now it has also delayed until 2015 a program championed by maria cantwell, basic health plan option, a managed care program now used in washington state. she is not happy about it. >> we're very concerned about the approach by the agency in trying to thwart this glerst that program is much less expensive as obama care with 1/12th as much. cantwell worried if they were worried about competition with the exchanges. >> is there a bias somewhere in the administration against lower cost managed care delivery systems that the act calls for in exchange for the exchange. >> aside from delays, three smaller parts of the original law have already failed. congress overwhelmingly repealed one provision to force small businesses to file irs forms. if they spent more than $600 a year with any one firm. then the class act would have provided long-term care but fell apart over shaky financing. >> they pulled the plug on it themselves and congress repealed it. >> and finally a program to cover people with preexisting conditions until obama care took hold. also collapsed. stranding seriously ill patie

many instances i think what a guilaume way he would send a message you've told senator cantwell that you'd be out for a visit and would go a long way if he would say that he would personally meet with a group of the whistle-blowers and we can get to the names and the washington delegation can as well. >> i would be happy to and in addition to meeting of course with the contractor's etc and making it clear what the expectations are to the safety culture. >> let me see if the senator has additional questions or comments. >> thank you mr. chairman. and i certainly welcome your leadership. i don't think i've been at a hearing where the cleanup has been mentioned so many times by the chairman of the committee. so, i certainly welcome the focus and welcome your visit to the pacific northwest and your visit at hanford. i as i've looked at this the complexity for the science side of this is an interest and as i said earlier people would come in as a new secretary for individuals under the secretary and proposed new ideas. there are some people that talk about reprogramming dollars which is a

cantwell: mr. president, i join my colleagues from the northwest who come to the floor this afternoon to speak in support of the nomination of sally jewell as secretary of interior. and like my colleagues from the northwest, i want to express how much we appreciate her willingness to serve and how proud we are of her legacy and interest in a variety of issues so far. and obviously, the department of interior, with its broad range of services, is so important to us, including everything from our national parks to wildlife refuge to offshore drilling lease management, to the important science done by the usgs service and many, many other things. in fact, i read somewhere kind of humorously that the department of interior was called "the department of everything else." so i know that as a nominee, miss jewell came before our committee and i want to thank her family for their willingness to support her in their efforts to come to washington, d.c. because sally the exact type of leadership we need at th

. >> i think you, senator cantwell. i think i am last and only as well as next. [laughter] >> you never know who may come back. >> exactly. you just had an interesting exchange about the need for us to do more research and i would make the obvious point that that part of our budget is being squeezed more and more and more by the reality that the mandatory spending part of the budget and staff 65% of the budget, which is the part that is on autopilot that is not appropriate every year, is the fastest growing and the biggest part of the budget. and one reason the research dollars are tough to find and one reason children's hospitals are concerned is they see the squeeze, including our children's hospital in cincinnati. on the mandatory side of the budget, of course and it won't cost driver is health care by far. the congressional budget office which is a nonpartisan group in congress has given us another report. this one is looking forward to the next 10 years, what's going to happen in terms of our budget. they said it will be 110% increase over the next decade fr

maria cantwell brought this up at your luncheon this afternoon. not only that we have the talent that we need, but that we grow the talent we need. focus on the stem. that's partreonsibility as well. there are many aspects to t bill, immigration refortunately, that will come tomorrow before the senate judiciyommiee and i'm be there. we'll be having a hearing to discuss it friday, then again on monday, andhen soon thereafter, after we come back from our break in the first part of may, we'll have actual markup of the bill in the senate judiciary committee. the bill has been filed now. it is available for everyone to read. we're not trying to push anything through in a huer rhode island it'll be -- in a hurry. it'll be discussed, debated, amendments will be offered in committee and on the floor, as they should be. at the end of the day, it gives us the chance to make schauer mt we fix this broken system. i come to the floor with some personal hoamplet it was in 1911 when my mother was carried off of a ship in the baltimore harbor. my grandmother, who

it's so good for the state of washington that senator cantwell took it and put it into the affordable care act. it's now in the blueprint for the safety net that we are developing in this session of congress. booth lived on beyond his days, his ideas, his willingness to make something happen, carried into the fore and he never walked around telling anybody about it. just did it. that walk with me was really the beginning of it all. only health 't care. i was the ways and means chairman in the senate, so i had a lot to do with how the budget got put together. if the governor won't sign it, you can't get it passed. so he had and i had lots of talks. he was willing to sign a bill that created the largest settlement for women workers in this country under an equal pay for equal work. he signed it after a lawsuit that the state had lost, and i convinced him that we ought to settle the case and let women move ahead in the workplace. and booth said, good idea. finding a partner like booth, one who is willing to get past politics and jump in the deep end with you on some issues that weren't e