you have senator isakson on your side. you couldn't have a person we are more impressed with his opinions than senator isakson. we hope we can move this quickly and get a confirmed position in head of the office. >> thank you, senator cardin. we'll now turn to our witness. as senator cardin mentioned, johnny isakson, our great friend and esteemed colleague, is going to introduce her, which makes it an almost unanimous assent on the floor. you know the drill. if you, in fact, have another meeting to go to, there's no reason for you to stay during her testimony, but we thank you very much for being the kind of person you are. we are glad someone from your state, which embodies all those values that you do here, is willing to ascend do this job. we look forward to your intersecti introduction and so much for your service. >> thank you. i appreciate the privilege of doing -- this is a twofer for me. about a year ago, i had the privilege of introducing sally yates to the judiciary committee. today, i'm going to introduce susan

this bill which is sponsored by our senate colleague, senator isakson, chairman of the senate v.a. committee, would extend a number of expiring authorities at both the department of veterans' affairs and at the department of labor. these include extensions for veterans health care and homeless programs, benefits for disabled veterans, vocational rehabilitation programs, home loan programs, and a variety of

senator isakson know he might be losing some georgians?eal with that. >> again, i want to underscore the point that chairman corker made. as i understand the process, on in rankings, the work you do your office -- working with the missions around the country, looking and working with the ngo's with as much information you can get, the factual circumstances in every country, and the objective standards we use on rankings, the initial work is done and regulated by your office. tot then works its way terminations, as to whether there is any disagreement as to the ranking for the coming year. on the tip report, my understanding is that normally about 80% plus of the countries, or is no disagreement in the rankings. they just routinely are accepted by the secretary and included in the annual tip report. but there are a number where there are disagreements. and the disagreements usually occur between your office and the regional secretaries working through the various missions. that then is elevated to the undersecretary. and the undersecretary

before that walter isakson what a wonderful treat that was a wonderful speaker i've seen he's a writer. of course we know he's a great writer but a wonderful conversational speaker before that, the launch of the new book about humboldt that was a very interesting event too. she was -- she was telling me -- us humboldt was a great traveler of how one of her tricks that was a little bit of one of mine too that she liked it to -- go wherever humboldt went so she got to go to some pretty exciting places so she showed a lot of pictures. what a wonderful treat it is to be here. what i thought i would do is fight i'm not gobbing to read to you in general but thought i would read a brief passage from the preface of my book and use that as a launching fad without reading so we'll do a thing right now, one of the most famous an a egg dotes john adams who never said anything about anybody else who didn't have a bite in it. not from the midwest if we take maryann robinson view on the characteristic about john. midwest, it is not jun john adams, and he said george washington is greatest political a

isakson found that the brilliance that gave the world a programmable computer and eventually the internet could not have come from the inspired efforts of an individual. of necessity they sprang from the collaboration of many inspired individuals. similarly dr. allen finds the assembling of the 1337 words of the declaration of independence was the result of a vast array of conversations, collaborations and debates among a surprisingly large number of collaborators. indeed, this book itself is a brilliance collaboration. while a single hand, hers, wrote the text via thought, the analysis and the philosophy embodied therein is a result of more than a decade of collaboration, debate and discussion between her and her students. she received much wisdom from them even as she taught them the mechanics of the declarations language. and a mechanic she is. like many really good mechanics she disassembled the decorations and gin word by word, san blas it clean, shines them, moved them and put them back together so that they run better than new. dr. allen has earned five university degrees, bachelor

johnny isakson said to me, it is amazing in this company of metrics and absolutes and financials, there much faith in designers. their method of combining designers and engineers with a lot of resources, the richest company in the world, will produce advances and innovations. they don't legislate it. they don't have defined products. it is not on deadlines. charlie: some they look at and say we have a problem here, we will turn away and the new technology will come along and the local back to it. josh: now that they have a series of products they can take one technology and move it from place to place. 3-d touch, it debuted on the force touch on the apple watch. you press it and you get a different application. here it is much smoother. if that is an experience for you have nifty pressure, this is like waltzing with your phone. you know they have touchscreens on ipads. they have touchpads on imacs . stuff,ey introduced this people use it on one product and it spreads. they have great ability to create efficiencies in these things. people in business care about efficiencies. at the same

walter isakson on american life a wonderful biography. benjamin franklin comes there is a very contemporary man. we would relate to him easily based on the portrayal in this book. on balance, this is a great vision, lived a long life, had many episodes to that life as a political figure in pennsylvania, as a political figure on behalf of the colonies in europe, as a political figure with the declaration of independence. .. >> who was sort of the artist, and sort of the oppositions between this man, and this tyrant niro and how he tried to survive in that time period while being on the on the other hand a. >> senior adviser to nero and it was a very tricky business. a great piece of roman history. a very easy and great reading. so that's my summer reading for now and i hope to be back next year with an equal number of recommendations. >> book tv wants to know what you are reading this summer. post it on our facebook page, facebook.com/booktv. >> and now in book tv rinna -- rrveciÓn rena steinzor. >> everybody thank you for joining us. i'm

mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the isakson amendment at the desk be agreed to, the bill as amended be read a third time and passed, the amendment to the title be agreed to and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: now, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m., thursday, october 1. following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day. following leader remarks, the senate be in a period of morning business for one hour with senators permitted to speak therein. further, that the time be equally divided with the majority controlling the first half, the democrats controlling the final half. further, that following morning business, the senate then resume consideration of the motion to proceed to h.r. 2029 with the time until 1:45 equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. finally, that notwi

i come to the floor today to say thank you, thank you to my colleagues, specifically senator isakson, senator blumenthal, senator kirk, senator tester, the majority leader and their staff, my colleague michael bennet, for their leadership on this issue and of course none of this could be possible without the incredible work of missouri mike kaufman, congressman representing the area, the entire colorado delegation who worked so hard to make this happen. they have all provided a great service to veterans in passage of the legislation out of the house today. mr. president, years from now, when veterans go to this hospital to receive the care that we have promised, they will enter into what will be the crown jewel of the v.a. infrastructure, the crown jewel of the v.a. system. it took a lot of hard work to get here, and today i'm excited with the passage of the house bill, passage of the senate, a bill is on its way to the president to finish the job, to complete the hospital and to fulfill our promise. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the

-- deserve to know where each of us stand and the people of georgia deserve to know where johnny isakson stands, what i'm going to do and why i'm going to do it. to vote against cloture is to protract having a final vote on the resolution of disapproval and leaves open the whole issue. it's not fair to the american people, it's not right for the american people and it's avoiding our responsibility. so i will vote for cloture so we can go to a final vote on the resolution of disapproval and hope every member of the senate will do the same thing. to do anything less is wrong for america, wrong for our heritage and wrong for our future. so i end where i began. i want to thank senator corker, senator menendez and senator cardin for their forthright leadership. i have studied hard, worked hard to try and find the best parts of this deal and the worst parts of this deal. i find it fails in those five tests that i have given to it and i will vote no. i will vote for the resolution of disapproval and vote against the treaty with iran on the iran nuclear deal. with that said, mr. president, i yie

this bill which is sponsored by our senate colleague, senator isakson, chairman of the senate v.a. committee, would extend a number of expiring authorities at both the department of veterans' affairs and at the department of labor. these include extensions for veterans health care and homeless programs, benefits for disabled veterans, vocational rehabilitation programs, home loan programs, and a variety of advisory committees, pilot programs and medical facility projects. of passage of these legislation today, these noncontroversial programs are set to expire at the end of this fiscal calendar -- or calendar year. the costs have been fully offset or consumed in the budge for 2015. furthermore, both the majority and minority of the house and senate committees on veterans affairs have worked on this language and agreed on the need to extend all of these programs. in addition in addition to the extension, this bill would deal with the enver medical project to go to $1,675,000,000. this is an increase of $625 million above the amounts that have previously been authorized for this proje

isakson: i'd ask the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to h.r. 2685, making appropriations for the department of defense for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2016, and for other purntion signed by 1 -- and for other purposes, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatord quorum call has been waived. is it the sense of the senate that debate on the motion to proceed to h.r. 2685, an act making appropriations for the department of defense for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2016, and for other purposes, shall be brought to a close upon reconsideration. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vot

walter isakson on american life a wonderful biography. benjamin franklin comes there is a very contemporary man. we would relate to him easily based on the portrayal in this book. on balance, this is a great vision, lived a long life, had many episodes to that life as a political figure in pennsylvania, as a political figure on behalf of the colonies in europe, as a political figure with the declaration of independence. ..