senator isakson. >> thank you very much mr. chairman i will add my congratulations to you and my appreciation for the openness in which you have approached this entire process. i want to especially thank senator hatch for his comments in the days leading up to this markup. it's been enlightening for me and helpful and i appreciate his leadership. i won't take any comment except to say i have received the amendment dealing with real estate investment trust on in this meant by foreign entities. what is some interesting is the real statement investment trust were created by the 1986 tax act and we had intentionally destroyed laws and change the industry for the worse and not the better so your approach in a conference of nature will keep us from doing that next time. my last comment is unconvinced that my solution -- microsolutions or heart of the macrosolutions and hopefully we will get the conference of reform. >> next to senator cardin. >> thank you mr. chairman. that would also add my congratulations to you senator hatch for t

chairman. >> thank you, senator isakson. among the good points you ask just made i think there ought to be more inquiry to the free file and actually see what its strengths and limits are. i heard for example, questions whether they can do state returns and these kinds of matters. i want to work closely with you on this. senator burr? >> commissioner, welcome. senator coburn and i have shared some correspondence with you in the last two weeks. you've responded. you thank you for that very timely response. let me refresh your memory. this was in relation to the chicago district of the nlrb's decision as it related to the northwestern football players and their potential unionization and we said to you, that our interpretation of section 117 of the internal revenue code was in fact exactly what your tax experts said, there was an exclusion specifically stated in there for scholarships, educational scholarships, that made those exempt from ordinary income. the statute goes on to say, one exception. and i'll quote it. it says, a

isakson: there's been a lot said about the affordable care act for five years. i was here when we passed it. i'm thaoer today when it is -- i'm here today when it is being implemented. this year marks one of the things we need to recognize. bernie markus, founder of home depot, opined yesterday in the "wall street journal" about the cost of obamacare to american business. a hidden tax has been unveiled on the american people, the american ratepayer and the american small business person. a tax assessment of $8 billion in 2014 is being levied by the affordable care act against every insurance company that sells to the small and medium-size market, to every insurance company that sells a medicare advantage policy or a medicare managed share policy. $8 billion is the 2014 assessment and it graduates up to where in 2018 it is $14.3 billion. that is used use a pay-for in the obamacare legislation. it's assessed against the insurance companies based on their market share of the insurance market in small- and medium-size carriers, medicare advantage and medicaid manage

isakson: mr. president? i thank the senator from north dakota and i acknowledge and thank the distinguished majority whip for allowing us extra time to talk about a subject he probably would prefer us not to talk about but i appreciate it very much. i'll be very brief and succinct. for this administration and our country to not build the keystone pipeline or delay it, at best, is mall program. and there are three reasons for that. we are a county that 30 years ago was held hostage by opec. prices went through the roof and there were long lines and businesses went out of business. with the keystone pipeline and added to the shane shale, ameril be truly independent in its energy and never be held hostage again by somebody like opec. that's number one. number two, it's important for our diplomacy around the world. soft power and always preferable to hard power and one of the best soft powers you can probably have is have energy. think about it for a second. if russia was not a factor in the ukraine because amer

and my final point is senator isakson one to reduce the deficit and we all want to do that. what i'm going to bring a probably has no chance of passing because it's very strong on the finance committee. that the easiest way to do that to simply go back to what we were doing with the dual-eligibles, 9 million of them when they were under medicaid. it was all rebated pricing. with an enormous amount of money saved in the pharmaceutical companies now say that we have to stop doing research in all the rest of it. but of course back then when it was in effect under medicaid, they were doing just fine. so now all this is under medicare. we made that switch medicare part d, but we didn't switch the rebate pricing. if we were to so do that, we would save 100 be $1.2 billion over 10 years senator, that's why we need to pass the president's budget. because our recommendations in the budget. >> yes. >> i agree. >> we are going to rush to get all senators and. >> thank you, secretary. very nice to see you again and thank you for your leadership and it is so encouraging. thank you. the t

senator isakson and i have legislation focused on improving care for seniors with multiple chronic conditions. we appreciate the input of senator bennett and warner. its the most expensive than fast as current portion of the medicare population and the seniors deserve better care. fifth, there's plenty of debate about which americans enrolled in the affordable care act and when but the independent data shows that the number of uninsured is significantly lower than it has been in years. for example, a gallup poll released this week shows that the rate of uninsured americans felt so low was since 2008. finally, congress has made real progress on permanent the repealing it replacing the broken and dysfunctional medicare physician payment formula. the reforms agreed to would push medicare to be driven by the quality and value of care. today's volume driven gear isn't good for seniors seniors, their doctors, or medicare itself. the president's budget proposal endorses the bipartisan bicameral reform package and i look forward to working with secretary sebelius to help push this over the finish lin

isakson: mr. president? i thank the leader for the introduction and i'm pleased to introduce to the senate the reverend raphael warnock, the senior pastor at ebenezer baptist church in atlanta as our pastor of the day. he is a gifted author, a gifted and prolific preacher and a great citizen of the great city of atlanta and follows in the king family of the ebenezer baptist church. he has carried out the tradition of ebenezer with humility and love and is a great pastor of our city. i'm pleased to welcome him to the united states senate and thank him for his presence today and know we'll all be blessed by his presence here today. i yield back. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: tomorrow marks the 46th anniversary of the signing into law the civil rights act of 1968, better known as the fair housing act. this landmark legislation took a stand against housing discrimination and gave american families a fair shot at finding housing that made suitable their needs. it i

chairman, me and 35 other senators including senators roberts burr isakson and grassley on this committee and essentially what it would do is make herman at the existing moratorium on state and local taxes on internet access as well as multiple discriminatory taxes on internet commerce. i don't intend to ask for a vote on this but i'm raising it to cassette believe it's a critically important issue and an issue that we need to address very soon. the reason for that is the existing tax moratorium known as the internet tax freedom act is due to expire on november 1 of this year. first enacted in 1998, this moratorium has been extended three times with broad bipartisan support most recently in 2007 when it was extended for seven years. keeping consumer access to the internet free from taxation use of the internet a critical gateway to jobs jobs education health care and entrepreneurial activities and as ranking member of the commerce committee one of my top priorities along with the senator from west virginia is expanding high-speed internet access to burr america a rule that will be impeded

particular version of the bill, they've been essential in these negotiations, as well as senator isakson and senator hoeven, who've also been engaged in this matter in recent months. mr. president, last december federal unemployment insurance benefits were allowed to expire, leaving millions of job-seeking americans wondering how they would recover -- how they would cover their mortgage, pay their utilities, fill up their car with gas, put food on the table for their families. my constituents who write to me, who call my office and the people i speak with when i'm home in nevada have shared many heartbreaking stories with me. i've heard from individuals all across the spectrum, from every sector, from every industry. and i'd like to share one of those letters from michael in carson city, nevada, who wrote to me several weeks ago. after michael and his friend moved to nevada from california just a few years ago, they needed unemployment insurance benefits to help them bridge the gap between jobs. sometimes they had to visit the local food pantry to keep food on their table, but michael ke

now it's in senator boxer and senator isakson out of georgia's office. wants. here is the problem, harry reid is so dirty and so unethical that some of these things have to happen. you have to put a marker down and say, wait a second. you are not going to use a taxpayer web site and a taxpayer twitter account to attack republicans. so where it stands now is it's in the senate ethics committee and we're going to take it as far as we can in order to make sure that people understand that this guy will stop at nothing to lie to the american people. "washington post," "new york times," they're all calling this guy out on these lies, but now he's crossed a line in regard to the law and we have to bring it on of the i think that's our job to do it. >> the "washington post" just gave one of the political ads against the republican down in louisiana four pinocchios that was produced by his senate majority pac, which is packed with his cronies. thank you very much, sir. >> thank you, steve. >> by the way, harry reid, if you're watching, we invite you to come on an