senator hirono: mr. donnelly, you noted in your testimony that you recommend a three-theater construct involving europe, the middle east and east asia. in your looking at what woe we do in east asia, could you elaborate on what we're doing in regard to an east asia collaborative construct and what more we should be doning there? mr. donnelly: the policy of this administration has been to pivot in east asia and that's problematic in east asia. hat's a problem, global powers don't pivot, where everybody -- like in a kiddie soccer game where everybody fol throes bouncing ball. they're much more cautious when it comes to poking the japanese in neevet asia. so the spite the fact, i would agree that the development of chinese military power is an important element and essential issue for defense planning but the first order of business is to get some presence there. the secretary made a big deal the other day about the fact that we were sending a destroyer to re-establish freedom of navigation. again, the stri

i yield the floor to my colleague from hawaii and great friend, senator hirono. ms. hirono: thank you very much. madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. ms. hirono: last month the social security administration announced some disappointing news. for only the third time in 40 years, social security beneficiaries will not receive a cost-of-living or cola increase in january 2016. in hawaii, one out of four seniors relies on social security as their only source of income. they're struggling to keep a roof over their heads, pay for medicine, buy groceries -- basic necessities. many hawaii seniors have told me their stories about costs for essential goods keep rising while the social security checks do not. meanwhile, by contrast -- and you heard this from my esteemed senator colleague from massachusetts -- meanwhile, by contrast, c.e.o.'s of our wealthiest companies in america are doing great. the average c.e.o. at america's top 350 companies saw a raise of 3.9% just last year. since the economic recovery of 2009, these c.e.o.'s have seen their p

sorry, senator hirono and i had to step out.e were celebrating the 240th birthday of the united states marine corps. welcome the chair and the ranking member as members of the navy and the army -- >> a dark day. >> gentlemen, thanks very much for your testimony. general alexander, i was actually struck by your testimony in one area that -- well, in a couple areas i thought was very insightful. this idea of cyber, this notion we're constantly being attacked, and you mention it in some of the dollars and statistics is eye popping. there's been this notion of us being on defense, defense, defense. one thing that i liked about your testimony is you talked about a little bit in terms of offense where we invented the technology and we're the leader. there are opportunities for offense. could you provide examples? the chairman's statement of turning technologies into offensive advantages was illuminating from a historical perspective. what are some opportunities in terms of offense that we have with regard to cyber? >> there are a numb

committee has broad bipartisan support cosponsored by senators fischer, ayotte, coons, cantwell, hirono, franken and casey. i thank them for their support and i thank the small business committee for its work. and, mr. president, like so many of the important bills that go through the senate, this bill has been paired, as i said earlier, by the chairman of the small business committee, senator vitter, with another no-cost small business bill which is authored by senator risch from idaho. that bill, along with the creed act, will provide no-cost solutions that will help small businesses in this country get the credit they need to fuel our growth. again, both of these bills passed unanimously out of the small business committee. i believe the time has come to pass them in the senate. they have been held up for way too long. i want to just yield to my colleague here who is going to talk about the hold problem that we have been facing on this bill. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, i would like to be recognized to ask my colleague from new hampshire a

hirono: i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. hirono: madam president, last november, faced with congress' failure to act, president obama through executive action took a courageous and practical step on immigration. like every president since president eisenhower, president obama exercised his legal authority to prioritize u.s. immigration enforcement and make our system more fair and just. the most significant parts of the president's executive actions were those intended to keep families together and give more people the opportunity to come out of the shadows. the president announced that expansion of the successful deferred action for childhood arrivals or daca program. he also created a new deferred action for parents of americans and lawful permanent residents called dappa. dappa allows the undocumented parents of u.s.-born citizens to stay in this country with their families. since its creation in 2012, daca has given nearly 700,000 undocumented young people the opportunity to

sorry, senator hirono and i had to step out. we were celebrating the 240th birthday of the united states marine corps. welcome the chair and the ranking member as members of the navy and the army -- >> a dark day. >> gentlemen, thanks very much for your testimony. general alexander, i was actually struck by your testimony in one area that -- well, in a couple areas i thought was very insightful. this idea of cyber, this notion we're constantly being attacked and you mention it in some of the dollars and sta tististics is eye popping. there's been this notion of us being on defense, defense, defense. one thing that i liked about your testimony is you talked about a little bit in terms of offense where we invented the technology and we're the leader. there are opportunities for offense. could you provide examples? the chairman's statement of turning technologies into offensive advantages was illuminating from a historical perspective. what are some opportunities in terms of offense that we have with regard to cyber? >> there are a

and sorry we were, senator hirono and i had just about for a few minutes. we were actually celebrate the 240th birthday of the united states marine corps. so we had to welcome that year and a ranking member as navy and the army -- >> a dark day. [laughter] >> gentlemen, thanks very much for your testimony. general alexander, i was actually struck by your testimony in one area that come in a couple of areas i thought it was very insightful but one of the things we've been hearing about in terms of cyber is this idea that this notion that we're constantly being at that, constantly, and she mentioned it in some of the dollars and statistics you had in your test went on cybercrime and what the cost is really eye-popping. but there's been this notion of us being on defense, defense, defense. one thing i liked about your testament is that you talked about all of it in terms of offense, or we've invented a lot of this technology. we are the leader in it's still. so there's all kinds of opportunities for offense. to do just provide some examples that? picture of hi