discuss possibilities of could this be paid for with cuts elsewhere to provide this extension of unemployment benefits? even if it gets through the senate, there's a big question mark about how many days that will take and what steps will be required so we'll be talking about this for the next few days, richard. over on the house side where repu

then there was kelly ayotte. then there was dan coats of indiana, susan collins of maine, lisa murkowski of alaska and rob portman of ohio. with senator portman's totally unexpected vote for unemployment insurance, that was enough to break the republican party's filibuster on the bill, so the unemployment extension looks like it is going to pass the senate. they got enough republican votes to break the filibuster and nobody saw that coming. nobody saw that coming. nobody saw that coming. marco rubio who's been talking about poverty and giving his big speech on it tomorrow, he voted no. rand paul, talking about poverty, voted no. mike lee voted no. mitch mcconnell who's been talking about poverty, of course, no, he voted no. enough other republicans voted yes that it happened and that legitimately was a surprise. and once it passes the senate, that will mean it goes to the republican-controlled house where it would be, again, a legitimate surprise if the republicans in the house even allowed a vote on it. but one

of nevada will join us in ten minutes along with maine's susan collins, and new hampshire's kelly ayotte. others are open to extension but are looking to offset the benefits with spending cuts. the white house says the president wants the bill attachd with no strings attached. he will speak later this morning at the white house. don't be surprised if he uses that as an opportunity to chastise the gop on this vote. >>> on the 50th anniversary of president johnson's war on poverty, republicans are trying to respond to obama's challenge. tomorrow, florida senator marco rubio and eric cantor will both give speeches on poverty. rand paul has put his emphasis on the poor. sharing his thoughts on thursday. rubio previewed his speech. >> isn't it time to declare big government's war on poverty a failure? what our nation needs say real agenda that helps people acquire the skills they need, to lift themselves out of poverty and to pursue the american dream. >> nbc news senior political editor mark myrrh is here with this morning's "first read." this is a fascinating issue, mark. it's obviously som

senator ayotte of new hampshire had a perfectly intelligent offset that both paid for on the unemploymentompensation and paid for restoring military pensions. and all it did was require that we eliminate people who are frauds, who are illegal, from getting certain benefits by simply requiring them to identify who they are. why the senate democrats object to us stopping crooks from taking money from the american people is beyond me. you literally would save enough to both restore the military pension, which should be done, and to pay for the unemployment compensation. she had a very good amendment. they ought to -- harry reid ought to make it an order. i think it will pass and i think it meets all of the core standards. those two things. pay for it and turn it into a trainer -- training program for workers. i would totally and enthusiastically endorse. >> let me get to your quick thought on chris christie, the governor of new jersey. you believe him? >> yeah, sure, i'm inclined to believe him. he's a smart guy. look, if another shoe drops and turns out he knew this, then i think he's toast

. >> but there are people in the republican party, dean heller, kelly aye ayotte and others, and thisfor it is a ruse. as if we didn't know the republicans were opposed to unemployment benefits all along. >> we want something more long term. >> let's have a one-year plan then. >> not a band-aid over a band-aid. >> these talking points are so helpful, it's almost like frank lutz sat in a room to allow them to say it, but they do not believe in helping people who are unemployed, they don't believe in helping people get a living wage instead of a minimum wage. >> where's the end of the road? we need job creation. look at obama's green jobs, that created one job for van jones. >> this is how you create jobs. if you have more people getting money on a regular basis, they'll start circulating that money into the economy and that creates more jobs. republicans spend 41 times repealing obamacare and start focusing on the jobs bill the president proposed two and a half years ago, maybe we'd make progress. >> the polls do show -- >> i'm sorry to get distracted, but this is upsetting to hear thi

expecting to vote with the democrats, susan collins, dean heller, lisa murkows kichlt i and kelly ayotte. >> and who am i missing? >> dan coats and rob portman. >> how likely are they to vote yes on the actual bill? this is just a procedure. >> we are not sure how likely they are. once you get to the actual bill, you will need a simple majority, not to get too far into the weeds here. maybe another 60-vote threshold to get off of the bill. unclear if this ultimately will pass the senate. it looks a lot more likely now that you have not just one but two republicans, two extra republicans. six republicans voting with democrats. >> i want to bring in rana to weigh in on this as well. you are the cnn global economists. talk to me about the impact of this. republicans will say this is costly. this is not chump change. $6.4 billion. they want offsets, a way to pay for it. democrats talk about it being critical to the economy. these benefits go into the economy. people need it to live. is it as simple as that? >> in some ways, it is unemployment itself is costly. it is important to remember tha

i know you do that too and spotted a tweet by kelly ayotte. she tweeted no reason why millionaires and billionaires should receive unemployment benefits and co-sponsored a tomko burn amendment to end this practice. you have got to be kidding millionaires and billionaires are collecting unemployment? that's awful and petty, too. the whole idea of unemployment benefits are to provide a safety net for people who need it. millionaires and billionaires don't need it. sure they are entitled by law if they meet the unemployment criteria, that doesn't mean they have to do it. remember, just because you can doesn't mean you should. you don't always have to settle the score that knee jerk i paid into it so i'm going to collect it even if i don't need it mentality. doing the right thing matters, if you don't need it, just don't get it one other thing, we don't need this bill. that is legislative decency. they should know better. it's social engineering. and that is all messed up. and that's my off-the-record comment tonight. if you have an important stor

we saw kelly ayotte of new hampshire. behind her before we had ted cruz.he seat of john kerry's who, of course, departed for the state department. behind him, richard blumenthal of connecticut. do you think, though, chris, getting back to the joe wilson point, this gets down to the nub of the issue. we think about what the president's agenda has to be tonight. and the implacable fact of the matter, who matter what he says and the agenda items he's discussing are polling, he will see nothing from the house republican caucus that will come to meet him halfway that in some ways part of it has to do with the structures in place. the fact they will be celebrated by a movement that is committed to destroying and on instructing the president. part of it has to do with for the most part a lot of the folks are true believers. when joe wilson said, for instance, said "you lie" he really thought the president was lying. when people get up tonight to give the gop responses and talk about socialism and the like, they genuinely believe and the people that vote them in o

there is a new idea from kelly ayotte, the new hampshire republican senator who yesterday voted to agains legislation more fully. she was one of the people who surprised folks in washington. her idea is to pay for this by getting rid of -- basically requiring anyone who gets the child tax credit to actually show a social security number going forward. the idea would be that you eliminate illegal immigrants from qualifying for the tax break. she says that would generate $20 million over 10 years to pay for not only extending jobless benefits, but also pay for the military pension change that had also been controversial in the budget deal. it would get rid of two issues all at once, but her idea and proposal has been quoted before and harry reid has not been supportive of it. some democrats have already stepped up and said that they will not support it. savings inbunch of the farm bill, if they can get a farm bill together tom and there is some talk of trying to apply those savings to pay for the unemployment benefits going forward. 6.5 billion dollars does not seem like a big number in th

i know senator ayotte has an amendment that i am supporting that again gets at fraud and abuse in government programs and say let's pay for the unemployment benefits. she also by the way pays for veterans' benefits that were cut during the budget agreement that we just passed. i also support that, and she has a little left over for actual deficit reduction. senator coburn will have a proposal out here. senator hatch will have one. senator coburn also has one that's out of the president's budget. there are plenty of ideas of how to pay for this extension short term while we look at better ways to have the unemployment insurance system work to connect people who are unemployed to the jobs that are out there by giving them the skills that they need. that's where the hard work begins. we have got to get this country moving again. we have got to do things to actually increase economic growth and give people the skills that they need to access to jobs that are out there. we need to pass bills like the career act. that's bipartisan legislation i have introduced with senator mike bennet from colorad

and i would like to ask senator ayotte to tell us from your point of view the unanswered question and if you think there is evidence about a preplanned terrorist attack versus a protest. >> i want to thank my senator colleagues who have been relentless about finding out what happened. there are so many questions. i would start with the accountability question that the senator raised. no one has been held accountable. who has been held accountable for the failures? is a clear the intelligence community provided ample warning that the people in benghazi were at risk. there were failures. and no one has been held accountable. why? i would like to know as i look at these talking points the question that was raised. by was the reference to al qaeda removed from the talking points in the context of a presidential campaign. but also take a look at the talking points: there is no reference to a video. look at the actual language of the talking points. so why is it that the spokesman for the president on january 13th is out there saying the protest we are seeing or this is a reaction to this m

senator ayotte introduced the keeping our promises to our military heroes act that repeals the cola reduction for all military retirees and i'm certainly proud to support that legislation. arkansans want congress to fully restore military retiree benefits as soon as possible and i'm committed to raising this priority at every possible opportunity until justice is realized for these military families. while there's been much discussion about restoring these benefits in future legislation, this should be done at the earliest opportunity in order to provide certainty for our military's retirees' financial future. to our nation's military retirees, i'm committed to this fight. you've earned these benefits. congress must correct the wrong and restore your full retirement pay. and as always, thank you for your service to our country. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. reid: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be terminated. the presiding officer: wi

group of 14 that actually pushed the leadership on a deal it was half republicans, including kelly ayotte and lisa mikulski and myself and senator high camp. we worked together and it made a very big difference. the trust that we have is genuine. we get together for dinner every other month. at my house, we had a minnesota potluck dinner. before that was senator mikulski and her husband actually fixed the salmon and froze it and sent it to her. we allow the meant to be hunter gatherers. [laughter] >> great. i would like to ask all three congresswoman -- have you seen this spirit that the senator is talking about? we haven't heard about it has leading to the house as much here and has there been an effort to translate it to the other chamber and what kind of partnerships have been formed? >> recently have in the freshman class. we just had a great dinner this week with the freshman members from the democrat side of the aisle and the republicans. i won't tell you how many bottles of wine we went through. [laughter] and what we talked about was coming together and getting things done. women

we raised this early on with senator wicker and send ayotte and myself. the way the congress has responded to looking at this with an open mind trying to fix it in a bipartisan way. i think this is a good thing. everybody makes mistakes but you really judge people by their willingness to right wrongs it seems like we're on a good glidepath defined $69, hopefully, to set aside for what we've done with the c.o.l.a. minus one%. but the idea of reforming compensation, count me in, i just think the time has come prospectively to look at the sustainability. there's a difference, ago, between what you're saying about the overall cost of personal within the military budget and with some of our veterans organizations thing. what percentage of dod's budget is personnel related? >> the military compensation by itself is about one-third. and overall compensation disciplines is about half of the budget. but i would hasten to add that the more i dug into this and the more ideas the body delivering this has dug into, it's the less sophisticated that metric sound. becaus

trillion so i commend those who are working on this, i have cosponsored a particular approach senator ayotte from new hampshire is proposing that is an antifraud provision for the child tax credit. i would think all of waste, fraud, and abuse want to make sure this child tax credit is properly administered and those ineligible for it should not access it. we should make sure there is not fraud and abuse in our government and that is one example. i would hope we could find a way to deal with that issue. finally, mr. president, the majority leader talked a little about the legislation that's currently before this body and that's to extend unemployment insurance. and i want to talk for a moment about where we are on that bill and say i was encouraged by the words of the majority leader that he sounds like he is interested in looking at various ways that we could pay for it. he indicated he is not in support of paying for it but he indicated he'd be willing to listen to some of our ideas. let me say a couple things about it. one, this is the emergency unemployment insurance on top of the roughly

it's another offered by senator ayotte that would cut down on fraud in refundable tax credits. and there are plans for job creation that would be offered by senators paul, thune and inhofe. these plans take a different approach than the government-led one we see from our democratic friends. they rely on unlocking the potential of the private sector to actually increase employment. so why don't we have a vote on them here in the senate? i'm sure there are many democratic ideas out there as well. but we won't get a chance to debate any of them as long as the majority leader keeps blocking us from offering amendments. this obstructionism by the democratic majority is against the traditions of this body and it needs to end. because if democrats truly want to get anything done this year, they're going to have to learn how to work with us. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to s. 1845, which the clerk will report. the

and senator ayotte's proposal would essentially mean that a lot of kids would not be covered in reality. and i don't think we want that kind of a tradeoff. and i just want to -- maybe we close with this -- in terms of the long run, we can sit down and discuss how we handle it. i want to emphasize in 2012, we made some reforms in unemployment insurance. we cut down the number of benefits from 99. the top now is 73, and the average is 54. we also gave the states more ability to undertake training programs and retraining pranlsd also in terms of -- programs and also in terms of compensation. if there was a sharing of work, there's 100% funding to the states when they do that kind of a program. so we can have further discussions about changes in reforms, but not during this immense immediate emergency for these families. and we surely don't want essentially to trade off benefits for kids for unemployment insurance. that is -- that is not a deal that this institution should be discussing. i guess with this, if you don't mind, mr. chairman, one more. >> i'm just going to go ahead and close it

. >> -- senator ayotte. spent i'm very impressed with the qualifications for this position.let me just add, ago what my colleague senator mccain just said. one of the things that really troubles me as well in terms of the recent change in rules, not only that my colleague couldn't get a fair answer to his question to the secretary pomata and security, but also that i know you've already been asked about it by senator coburn, but that we took the unprecedented step of concerning -- confirming a deputy secretary to department of homeland security who was under active investigation by the oig. and i don't think we would have previously done that but for the change in these roles. and so let me just add to what senator mccain said, that i very much hope that we can get answers to legitimate questions that our constituents have. and i hope in your new position you will take very seriously that this investigation, despite confirmation, should not be swept under the rug or not follow through. i hope you will give us that commitment. >> yes, i will. >> appreciated. thank you. i want