senator ayotte is here to senator ayotte is here to tell you we never thought we'd be farming wind out here. it's not just building jobs here, it's helping our community. siemens location here has just received a major order of wind turbines. it puts a huge smile on my face. cause i'm like, 'this is what we do.' the fact that iowa is leading the way in wind energy, i'm so proud, like, it's just amazing. move better,to make things that move, just talk to one of our scientists. they'll show you a special glue we've developed that bonds metal to plastic. and that makes the things you're trying to move... lighter. it takes energy to move weight. the less weight... the less energy. here, the energy you save is used for speed. here, for efficiency. apply the laws of physics to things that move, and they move better, faster, safer. it's kind of like traveling at the speed of light. only a lot more fun. this is the human element at work. dow. when folks think about wthey think salmon and energy. but the energy bp produces up here creates something else as well: jobs all over america. engineeri

ayotte: thank you mr. president.i want to thank my colleagues the senator from south carolina for his leadership and also for our leader, the senator from kentucky, for the incredible work that he has done in supporting our great friend, israel and also on -- in reading in this body in terms of the issues that he has brought forward not only in supporting important protection, like the iron dome system, but also in ensuring that america remains safe and strong. so thank you very much, senator mcconnell, for your leadership. i rise today because i had the privilege in march of traveling to israel and i went there not only to meet with the leadership in israel but i had the opportunity to meet with some of the palestinian leadership as well but to actually go down -- go to storogh a town in israel. and i was very much struck about what the israelis are facing every day and the threat they face from hamas a terrorist organization. you know you go to a town like storough and everyone in their household has a bomb shelter

ayotte: thank you, madam president,. the presiding officer: the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. ms. ayotte: madam president, i certainly want to thank my colleague, senator shaheen from new hampshire. as she has stated, new hampshire doesn't have a sales tax, and the so-called marketplace fairness act, there's absolutely nothing fair about it, especially for a state like new hampshire. it should be more appropriately named the internet sales tax collection act, that's what it is, the sales tax collection act, and i appreciate the work that i've done with my colleague, that both of us fighting the marketplace fairness act because there's nothing fair about it for new hampshire, and, frankly, nothing fair it for online businesses across this country. this act would ask our online businesses that have been thriving and growing, people -- many people have started these businesses from their homes and we've seen those businesses really flourish in our home state of new hampshire. they would ask these busine

but senator kelly ayotte strongly disagrees.esident obama says that ukraine doesn't need our weapons. do you agree? >> absolutely not, greta. it's absurd. first of all, they have been asking for lethal assistance from us since i was there in march and they were asking for it then. it's been months and months. and here is the absurdity. since the russian-backed separatists actually took down flight 17 and murdered over 290 innocent people, the russians and putin have put more armaments in. they have put more antiaircrafts into eastern ukraine. they put more tanks, more heavy arms. so actually since the plane went down and we won't provide the ukrainian military, who is fighting hearted for their own sovereignty, some basic lethal assistance, i mean, it's really mind boggling. >> what do you think president obama's thinking is on this? >> i really don't understand his thinking because what's happening is that the ukrainian military, they are putting it on the line. they are actually making some progress down there. >> maybe it tha

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senator ayotte. >> you saw a great group of bipartisan work today.re going to find a lot of bipartisan support for this legislation because every state in this nation has a college or a higher ed institution and we want to ensure -- i know all my colleagues do -- that those campuses are safe for our young men and women to go to. >> ifill: senator mccaskill. f we can't set aside partisan relationships on this issue we are without hope. people on both sides of the aisle want to get this right and make it supportive for victims and universities and i think we'll get this done. >> ifill: thank you both very much. >> thank you, gwen. >> woodruff: a new report documents how al quaida is bringing in money to finance its operations. investigation by the "new york times" reveals european and gulf states government have routinely paid millions of dollars in ransom to win the release of their citizens kidnapped by al quaida in. all since $2,008,125 million has been paid out by france, switzerland, spain, austria, qatar andoman. three different al quaida coordin

ayotte: thank you. i thank the senator from texas for coming to the floor to talk about this incredibly important issue to the american people. and isn't it true that for 16 years, the internet tax freedom act has prevented politicians nationwide from using the web as a piggy bank and has helped commerce thrive by keeping it free from burdensome tax restrictions? and isn't it true that by making this permanent the way the house bill does and the way that the bill that my colleague from oregon, his bill that has been offered that has 52 cosponsors in the united states senate does, we never have to allow the people of this country again to feel uncertainty that suddenly this great freedom we have on the internet, that they're going to be taxed when they access the internet or that somehow we're going to use the internet as a way to raise money and a way to hurt e-commerce? i would ask that of my colleague from the state of texas and ask, is this all true, that if we can pass the house bill right now, whic

joining me now to talk about this, republican senator from new hampshire, kelly ayotte.r being with us. >>ed goo to be with you. >> as you look at this, how do you think that the u.s. and europe can hold putin accountable? >> well, first of all, i never continue to be amazed by the brazenness of vladimir putin with trying to blame the media, trying to blame everyone except for himself and russia for what happened to flight 17. and what we can doing is issue tougher economic sanctions against russia. sectoral sanctions that will be much more hard hitting against their economy, sector, energy sector, also thinking about their financial sector, much tougher than we've imposed. europeans need to step up to the plate and join the united states of america and need to give support to the ukrainian military to defend themselves against russian aggression. >> if you're talking about targeting the defense and energy sector, we've seen some targeted sanctions unilaterally from the u.s., you have the eu talking about travel bans and asset freezes. is that really enough? >> totally i

ayotte: i would fully share your view.nd really in order to end this threat, we need to support israel and its right to eliminate the tunnels, to address the missiles and eliminate the missiles and the stash that hamas has that they are targeting israel with, which, by the way, would have had many more civilian casualties but for the iron dome system that we have supported and worked with israel on. and finally, we need to get to a point where the gaza is demilitarized and they're put in a position where this threat cannot continue. that's what we need to get at thinking about, but we need to allow israel to deal with the threat of these tunnels and the missiles so that the children in storogh will not continue to be targeted, so that children, not only israeli children but also palestinian children can live in peace in the region and that can't happen when hamas continues to be a terrorist organization that threatens all children in the region. thank you. mr. thune: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from s

kelly ayotte joins me from the hill. thank you for being with us.as the president tough enough today with vladimir putin, or does he have to preserve lines of communication to moscow, or what should we be doing with putin given the evidence we have of the russian separatists who apparently fired this missile? >> well, i think it's very clear that the evidence is pointing at moscow. the russian separatists are being funded by moscow. the equipment comes from moscow. and essentially this investigation at the end of the day will have, i think, the fingerprints are really on moscow. and to see the -- really the serve. i'm never ceased to be amazed by the nerve of vladimir putin to actually blame the ukrainians in terms of closing the air space is astounding, especially when there's been a pattern of conduct here leading up to it because you've had a cargo plane. ukrainian cargo plane taken down in this area on monday. the day before this murder -- this is really a murder of over 290 innocent people. there was another military jet that was taken down by

senator ayotte. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i wanted to ask about the conditions upon which these children are being brought up here by the smugglers. as i understand it there are girls are being raped, as i under it, and boys too. children being abused. what are the conditions upon which -- we talked a lot about the conditions in the countries and how bad they are, but what are these children being subjected to, and how much are they subjected to these criminal syndicates who are making money off this and exploiting these children and what are we talking about is happening with these children? >> senator, a couple of things that i think are important. one is that almost all of the children that are being brought into the country are being brought through smuggling organizations. oftentimes the smugglers are juveniles themselves. this is a money profit issue. often controlled overhead by cartels. their two modes much transportation we see right now one, of course, has been cited as the train that comes up and people taking that

. >> thank you, senator ayotte. senator donnelly? >> thank you, mr. chairman, and i want to thank all of you and your families for their sacrifice. general votel, admiral mcbraven stated that suicide rates among special operations forces are hitting record highs. he put in place the preservation of the force and family program to try to help with that. and what i want to find out is, do you plan on continuing that? do you see it as a success? do you see anything that is more effective or other avenues that can help with this? >> first of all, senator, thanks for the question. and i absolutely do continue to apply the same level of effort onto this and as much more as i can on this particular problem of suicide with our soft service members and our service members in general. i do think we have to continue to look at every potential resource that can help us to, one, understand the problem and then identify ways we can deal with this for our service members. so, you know, the numbers are alarming, and i think we have to -- i think it is our number one

and i would especially like to commend senator ayotte for her strong leadership on this issue. i've enjoyed working with her to push back against those misleading claims about that hobby lobby ruling, and ensuring that women across america know the truth. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: madam president, i rise today to talk about the assault on women's health that has come from the majority on our supreme court in recent weeks. it's unfortunate and, frankly, shocking that in the year 2014, we are still debating the issue of access to birth control. but here we are. and millions of americans are looking to the senate today and counting on us to stand up for women's rights. they're counting on us to put health care back between a woman and her doctor. they're counting on us to stand up for millions of americans' access to affordable preventive health care of every kind. they are counting on us to say that birth control is not your boss' business. in short, they're counting on u

senators mitch mcconnell and kelly ayotte say the legislation would require employers to allow women to buy their own birth control. well, this bill isn't expected to do much, because women can already legally access contraceptives approved by the fda. >>> gop congressman rich nugent of florida is calling the unaccompanied children crossing the border gang members. in a radio interview this week, he said "these kids have been brought up in the culture of thievery, a culture of murder, of rape, and now we are going to infuse them into the american culture? it's just ludicrous." >>> despite saying she won't be running for president in 2016, senator elizabeth warren has a new cheering squad. the group ready for warren is taking to social media to urge her to make a bid anyway. the facebook page has almost 12,000 likes. >>> president obama got behind the wheel of a driving simulator yesterday. the president called it exciting and said he hadn't been on the road in a long time. he had a bit of a lead foot, though, at one point clocking in at 90 miles per hour. and that is your morning dis

. >> senator ayotte. >> thank you mr. chairman. i want to thank you general dunford for your incredible leadership in afghanistan and i can't think of a better man to serve as commandant and i also want to thank your wife ellen for everything that she is done for a country in the marine corps. i wanted to ask you general if we follow the course of action that has been announced by the administration in afghanistan. without any changes in the reduction of forces, in other words 98002 half at the beginning of 16 to about a thousand embassy presence in the beginning of january of 2017. what is the best-case scenario or what happens in afghanistan and then i would also like you to answer with no changes to the pace of withdrawal, what's the worst-case scenario so we can understand what the two possibilities are? >> thanks senator. the best-case scenario for than a couple years would be first we have a successful political transition this year. the afghan forces continued to be successful coming out of the fighting season. they have inc

. >>> meanwhile, republican kellie ayotte will officialate brown's daughter's wedding in the state.. turning to florida where a judge's rule may end up force the the state to redraw is the districts. yesterday, a florida judge ruled that the florida legislature illegally drew some of the state's congressional districts in a partisan manner and says they need to be redrawn. back in 2010, florida voters approved a law to make is illegal to gerrymander destructs the the judge singled out two districts, the 10th district held by daniel webster, and the 5s district represented by cory brown. the legislature is expected to repeal the ruling, making it unlikely the ruling will affect this year's election. >>> time for the first number in the data bank. while much of the focus so "game of thrones" and "true detective" it was another gnome that caught our attention. president obama's appearance on zach gavlifianakis' show. he urged people to enroll, and the episode quickly wen viral. >>> don't feel bad. he has two grammy awards of his own when he did those books on tape. >>> cutting through

amendment to the national defense authorization act and i'm grateful again to the work that senator ayotte has done with me on this. we're joined most recently by several cosponsors. senators shaheen, warner and boxer. here's what the amendment will do, mr. president, and then i'll conclude. this amendment will address three main issues. number one, continue to prioritize recruitment and retention of women in the afghan national security forces. two, support police units especially trained to work with female and adolescent victims and increase the number of female officers trained to address cases of gender-based violence. this would include afghan police units have the necessary resources and are available to women across afghanistan. third and finally, emphasized need to maintain the female searcher capabilities that were established in april 2014 in the presidential elections for the 2015 parliamentary elections. we must ensure the gains made by afghan women in every sector of society are preserved in a post-2014 afghanistan. ness our national security interest to help afghanistan from

senator ayotte. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i wanted to ask about the conditions upon which these children are being brought up here by the smugglers. as i understand it there are girls are being raped, as i under it, and boys too. children being abused. what are the conditions upon which -- we talked a lot about the conditions in the countries and how bad they are, but what are these children being subjected to, and how much are they subjected to these criminal syndicates who are making money off this and exploiting these children and what are we talking about is happening with these children? >> senator, a couple of things that i think are important. one is that almost all of the children that are being brought into the country are being brought through smuggling organizations. oftentimes the smugglers are juveniles themselves. this is a money profit issue. often controlled overhead by cartels. their two modes much transportation we see right now one, of course, has been cited as the train that comes up and people taking that

. >> let me ask you, susan, before we go, kelly ayotte suggesting that the u.s.shame the eu in to tougher sanctions if they don't take necessary sanctions in her mind. how likely is it republicans in washington make any effort to shame the eu countries? >> well, i'm not sure what kind of effort they can make. all hey along it's been clear the obama administration has been meeting the sanctions that have been done as multiple administration officials said to me. we have had to drag europe kicking and screaming every step of the way. i think that's likely the case going forward as a well. that's my sense. >> thank you both for your time and thoughts. >> thank you. >>> coming up, speaker john boehner kalss new doubt on the prospects for addressing the humanitarian crisis at the border. will congress do the right thing, something or anything? that's next. (birds chirping softly in background.) (loud engine sounds!) what! how's it going? heard you need a ride to school. oh, that's pretty cool! big day at school? i know just the thing to help you get going. power up wi

together with kelly ayotte and the latest push to get the 67 votes needed, this is so unbelievable.as involved in the beginning of this. this is the ratification of the convention of the rights of persons with disabilities. our law here was harkin and bob dole together and it is just incredible that the united states has not ratified this. listen to bob dole. >> but most of all, there's one person who is the reason why we are here today and that is because of our beloved senator bob dole. we would not have united in this effort. we would not be continuing this effort until we see it through to completion without senator bob dole. >> this is a bipartisan and should be more bipartisan effort and i'm just pleased to be a part of it. thank you, john. i know what you're thinking. you're thinking beneful. [announcer]and why wouldn't he be? beneful has wholesome grains,real beef,even accents of spinach,carrots and peas. it has carbohydrates for energy and protein for those serious muscles. [guy] aarrrrr! [announcer]even accents of vitamin-rich veggies. [guy] so happy! you love it so much.

senator ayotte? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank you, general dunford, for your incredible leadership in afghanistan, and i can't think of a better man to serve as commandant, and i also want to thank your wife, ellen, for everything that she's done for our country and the marine corps. i wanted to ask you, general, if we follow the course of action that's been announced by the administration in afghanistan, without any changes in the reduction of forces, in other words, 9,800 to half at the beginning of '16, to about 1,000 embassy presence in the beginning of january of 17s is. what's the best-case scenario for what happens in afghanistan? then i would also like you to answer with no changes to the pace of withdrawal, what's the worst-case scenario? so we can understand what the two possibilities are. >> thanks, senator. the best-case sncenario for the next couple years would be that, first, we are successful political transition this year. the afghan forces continue to be successful coming out of the fighting seaso

again which i think senator ayotte outlined moving forward. we have a fatigue research and analysis body of work being done. the full intent is to take advantage of aggregate data to analyze the day-to-day impact. >> my understanding is you'll be receiving data from the states as well that can be used in this work? >> we routinely through our motor carrier assistance grant system and crash reporting, violations reporting, roadside inspection work, collect data and use that to analyze the effects of our work, that's correct. >> so it sounds like there is a very robust intensive active energetic effort under way to assess the effectiveness of the rules while they were in effect now? >> that's absolutely correct, mr. chairman. >> mr. scott? senator scott. sorry. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you panelists for being part of such an important meeting. frankly i will tell you that over -- as i was watching you all on tv, this was a long robust conversation on a number of topic, hours of service being one priority, over the last couple years i've

kelly ayotte of new hampshire and dean heller of nevada and tell them to support the new legislation. the senators have not commented. >>> and the north carolina senate race, democratic incumbent kay haguen is trying to promote her political moderation. here's her latest ad. >> republican or democrat, if the idea works for middle class families, i'm all for it. i approve this message because i was so proud with a nonpartisan national journal ranked me the most moderate senator. not too far left or right, just like north carolina. >> in iowa another crucial senate battleground state. successful statewide candidates in the hawkeye state tend to lean moderate, so republican senate candidate joni ernst is in table. she says that states have the right to naul fie federal laws when, in fact, they don't. >> we have talked about this at the state legislature before. but bottom line is as a u.s. senator why should we be passing laws that the states are considering nullified? >> maybe because federal law cannot be nullified by a state? the campaign said the video is out of context and that the

. >> crash is breaking senator kelly ayotte was meeting with ambassador to the united states. what happened? you are talking to him and get news of this? >> exactly. we hear about the plane going down and can i tell you that the ukrainian ambassador believes that the separatists have buk missiles. they were provided from russia and that's what -- i think we need to understand here. the conclusion of this investigation is that either the missile came from it's a missile that came from russia or it was from the separatists and taps buk style missile. i mean, this came from russia. russia has their fingerprints over it either way. >> does it make a difference? if it's the s-300 missile, it's definitely the russians that actually fired it does that make a difference and if they supplied r. supplied another missile launcher separatists a week ago or go two weeks ago did that make a difference. >> in my view it doesn't, greta. because they have been fueling this violence in eastern ukraine. they have funded the separatists. they have given them the training to use the sophisticated

just ask senator kelly ayotte. right now bob smith is the closest competition with a paltry 16%. he'll join us live in a moment. >>> digging deeper into our own polling, maggie hassen also up for re-election this year. she has a 54% approval rating. nearly six in ten voters say they approve of iowa governor terry branstad's performance. he as a commanding lead over jack hatch. 53% to 38%. hatch will also join us in a few moments. >>> the president may have won iowa and new hampshire in 2012 by six points but his approval rating in both states is not just under water, it's under 40. it's deep under water. 37% in iowa, 39% in new hampshire. just rough in those two swing states. congressional republicans, though, they're even more unpopular. a 21% job rating in iowa and a 19% job rating in new hampshire. as for the president's health care law, it is struggling for support in both iowa and new hampshire, just like we saw yesterday in colorado and michigan. half of voters in both states call the law a bad idea. more popular is a proposal to cut greenhouse gas emissions even if it mean

. >> so are you concerned as senator kelly ayotte was on the program last night that some of these universities, justice is not being served with their own infrastructures put in place. >> it's being investigated inconsistently. we also found in some instances athletic departments were investigating them. this is totally inappropriate. there needs to be the best practices, full investigation and, obviously, victims need to be supported, which is not happening. >> sreenivasan: your response? that absolutely supports the point that the colleges and universities are not equipped to do good investigations and essentially to be asked to be law enforcement officials. that's why we think the proper focus is in our police departments and our courts which is where students should go. if they have been raped, if there has been a sexual assault, it needs to be treated as a crime. this will allows then to give colleges and universities time to do what they do well, which is not serving as law enforcement but dealing with education. i think it's important to remember that the sexual assault problem that we'

new hampshire senator kelly ayotte said she was disturbed by the president's comment today dismissing weapons from the united states. the best way to prevent bloodshed is to give them the arms they need. russia is warning that the new sanctions will trigger a global economic collapse. >> we believe they are illegal, unreasonable and counterproductive. they have nothing to do with the national interests of the countries concerned, including america. >> and russia is retaliating. today they announced it plans to place import duties on ukrainian goods, they plan to ban most fruits and vegetables from poland and stop importing props from gasprom's turbines. the ukrainian military has fired three missiles into the air where in eastern ukraine this week and dutch investigators were unable to get to the crash site because of the security situation, it's simply too unsafe. ukraine's president has asked belarus to host talks between ukraine, russia and osce representatives. the u.s. has not had a permanent ambassador in russia since michael mcfaul resigned in january. yesterday they did approv

. >> nebraska republican senator deb fisher and kelly ayotte wrote an op-ed.ot my boss's business campaign falsely suggests that under the ruling employers can deny employees access to birth control. that's flat-out false. nothing in the hobby lobby ruling stops a woman from getting or filling a prescription for any form of contraception. >> we've seen misrepresentation of the case, i think to divide the american people, and i find these scare tactics very disappointing. >> but there's no question that the gender gap is helping democrats and we're seeing the evidence in our latest polls. colorado senator mark udall is leading the challenger. jeanne shaheen is winning the female vote by 25 points. gary peters has a 13-edge among women despite the fact that his challenger is a woman and she launched an ad designed specifically to try to blunt this issue of the, quote unquote, war on women. >> i'm terri lynn land. congressman gary peters and his buddies want you to believe i'm waging a war on women. really? think about that for a moment. i'm terri lynn land and i

ayotte: thank you, mr. president. mr.president, i rise today to pay tribute to a wonderful man, steven savage, the chief of the plastow police department who passed away friday after a three-year battle with cancer. we are deeply saddened by the loss of chief savage, a plofd member of the plastow, new hampshire, community who dedicated his life to serving his fellow citizens. for steve, family came first. he was a devoted father, husband and brother. we hold his wife kristen and their sons billy and michael in our hearts, and we will keep them in our players. we share in their grief and we will be there to support and comfort them during the difficult weeks ahead. from a young age, steve was called to serve and he answered that call. after graduating from stevens high school in clairemont, new hampshire, in 1965, he enlisted in the air force and served our country in vietnam. he attained the rank of sergeant and earned several commendations for his military service. steve was a very patriotic person. after returning from

street journal," an op-ed by the senator from new hampshire and the senator from nebraska, senators ayotte and senator fischer." the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: mr. president, i notice the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from kentucky. mr. paul: i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. question is on confirmation of the nomination -- the question is on confirmation of the nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or to change their vote? seeing none, on the confirmation, there are 53 yeas and 44 nays. and the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action and the senate will resume legislative session. the presiding offic

ayotte: thank you, madam president.adam president, i have to dispel some of the myths that are being told here about the hobby lobby decision. first of all, one of the biggest distortions i think has been this hashtag campaign, hashtag not my boss' business, because before the hobby lobby decision and as now, employers cannot deny their employees access to birth control. so let's be clear. employers cannot deny their employees access to birth control. so the not my boss' business hashtag and i think some of the statements that are being made on the hobby lobby decision are a misrepresentation or distortion of what that decision stands for, and you don't have to take my word for it. in fact, "the washington post" fact checker yesterday debunked several every several of the outrageous claims being made about this decision. in fact, here's some of the things that we know are true about the hobby lobby decision. nothing in the ruling allows a company to stop a woman from getting or filling a prescription for contraceptives.

demand and they touched on the pressures that you are looking at and you have mentioned to senator ayotte about the size of the force be with look at including in afghanistan. do you see the special ops evolving and i will discuss you how to we see them evolving. and i think it is important as we continue to focus on some of the work that has been done by the admiral. and strengthen this with other military partners out there and so we do have dependable relationships and partners out there that we can work with and depend upon to accomplish a broader effort. so i do think it is important. and we have those who share interests. >> i would ask you, general, we are going to be conducting these operations outside afghanistan, how effective without me. >> throughout the region as well, if you would lose all of your forces within the country. >> i think that that would be very challenging. and certainly there are lots of things that we can look at and i think that it would be challenging to try to address problems in one country from other regions and other countries. and this includes how we

one bill i introduced with senator ayotte, the family-friendly and workplace flexibility act, would allow workers to take time off as a form of overtime compensation. it's an idea that's tailored to the needs of our modern workforce. it's something a lost working men and women say they want, and there's no reason not to provide a little more flexibility to working families. another bill i introduced would ryreduce the cost and hassle of child care by allowing them to write off a home office even if they happen to have a crib in the room. current law prevents working moms and dads from taking that deduction if they care for a child while working at home. this is simply unfair. so making that change is just common sense and really so are all the bills we've introduced. our middle-class agenda is not built around creating massive government bureaucracies or taking from one struggling neighbor to give to another. it's about identifying smart, commonsense fixes that can have a significant impact on the lives of the people we represent. middle-class americans who never felt more squeezed. and t

demand and they touched on the pressures that you are looking at and you have mentioned to senator ayotte about the size of the force be with look at including in afghanistan. do you see the special ops evolving and i will discuss you how to we see them evolving. and i think it is important as we continue to

mark kirk, senator kelly eye up-or-down -- ayotte, nor -- senator barrasso, all stronger supporters of this. i've been a supporter of disability rights since i got here in 1975 in the house. everything i worked on, education of all handicapped children's act, the television decoder circuitry act, the rehab act, rehabilitation act, americans with disabilities act, the a.d.a. act amendments, later on in 2008. these were all nonpartisan. they didn't devolve into any kind of partisan issue. now that doesn't mean everybody voted for it. they passed overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly with both republican and democratic support. that ought to be the case with this too. yes, we should address the legitimate, honest concerns that people have about home schooling and abortion and sovereignty. i believe we can do that with reservations, but i want every senator to know that nothing that this committee on experts will ever do under the crpd takes precedence over our constitution or over our laws. it does nothing to take away our sovereignty. and we can spell that out just as we have in every other tre

[laughter] >> new hampshire senator kelly ayotte also spoke about the plane crash in ukraine today. here are her remarks from the u.s. senate for. am president, i would like to shift to a different topic. i would like, first of all, we all learned today very shockingly that there was an airlines that was shot down, malaysia airlines flight shot down over eastern ukraine, and that reportedly 295 people lost their lives in that incident. and it's been reported that there were americans, some americans reportedly 23 americans who were listed on the manifest, and i just want to offer my thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims of that plane that went down over eastern ukraine. and know that you're in our thoughts and in our prayers. and i want to raise the issue as following -- there's an investigation going on. we don't know yet who's responsible or if anyone's responsible. the facts will come forward as to why this plane went down. but it has been widely reported that the plane was, in fact, shot down. some of the reports have said that it was done by a medium training surf

there is no love equivalency is senator ayotte said. the ukrainian rebels are thuggish, they are birds, these guys are boy scouts compared to hamas. >> i don't know of any country that is going to try to protect the civilian population. everything we have done is to get innocent people out of harm's way but with the obligation that israel has to protect its own citizens from missiles coming into its population center. i give israel a great deal of credit for the manner in which they have tried to warn palestinians and obviously they are faced with an unprecedented situation when you have the missiles and control centers embedded into civilian facilities such as schools and hospitals and mosques. >> i would just say first the loss of life at the school was over credible. the blame falls on hamas's shoulders because they repeatedly use civilian sites including schools to hide missiles. hamas is the group that urged palestinians not to flee. why? the only logical answers they wanted them to be killed so they could use them in their propaga

. >> i appreciate your comments to senator mccain and senator ayotte expressing your desire to have that flexibility and be able to make decisions based on what is happening on the ground. >> senator mccaskill? are smugglers moving through mexico right now with impunity? are smugglers moving children through mexico with impunity right now? >> i would say the effect of the mexican government and their armed forces are not as effective as they could be. they're trying to interject them -- not trying to interdict them, i did not have specifics on that, but i doubt it. they're just not being effective. >> i think it is important once you're confirmed to get a handle on this. it appears to me that the information is that these are cartel based smugglers. the same enemy we have been funding mexico to fight for as long as i have been in the united eight senate and at a certain point in time, the american people deserve metrics on how successful the money we have been pouring into mexico has actually been in enabling the mexican military to do the basics. it is obvious that buses and trains are

. >> senator ayotte, you're on. welcome. >> thank you. >> this is obviously a very important topic. i appreciate all of you being here and appreciate the chairman and ranking member having this hearing. one thing i'm trying to get ahold of, and i know secretary hale, we had a hearing on this acquisition topic as well. the department is littered with filled acquisition programs throughout the services. i mean, billions and billions of dollars there's lots of examples. 2.8 billion wasted on orbiting -- 2.5 wasted on the transformational satellite communication system, from, you know, 2007 to 2013, the air force wasted 6.8 billion on 12 major acquisition programs that never went to field. help me understand, with this -- i believe this audit issue is incredibly important, and the fact that we're now diminished from a statement of budgetary resources, which was what was in the, to a statement of budget activity, which really only shows us the year window, how is this tool going to help us with the acquisition programs? secretary hale? >> first off, let me repeat the statement of budget

>> i have a sacred obligation to senator ayotte. she's next. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate it. let me just say up front on the issue of athletic departments investigating sexual assault allegations. that is ridiculous. you've got to get in and fix that right away. i'm a proud graduate of the penn state university. and it's -- obviously, we're -- it was so troubling and disappointing to see what happened at my university. i love the university but the athletic department is nowhere you handle these kinds of allegations so you got to fix that. walk out this door and fix that. what i'm troubled about when i hear the testimony today and i just need to understand, senator blumenthal asked about the change to an employer/employee model. we talked about compensation, potentially for athletes today. i don't want to see any athletes mistreated. i want them to be able to have a quality of life that's important as they serve and get the education and be able to be an athlete the student athlete model. but as i think about for example, what the nlrb did in its ruling, i kn

and the legislation senators ayotte, fischer and i filed yesterday would do that. the preserving a woman's religious freedom will verify an employer cannot block an employee from legal access to her f.d.a.-approved contraceptives. it is a commonsense proposal. it reaffirms that we can both preserve america's long tradition of tolerance and respect for people of faith while at the same time preserving a woman's ability to make her own decisions about contraception. our bill would also ask the f.d.a. to study whether contraceptives could be made available to adults safely without a prescription. and it would allow women to set aside more money in their flexible spending accounts so they can cover out-of-pocket medical expenses, many of which are skyrocketing under obamacare. so if democrats are serious about doing right by women, if they're not just interested in stoking divisions in an election year, then they should get on board with our legislation. that's a start. and then they can work with us to undo the damage that their policies like obamacare have already ca