capito: i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. nelson: mr. president, i want to talk about the crisis, the financial crisis that's going on in puerto rico. we've all heard about the current situation that puerto rico finds itself, and they are suffering. they're having trouble paying their bills, and their economy is in shambles. and some people had the attitude, well, that's not our problem. but they're forgetting the fact that puerto rico is part of the united states. it's a territory. it is not a foreign country. puerto ricans are american citizens. if a problem exists in puerto rico, it exists in the united states. it isn't something that we can just ignore. and it impacts the entire country. if the economy continues to suffer in puerto rico, the people there will just move to another part of the country. i want to repeat that. if things are bad in puerto rico economically, they -- puerto ricans -- can move to another part of the country. this is not immigration. this is a m

senator capito. sen. capito: i thank all of you on the panel. i would like to thank dr. lorsch for spending time in west virginia at west virginia university, talking about a program i learned so much about, the idea program just -- which is a smart and successful program. i thank you for that. there is research with stroke and brain and a collaborative effort with other universities -- marshall university, west liberty, and wheeling jesuit. i thank you for that. if you had any takeaways in the visit there, you might be able to address that. mr. lorsch: thank you again, it was a fantastic visit that energized my staff and myself. one thing we notice about the idea program is the best practices. we saw 2 there. the first was sharing of resources to create economies of scale, particularly in access to technologies which we so was very critical especially to the young researchers. i think that model of creating economies of scale through sharing technology resources is something we should move on nationally because it can get the taxpayers more for their money. the other is

and so i am proud to stand today with my colleague, senator capito, and introduce a bill to roll back the e.p.a. rule on carbon emissions, that rule which threatens the supply of abundant, affordable, and reliable electricity in north dakota. i pledge to register my displeasure through multiple channels and this legislation i think today is the most public way of expressing not just my frustration but the frustration and concern of my state regulators and my state utilities. this rule, although having dramatic consequences across the country, this rule unfairly targets north dakota utilities. during the original draft rule, north dakota's allocation was 11%. not something we were happy with, given the extent of the jurisdictional reach, but something that people started really rolling up their sleeves saying, if we have to reduce by 11%, how are we going to do it and how are we going to meet this challenge. that's the north dakota way, to not only fight for our rights but also look at what the alternatives are. unfortunately, when the draft rule went from 11% to a 45% reduction in the

capito: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to speak for up to ten minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. capito: thank you. thank you, mr. president. we've heard from many of the members talking about the situation with the appropriations bill, and i'd like to add my voice to the chorus. for too long uncertainty has hampered our nation's ability to grow our economy and make necessary investments in our workforce, our infrastructure, and our technology. it's imperative that we avoid an unnecessary and reckless -- it was imperative that we avoided the reckless government shutdown this week, but that's just a short-term patch. now more than ever we need to take a longer-term action to move our economy and our nation forward. as the gentleman from arkansas mentioned, earlier this year the appropriations on which we sit accomplished something that's not been done since 2009. we passed all 12 appropriations bills through the full committee. we did so on a

capito: mr. president, i i ask unanimoui ask unanimous ct sharon hagertty have the privileges of the floor forte's duration of the senate. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. capito: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, yesterday the senate came together in a bipartisan way to pass the national defense authorization act in the conference report. this important legislation authorizes vital resources for our nation's troops, wounded warriors and their families. this ndaa provides for our national security needs and will meet our commitments to our allies. the defense funding bill also includes programs that will directly benefit the west virginia national guard, including our partnership with peru and the drug interdiction and counter-drug program to fight this wave of prescription drug abuse that is all over our states and our state in particular. this bill provides funding for star base. i visit add star base just recently, an innovative program that provides hands-on learning oppo

1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable shelley moore capito, a senator from the state of west virginia, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: orrin g.hatch, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate stands adjourned until monday, >> every weaken the c-span networks feature programs on politics, non-fiction books and american history. saturday, 8:30 p.m. eastern on c-span, editorial cartoonists describe their experience covering the george w. bush administration. sunday afternoon at 4:45 an event on norring life and political career of former british prime minister margaret thatcher, on what would have been her 90th birthday. beginning at 11 on c-span booktv, the texas book festival from austin, featuring interviews with hw brand and his latest book on president reagan, harriet washington on how we can catch mental illness and dennis ross. coverage continues on sunday at noon, michael weiss on terror group isis. then a discussion on art firm intelligence with authors john markov and you luisa hall.

i joined senator heitkamp and capito on a measure that addresses these two-pronged energy sources. together these measures represent a comprehensive solution. colleagues will join me to speak about these resolutions later today. i'm sure they'll say more about the measures we filed and the process easht so associated wit. what everyone should know is this: the publication of these regulations does not represent an end but a beginning. it is the beginning of a new front to defend hardworking middle-class americans from massive, massive regulations that target them. that front is opening here in congress, and it's opening across the country as states file lawsuits and governors stand up for their own middle-class constituents. the battle may not be short and the battle may not be easy, but kentuckians and hardworking americans should know that i'm going to keep standing up for them throughout this effort. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. reid: democrats have long called for bipartisan action to stop these devastating sequester cuts because th

senator mcconnell and senator cap toe have -- capito have filed resolutions against the power plants. senator flake has filed one against the burdensome new ozone standard. mr. president, we're going to keep a spotlight on this administration as it negotiates this new climate change treaty. we're going to stop it from committing this country to another bad deal, and the rest of us will be paying for that bad deal long after president obama is out of office. congress is going to hold the obama administration accountable, accountable, and rein in the washington bureaucrats before they do additional damage. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. mr. barrasso: mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk shall call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. flake: mr. president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. flake: i ask unanimous consent to vacate a quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. flake: thank you, mr. presid

senators murkowski, collins, vitter and capito on the republican side. and we hope that this coalition of groups on the outside, this alliance with a reform effort in the house that we believe has legislative legs and a good one-for-one list of cosponsors here in the senate will allow us to move this bill forward. and we have to. we have to. and so i'll -- you know, end where senator cassidy began his remarks, which is why the nation's attention has turned to this question of how we reform our mental health system. we lived through a tragic and gut-wrenching episode of mass destruction in newtown, connecticut. senator cassidy has had his own experience with mass tragedy. and the reality is that the reasons why we see these episodes of mass shootings are complicated. but if you read the report on adam lanza's intersection with connecticut's mental health system, you see that it failed him. it failed him and it failed his family. i don't know that correcting the mental health system alone would have changed what happened in newtown, but i know if we fix ou

capito: the bipartisan resolution of disapproval that i have introduced with my colleagues, senator heidi heitkamp and 47 other cosponsors, will block greenhouse gas regulations targeting existing power sources. i also very longly support leader mcconnell's companion resolution to block the regulations targeting new power plants. as i was thinking about this teach spoad and as i rise to give this speech, i realize i've said many of these same words so many times before. expressed the same frustrations and spouted off similar statistics. so what's the difference this time? well, the difference is we've already seen the devastating effects and the callous nature of regulatory overreach. and so we know what the new reality would be. the new reality would be what we're facing with these new carbon regulations. the reality of the families, the faces and the hardships that we have already endured. the thousands of layoffs in my state of west virginia that have already been issued. the jobs that have been lost and will never come back. just this morning, just this morning, nearly 200 west virgin

1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable shelley moore capitotor from the state of west virginia, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: orrin g.hatch, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate stands adjourned until monday,

mÉxico extraditÓ a estados unidos a importantes capitos dea droga uno de ellos edgar valdez villarrealdos quienes enfrentan varios cargos en el distrito de estados unidos. >>> un nuevo escÁndalo sacude hoy al servicio secreto, el informe de seguridad nacional revelÓ que el asistente del director de esa agencia habÍa filtrado informaciÓn a un congresista por mala conducta en el sendel servicio secreto. la informaciÓn que trascendio fue que el legislador jason que lidera el comitÉ de la cÁmara que supervisa a esa agencia, habÍa solicitado en el 2003 ingresar a la misma y habÍa sido rechazado. >>> desde hoy las tienes de marihuana en oregon comenzaron a vender el cannabis con ni fines recreativos desde la media noche se veÍan largas filas en los 250 dis pensarÍas que ayer sÓlo vendÍan marihuana medicinal y este jueves te nainÍan la ofert crece nal para las personas mayores de 21 aÑos. hoy tiene su segundo dÍa en una corte federal de fuiphoenix el polÉmico joe arpaio por base pero oficial racial se trata de audiencia de carÁcter civil podrÍan prolongarse hasta el mes de noviembre. mÉxico e

[applause] your two fine senators -- joe manchin and shelley moore capito.applause] and charleston mayor danny jones. [applause] we've also got some outstanding members of my administration who are here -- first and foremost, our proud daughter of west virginia, hhs secretary sylvia burwell. [applause] we have the director of national drug control policy, michael botticelli. [applause] and we have the head of the drug enforcement administration, chuck rosenberg. [applause] where's chuck? he's around here somewhere. and what i want to do is to have a conversation with the panelists here today, take some questions -- because this is something that is not a top-down solution type of problem alone. this is going to have to be everybody working together. and we've got to understand what families are going through, what law enforcement is going through, what our health systems are going through in order for us to wrap our arms around this problem. so instead of giving a long speech, i just want to offer some initial thoughts to frame our discussion. when i came in

his side it was him and senator collins and senator vitter and then we've added since then senator capito on their side and senator murkowski i think will add more very quickly. i think what this will become is a bill that has a bipartisan support but a bipartisan support that is sort of a cross-section of ideologies in both groups and that will be an important signal to leadership. >> i want to give you an opportunity, you addressed this at the end of your speech just now but we've often talked about mental health legislation in the context of the gun debate and there always seems to be more discussion and momentum after a tragedy occurs. does that stigmaize mental illness? >> i think this is an incredibly important topic and i've talked very openly with my colleagues especially on the democratic side of the aisle how we talk about this. what we know is there's no inherent connection between mental illness and violence, that people with mental illness are ten times, 20 times more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators of it and we do risk perpetuating this stigma and

this week we just added our new pair, senator capito and senator schumer.t week we will announce another. we have a longer line right now of republicans then we do democrats who are waiting to get on this legislation which is wonderful to have as a problem, and we feel like with a hearing scheduled in the help committee later this month the first thing in the help committee on mental health in three years, that's amazing to think about, that we are poised to move this bill. as my time is up, before i sit down let me just spend two minutes talk about the context of messaging. i know that we're talking about this in a more robust way because of the issues. i went to the floor yesterday to challenge my colleagues, to understand that the mental health system, the behavioral health system has to be fixed because it's broken, period, stop it ever should fool ourselves that we are going to cure the nation's epidemic of gun violence by fixing a broken mental-health system. why? because attended has a gun violence rate that is 20 times that of all of our other compe

capito: thank you so much, mr. speaker -- ms. kaptur: i rise today as the syrian displacement crisis has consumed seven nations including lebanon, jordan, syria itself. and has spawned the largest refugee crisis europe has faced since world war ii. the scope of the damage is incredible. this protracted conflict has decimated syria infrastructure and already taken the lives of over 250,000 civilians displaced over four million people and subjected tens upon thousands of children in that nation to assad's horrific barrel bombs. most everyone who remains in syria endures power in water, the threat of shelling, gallupping inflation and rampant speculation about what will happen next. who will help us, the innocents. with roads often subject to ambushed, freedom to travel has been curtailed. checkpoints and concrete barriers have been adornments of daily life. institutions such as schools, hospitals, offices, remain open in government-held others, though many cools have been homes to the homeless. truly, it is grim. classes often are