hoeven: madam president i ask that the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. hoeven: madam president i rise today to speak in support of the justice for victims of trafficking act legislation that has been drafted and introduced by my good friend, senator john cornyn of texas senator amy klobuchar of minnesota. the bill helps survivors of trafficking and child pornography and aids law enforcement in discouraging demand for these serious crimes. this is a bill i originally introduced in 2013, and i was a cosponsor of that bill, and i am also an original cosponsor of this bipartisan legislation whichway introduced earlier this year because it is very important legislation that we pass it. it's important because it not only compensates victims of human trafficking and other crimes of exploitation for their injuries but also provides resources to help law enforcement prevent such crimes in the future by targeting demand. the need for this bill is real and it's troubling. every year across america children and adults ar

senator hoeven and senator king. thank you, madam chair. i will say in general i'm very impressed by the level of specificity you are giving to all our answers because we're covering a broad range of subjects. so i'm going to throw three other ones at you. first of all, the columbia river treaty is hugely important to the pacific northwest. again, i don't know whether mr. connor wants to take that or not, but what can we get from the department of interior about clarifying these interests so that we can move forward on a proposal through the administration. obviously, interior has to weigh in with the white house and this state department and we want to make sure that that's happening so that we can elevate the discussions with canada. secondly, we want to get your thoughts on working with the department of energy on the finalization of the manhattan project implementation you mentioned other park projects and we wanted to make sure they work closely in planning that park. so we want to see if you can commit to finalizing that by the end of

hoeven: mr. president i thank the -- our colleague from west virginia for his tremendous leadership. i know that that will continue. he is right on. if we don't win the battle today, we will win the war because we'll find another bill to attach this legislation to. but the thing is we ought to just pass iten its merits -- pass it on its merits. let me turn now to the head of the injuring committee somebody who truly is committed to an all-of-the-above energy approach. and demonstrates that leadership on an all-of-the-approach every day. that's why she speaks on this issue with -- in a way that really everyone should listen to whether you think it should be phos l fuels renewables, traditional energy. that is senator who has supported all of these. i think she has great credibility on this issue. i would turn to my colleague from alaska. ms. murkowski: i thank my friend and colleague from north dakota for your leadership. you have been dogged, not only as we have advanced this measure through the

hoeven: mr.ding officer: without objection. i'm sorry. is there objection? mr. durbin: mr. president i understood the time was equally divided between now and 10:30. is there sufficient time for the republican side to use 20 minutes? the presiding officer: the time would be 18 minutes on each side. mr. durbin: thank you mr. president. i have no objection to the use of that time if that's how the senators choose to use it. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. hoeven: i would like to thank the senator from illinois. mr. president, i am here this morning to engage in a colloquy with the good senator from south carolina. we will be joined by the senator from new hampshire the senator from kentucky and perhaps the senator from arizona. the purpose of the colloquy is to welcome prime minister netanyahu this morning, who is to be speaking in front of congress and to talk about why it is so important that he is joining us today. in a few moments, we are going to hear remarks from the israeli pri

host: senator john hoeven's legislation would allow schools to revert to the 2012 standards, which requires half of all grace served in school lunches to be whole-grain-rich. the standard now is 100%. it would prevent the usda from sodium reductions in cash further sodium reductions in school meals. --further sodium reductions in school meals. donna in a gusto, an administrator. caller: thank you for letting me speak today. mr. concannon thank you for your support of holding these meal standards. in georgia, in my district things are working beautifully. we offer lots and lots of choices every day and sometimes the kids take up too many fruits and vegetables. we are outsourcing local vegetables from college and sweet potatoes that our kids really, really love, and the fruits are going over tremendously because we are cutting them up and that makes it huge difference. what we see is that the kids don't have enough time to eat. it takes more time to eat fresh fruits and vegetables and we are giving them so many fruits invest vegetables on their tray and that is a big issue nowadays and i'm wo

ryan bernstein is the chief of staff republican senator john hoeven of the dakota.r was to be with us this evening. welcome to we hope this interesting bit of the gary doer is candidate than in washington. is been ambassador to the united states since 2009, former premier of the province of manitoba. danielle drudge -- danielle droitsch is a director from natural resources defense council. and with us as always our paul wells political editor for maclean's and luiza savage washington bureau chief for maclean's although in just a few days she will take up new position at politico here in washington. in a moment we will begin the conversation on the state of canada use relations but first let me take the next few minutes here to set the stage. >> sound like. >> perhaps it's a worn well joke in washington but the fact that open sport is being made of u.s.-canada relationship these days is telling. in a trading partnership with $700 billion a year, no one expects things will always flow smoothly but the list is piling up and so is the resentment. >> this is the presiden

here -- remarks here today with a statement that you just used in response to comment from senator hoeven. and you stated that it's not easy to do development on federal lands and i think this is where you hear the greatest frustration from those of us who have such great percentages of our states that are federally held. and i appreciate that there are differences. but it ought not be next to impossible. in many instances that's seemingly what our issue is. so how we make it easier and better and more fair to do development on federal land is what i think we need to get to. because as senator hoeven says you're just going to go around your federal lands and then we get no revenue to the treasury, it just doesn't make sense. so we need to work in that regard. with that, i appreciate you have given the committee a lot of time and senator cant well if you want to have the final word -- >> i would just say thank you madam chair for this hearing and i think a lot of members showed up and a lot of questions across the board and i get your point about federal lands and, yes, i'm sure that there

host: senator john hoeven's legislation would allow schools to revert to the 2012 standards, which requiresalf of all grace served in school lunches to be whole-grain-rich. the standard now is 100%. it would prevent the usda from sodium reductions in cash further sodium reductions in school meals. --further sodium reductions in school meals. donna in a gusto, an administrator. caller: thank you for letting me speak today. mr. concannon thank you for your support of holding these meal standards. in georgia, in my district things are working beautifully. we offer lots and lots of choices every day and sometimes the kids take up too many fruits and vegetables. we are outsourcing local vegetables from college and sweet potatoes that our kids really, really love, and the fruits are going over tremendously because we are cutting them up and that makes it huge difference. what we see is that the kids don't have enough time to eat. it takes more time to eat fresh fruits and vegetables and we are giving them so many fruits invest vegetables on their tray and that is a big issue nowadays and i'm wond

hoeven: i'd like to thank my colleague from south carolina and new hampshire. this is a bipartisan effort to join with the administration and on a matter of this importance i believe congress must be involved. so again we would appeal to our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to join with us in this effort and i will conclude by saying we look forward very much to having the prime minister speak to us this morning. thank you mr. president. the presiding officer: for the information of the senate the chair makes the following announcement. the president pro tem of the senate and the speaker of the house of representatives pursuant to the provisions of section 201-a-2 of the congressional budget act of 1974 have appointed dr. homer keith hall as director of the budget office effective april 1, 2015 for the term expiring january 3, 2019. the assistant democratic leader. mr. durbin: at 11:00 this morning there will be a historic joint session of congress. it doesn't make history that a leader from some other country would speak to a joint session. it's happe

by senator collins and senator king of maine senator tester, senator blunt senator toomey, senator hoeven and senator vitter republicans and democrats from states across the country realize that this is something that needs to be resolved. and while i believe the department of veterans' affairs should resolve this, they haven't, while the department of veterans' affairs believes congress should resolve that, we haven't. what i do know is that veterans who are entitled to care are not receiving it and in a sense false promises were made ll we get this issue correct and the v.a. then implements the choice act as intended. this is an important issue and i would say just to my colleagues particularly those who served in the senate with me in the last four years in my view we haven't accomplished much in those four years but one of the areas in which we did come together, did pass significant legislation is the choice act and now we need to make certain that that accomplishment results in the benefits of those who are entitled to those benefits receiving them. who, i would ask who in this coun

hoeven: mr. president i thank the -- our colleague from west virginia for his tremendous leadership. i know that that will continue. he is right on. if we don't win the battle today, we will win the war because we'll find another bill to attach this legislation to. but the thing is we ought to just pass iten its merits -- pass it on its merits. let me turn now to the head of the injuring committee somebody who truly is committed to an all-of-the-above energy approach. and demonstrates that leadership on an all-of-the-approach every day. that's why she speaks on this issue with -- in a way that really everyone should listen to whether you think it should be phos l fuels renewables, traditional energy. that is senator who has supported all of these. i think she has great credibility on this issue. i would turn to my colleague from alaska. ms. murkowski: i thank my friend and colleague from north dakota for your leadership. you have been dogged, not only as we have advanced this measure through the

hoeven: mr. president i ask for consent to speak for up to ten minutes on house bill 240. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. hoeven: mr. president this afternoon we'll vote now on whether or not to go to conference on house bill 240. so for senators that want to return to regular order, this is their chance. i mean, regular order is the opportunity to offer to debate and to vote on amendments, and we established that on earlier legislation that as a majority party we're willing to return to regular order and offer an open amendment process. so part of establishing that regular order process is, as i say, the opportunity to offer amendments to have the debate and to vote, and it's that process that should and has historically produced the best legislation, not only here in the senate but in the house and in this congress on behalf of the american people. another part of regular order though is conference committees. when the house passes a bill and the senate passes a bill a