klobuchar: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the vote order with respect to the lautenberg and dorgan amendments to h.r. 3590 be reversed to dorgan and then lautenberg. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 224 s. 1755. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 224, s. 1755, a bill to direct the department of homeland security to undertake a study on emergency communications. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to the bill be placed in the record at the appropriate place as if read. the presiding officer: withou

senator klobuchar? ms. klobuchar: thank you very much, senator kaufman. i'd like to acknowledge the amendment by senato senator dorn drug importation, something that i support, and i know that senator kaufman supports as well and we look forward to talking about that as well. the bill that senator kaufman referred to, the fraud enforcement act, was passed in part to an unprecedented financial crisis. i was proud to work on that bill in the senate judiciary committee, along with senator kaufman. americans should expect congress to do more than simply react to crises after the most destructive impacts are felt. we're always coming in after the fact, putting out the fire. that's not what we want to do. we want our constituents to be proactive and seek out and solve problems on the horizon so that financial disasters can be averted. in the midst of a deconcerning comprehensive health care reform, we must be proactive in combating health care fraud and abuse. each year individuals drain $72 -- $72 billion and $220 billion from private and public health care pl

senator klobuchar, the next witness is someone you know well. could i ask you to, please, introduce him. >> thank you so much, mr. chairman, and thank you, ms. smith, for that moving story and your courage not only for telling your own story, but also for being the voice for so many victims out there. and on behalf of senator franken and myself, we welcome steve the redding who is our next witness and a minnesotan the. when i became henny pin county attorney, i came in there from the outside without a lot of criminal experience, and i wanted to put someone in charge of the violent crimes division that had the trust of the people in the office, and that was steve redding. he's served well in that role, but most importantly for our hearing today, he is one of the national experts on dna. and this means not only being a tough, smart trial lawyer and being able to convince a jury like so many good prosecutors do, it also means having the willingness and the determination and the intellect to learn the science of dna which is not that easy for so man

thank you senator klobuchar and pryor. your testimony. i'll do it by way of making two analogies. one, this is not like smoke. smoke at least arguably, you can see in the home. you can taste it. you can smell it. there's at least ant opportunity for you to react to it and get out of the home. by the way i'm not making a case for not having smoke alarms, they are very, very important. carbon monoxide you cannot see or smell. that makes detection all the more important. and i'm reminded of a story along with the burt story of a family of four who died in maryland. they found the father dead in his bathroom on the floor with shaving cream on his face. that's how quickly it happened to him. two children died and the mother and senators, they found the dog dead on the mat. there was no opportunity to detect that this was happening because there was no carbon monoxide detector in the home. i'd be remiss if i didn't talk briefly about a couple of prevention opportunities here and how we think they should be prevented. we'll talk

thank you senator klobuchar and pryor. i have a portion in my testimony where i talk about how it happens and what the results are and senator klobuchar, i think you addressed that in your testimony. i'll do it by way of making two analogies. one, this is not like smoke. smoke at least arguably, you can see in the home. you can taste it. you can smell it. there's at least ant opportunity for you to react to it and get out of the home. by the way i'm not making a case for not having smoke alarms, they are very, very important. carbon monoxide you cannot see or smell. that makes detection all the more important. and i'm reminded of a story along with the burt story of a family of four who died in maryland. they found the father dead in his bathroom on the floor with shaving cream on his face. that's how quickly it happened to him. two children died and the mother and senators, they found the dog dead on the mat. there was no opportunity to detect that this was happening because there was no carbon monoxide detector in the ho

but first, senator klobuchar?you very much, senator pryor, and thank you for your leadership, for this committee. you have always been there in the frontline. i remember when we had the full safety bill and it was a family that maybe ms. burt from minnesota remembers this. senator pryor was right there and got that build on. and i'm hopeful the same thing will happen with the legislation that ha have introduced here. i first want to recognize cheryl burt. i was thinking as senator pryor asset. i just had hoped we would still be here. and i'm glad that it all worked out for everyone, but when i think about what motivates me to get this thing done and keep moving with this legislation, it would be someone like cheryl burt. she's from rochester, minnesota, the home of the mayo clinic. she has been a leading and tireless advocate for carbon monoxide awareness. she tragically lost two of her sons to carbon monoxide poisoning 14 years ago. sharyl is here today to share with us or important story and to help educate us o

>> yes, yes, i do. >> senator klobuchar?> i go home by myself a lot on weekends and i came in once and i think -- there was something wrong. it was just going off all the time. and i unplugged it. so maybe i'll buy one of these from you. i can take it, mr. andres. you'll have to put a price on it otherwise we'll have a ethics violation of the laws. just to follow up on a few of senator pryor's questions about the standard and how it's improved over time, is it difficult for manufacturers to meet the standard? and why do you think it's important to have a mandatory one? instead of a voluntary one? >> well, to chance the question, it is difficult to meet the standard. i mean, the ul standard incorporates over 50 different performance tests. it takes time. it's not inexpensive. but at the end of the day, what we end up as an industry is a product that's to comply with the performance standard. if we think about not doing that for a moment what we open ourselves up to is the risk of putting products into the marketplace ultimate

baucus: i yield to senator klobuchar ten minutes. ms. klobuchar: thank you very much. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: i ask unanimous consent to peek for up to 12 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: i rise today to speak about true health care reform. the way i look at this in my state is it's a matter of affordability and cost. we have one of the highest percentage of people covered in the country, mr. president, in minnesota. but the issue is it's becoming more and more expensive for the people of our state to afford health care. i try to remember three simple numbers of all the numbers we're going to hear in the next few weeks. those are the numbers 6, 12 and 24. ten years of cola costs $6,000 for an average family to pay for their health care a family. now it's $12,000 with a lot of people paying a lot more. ten years from now if we don't do anything, it's going to be somewhere between $24,000 and $36,000 a year, something regular people just can't afford. 6, 12 and 24. it's not going in the right dire

>> thank you, senator klobuchar. this really again has an actual easy solution which rarely is the case when you confront these problems. financial institutions and retailers shouldn't sell account numbers and access to accounts to third-party sellers, period. there's just no reason -- there's no legitimate commercial reason to allow that. and i think in my testimony as well as a longer article i explain some of the attempted justifications and why they're just almost pitiful. there's really not much of an argument here. now, you get into a more tricky legislative problem when you get the problem of sellers retaining account information and then later reusing it. >> for their own purposes you're talking about? >> right. for instance, you might let a website that you order contact lenses from every quarter retain your information and regularly bill you with that information. but then you can -- that information also can be misused in ways that mimic this problem so i think you can attack that problem but that's a litt

klobuchar: thank you very much, mr. president.nd thank you to the senator from new hampshire for mentioning the mayo clinic along with several other great facilities across this country that have done things a little differently, mr. president. they've done things by focusing on the patient, by saying what's best for the patient is best for all of us. and when you do what's best for the patient, you get higher-quality care. and when you get higher-quality care, you actually get lower cost. i think when people think of, say, going to buy a hotel room or pay for a hotel room, they always think, well, if i pay more, i'll get of get a better room, a better view. that's actually true. but not true in health care. the states and the metropolitan areas have that have the least efficient health care, least efficient, toned cost the most. and that's what we need to change if we want true cost reform. it's good for states like minnesota and new hampshire and wisconsin. why? because we tend to have higher-quality care at lower cost. so it wi

of wisconsin, senator mccaskill of missouri, senator pryor, senator begich, bayh of indiana and klobuchar of minnesota to the chairman of the finance committee, saying if we pass health care reform without addressing the issue of health care spending, we will have failed. we know from c.m.s., the actuary at the department of health and human services, that the reid bill fails the test of senators kohl, mccaskill, pryor, begich, bayh, and klobuchar. so we know what c.m.s. thinks. we also know what cnn thinks. we know where the american people are. we have watched the public opinion polls dramatically shift against the reid proposal. the well-respected quinnipiac poll a week or so ago had the proposal disapproved by 14%. the week before that gallup had it disapproved by 9%. now cnn just yesterday, the latest poll, people opposed the senate bill 61-36. so, mr. president, we have heard from both c.m.s. and cnn, and when will our colleagues on the other side of the aisle respond to either the cold, hard facts or the american people? they argued to make history. it is clear that this would be a

senator klobuchar. >> thank you very much mr. chairman. thank you for holding this hearing and thank you director for being here again. let me say first of all nextgen as a priority for me as well and i would reiterate what senator hutchinson said that our air transportation system is without a doubt the safest in the world but clearly we cannot rest on our past achievements in this point was proven earlier this year with the tragedy of colgan air flight 3407 which brought the safety of our airlines back into the public eye in what was so chilling to me was to learn about these fatigue issues, to learn about some of the training issues that regional flights and the most chilling was the conversation that was recorded between the captain in the first officer when the first officer told the pilot i have never seen icing conditions. i have never deice. i've never experienced any of that. as a result the started looking into these de-icing rules and i was shocked to find out and you were not at the helm at the time that the de-icing role has b

klobuchar: thank you very much, mr. president. mr. president, i come to the floor today to voice my support for the department of defense appropriations bill that we are currently considering, and my disappointment that some of my colleagues have chosen to hold up this important legislation for reasons completely unrelated to anything to do with this bill. mr. president, we have been debating health care in the senate for months, and in the coming days, we will continue to debate health care. there are many honest disagreements about the best ways to reform our nation's health care system. they deserve discussions. i will say hearing from my colleague from maine, i'm concerned about medicare as well. i'm concerned because medicare is going to go in the red by 2017 if we don't do anything about it. i look at my mom who is 82 years old and wants to make sure that she keeps on medicare. i look at the friends that are in their 50's and want to make sure they get medicare when they are 65. and we need to make sure that we put in place thos

. >> senator klobuchar will be the last person. and we will finish the hearing. very, very good. i rushed out from the floor and made it in time. i want to thank you, secretary napolitano, for being here. you know, we just talked last week or so in the commerce committee. and i will say what i said then. i want to thank you for your great help in addressing the flooding in the red river valley for both minnesota and north dakota and was really impressed by the work of the people in your department. and then secondly, again, one other thing that i didn't mention in commerce at the last oversight hearing in may was about a month before the western hemisphere travel initiative took effect and we had serious backlogs of travelers in minnesota who were suddenly going to need passports or other documents to get to canada, which had not been required before. and this is going on when we had a decline in the tourism industry all over the country. and i have learned from talking to people in minnesota that the implementation of the western hemisphere travel initiative have been much smoot

senator klobuchar. >> thank you. thank you for holding this hearing and for being here, mr.ector. let me say that this is a priority for me. i would reiterate what senator hutchinson said, our transportation system is the safest in the world. we clearly cannot rest -- rest on our achievements. with the tragedy earlier this year with the flight 3047 which brought the safety of our airlines into the public eye. it was chilling to learn about the fatigue issues and some of the training issues for regional flights and the most chilling was the conversation that was recorded between the captain in the first officer when the first officer told the pilot he had never seen icing conditions. as a result of some of the hearings, i looked into these rules and was shocked to find out that the deicing rule has been pending for 12 years. i raised this issue earlier in a letter to secretary lahood and was pleased to work with him to move it out and get it out there for public comment. but that is 12 years. when you said 3000 pages for this new rule, even if you have this amount, it would b

senators kerry and klobuchar sent a letter to the sec addressing miss. -- addressing best. -- this. they face high early termination fee. if the vote they bought is locked to the carrier, when they switch, they end up with an expansive brick in their hands. customers face prices for their data plan that seem far removed from any possible cost. it indicates an absence of provider rivalry. i will provide several examples in my written testimony. i ended up with a bill that was several thousand dollars more than expected. even when they do pay for their debt service, consumers are not getting people experience of the internet. wireless providers are blocking popular software applications like skype being accessible to consumers. as more are switching to wireless services, increasing costs are reaching deeper into the pocketbooks of americans. more oversight is an excellent start. formal increase will determine whether intervention is necessary. regulators should take up several different efforts, for example opening a role mickle -- rule maker and begin a rule maker on data roaming. i

>> thank you, senator klobuchar. this again as an actual tv solution which really is the case when he confronts these problems. financial institutions and retailers shouldn't sell a account numbers and access to account to third-party sellers. there's just no reason or legitimate crucial reason to allow that. i think in my testimony i explain some of the attempt to justifications and why they are just somewhat pitiful. there's really not much of an argument here. now you get into a more tricky problem when you get the problem of sellers retaining account information and then later reusing it. >> for their own purposes were talking about? >> for instance, you might order contact lenses from every quarter retain your information then regularly fill you with that information. it can also be misused in ways that mimic this problem. so i think you can attack that problem but that's a little trickier legislative drafting issue. i really do think that there is an obvious and clear solution to this and it's just to shut down

thank you. >> thank you, senator klobuchar.s and please forgive me. senator, i did something last year. i am passionate about this question. it is not the subject of the day but it willç be of others. i completely messed up. i said that the fcc has the authority over in decency and a little bit of nudity and profanity. they do not have any authority over violence. i got that wrong. i apologize to all. we had a shocking incident last year. i had prepared, perhaps over dramatically, a five minute presentation of what violence and promiscuity on movie screens the people could look at. i was doing it in good faith. i was absolutely shot down, mostly by members of my own side of the committee because of the first amendment. there was an automatic nine said that because the first amendment exists, you cannot even be talking about this so did not waste my time. i was furious. i was undeterred. it makes me so glad that you took off a few days for your vacation -- a few days from your vacation to be here because we will need you to hel

i think senator klobuchar has an excellent point. i have delft with some of the trade agreements we've done in the past. but now it's been a year since we've done a trade agreement. is that -- is that a good thing or a bad thing in a country that's trying to recovery from a recession and reduce unemployment? >> i can give you a generic answer. the generic answer is lots of times exports can be a real source of growth and stimulus for an economy. >> again, i'll just emphasize it's been a year since we've done any sort of agreement. some agreements, like columbia, have been languishing since they were passed by -- or introduced to the last congress. we've been blocked by the speaker of the house from having a vote on that. we can argue the rightness or wrongness of that or whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, but we can't argue because it can't come up for a vote. and to the extent that congress does bear some responsibility for the loss of jobs or the lack of job creation, i think that's one of the things that has to be conside

klobuchar: thank you, mr. president. i would like to speak in support of the amendment which would provide some much-needed relief to americans who are being brushed by ever higher prescription drug costs. i would first like to note i am eagerly awaiting the details of some of the proposals that were cut out there last night. i appreciate the work of my colleagues, but i do want to hear the response from the congressional budget office, and as i have said on this floor many times, i am concerned about expanding medicare unless we do something about the geographic disparities that are already present in our system. you look at some of the numbers. the average patient got $6,600 in minnesota in 2006, and you look at the numbers in texas which is something like $9 300. what we want to try to do here with this bill and what i like about this bill is all of the cost reform measures that are going to push us toward rewarding states that are participating in systems that provide more efficient care, and if we don't do something

mark kennedy running against amy klobuchar, is this klobuchar year. this is wellstone year.this is franken year. franken was ahead of coleman at that point in time in distribute as well. the fact we're ahead at all makes us feel pretty good where we are in this election cycle. the september 15th happens. all of sudden now we're back to, we're back to a whole different set of issues because energy is going out the door and everybody is worried about their jobs. so michelle was somebody who voted against both versions of the bailout bills. and, we wanted to explain that vote in terms of why it was she would vote against something. if you remember, right after those votes, there was a lot of talk that was taking place about where special interests once again in control in washington. this is the ad that we put up to show michelle's viewpoint on, michelle's point of view what is taking place in washington and why she is a little different than most of the other republican members of congress. >> seems every day my boss tells me the same thing. get some political pork from michel

klobuchar: i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business for up to seven minutes.e presiding officer: is there objection? no objection is heard. the senator can smeek for up to seven minutes. ms. klobuchar: i rise today in support of the amendment offered by senator pry that calls for an enrollee satisfaction survey for health care plans offered through the exchange. as you know, mr. president, the exchange will be a series of different policies that people can choose from. what i love about this side for my small businesses and self-employed that are paying 20% more than people that work for big businesses right now because they simply can't leverage their numbers. it is hard for hem to get good rates because they're out there on their own. this exchange where they can choose a lot of the different kinds of policies like members of congress can choose from, whether it's blue cross or whether it's a number of other choices, they can pick a policy on the exchange. i serve with senator pryor on the consumer public protection subcommittee. this improves resources for

senator klobuchar. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you to all of our witnesses.nk that parents are on the front line and have to make a lot of the decisions. always there was some magic technology that would allow them to do that. -- i wish there were some magic technology that would allow them to do that. it makes a big difference in our kids' lives. some research shows that the average american child today spends 44.5 hours a week and part of the screen. kids with the least in, watch the most media with police supervision. -- kids with the least in cocome watch the most media with the least supervision. i just wondered if any of you had a comment on how you think that is going in terms of parents having available technology, if they want to block certain shows. >> professor jordan at the university of pennsylvania looked at the v-chip with parents, and most were unable to navigate it. that goes back to something simpler. you have a button to push for something that will allow parents to very readily see what is on the air waves and also to block it. sometimes t

klobuchar: mr. president, i ask to yield myself 10 minutes. the presiding officer: the senator's recognized. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, late last night, as you're aware, the senate took the important step to move forward on health care reform. after all of the work, the debate that's gone on for this entire year, we owe the american people a vote on this issue. we can't afford to ignore this situation any more. and i know some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have been talking about a lack of debate. i think anyone that's turned on c-span for the last few months will tell you there has been a lot of debate. and not only that, a number of the republican amendments were actually included in the original bill, the "help" committee bill that came out. i believe it was something like 130 amendments that were included that came off of their side. the finance committee as well. i remember the first bipartisan meeting we had on health care reform was something called ready to launch, that

i have been so fortunate and grateful to work with senator klobuchar on this amendment. we'll be talking about it more, but i wanted to provide a summary of it. madam president, i will yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mr. johanns: madam president, over the weeks and months that we have been here, we have talked a lot about the economy and the challenges that we face in the economy. we have spent time trying to figure out the best approach when it comes to job creation. we went through a debate earlier this year about a stimulus package that when you add interest was eye popping, a trillion dollars. we were promised by the president that, boy, if you pass this gargantuan stimulus package, that unemployment won't go over 8%. we stand here today with unemployment of 10%. we look at that and we recognize, though, that that 10% number doesn't tell the true story of the suffering that is going on out there. when you read much further on any analysis, you begin to realize it's not 10%. when you add in those who have

i will turn over the questioning to senator sessions and the gavel over to senator klobuchar. >> ms.described individuals, murderers, who had previous records that she readily believed should have been in jail and not able to commit these kind of crimes again. you are a professional and have been at this along time. i have come to believe that mathematics is a factor in all of desperate. there is not just that many people who sexually assault women. there are a certain number of those repeat offenders who are exceedingly dangerous. from a purely public safety point of view, is important we identify those persons early and that they be incarcerated in order to protect the people of this country from this kind of violence? >> senator, you said it as well as i could say it, yes, that is critical. there are many studies already battered helping us to identify those persons. as soon as we can identify them, our goal should be to incarcerate them for as long as possible >> you represent a very sophisticated department. you have been at this a long time. you have personally tried these kind

. >> senator klobuchar will be the last person and then we will finish the hearing. >> very, very good i rest back from the floor and made it in time. i want to thank you secretary napolitano. as you know we just talked last week and the week or so and i'll say what i said then and i want to thank you for your great help in addressing the flooding in the red river valley for both minnesota and north dakota and was really impressed by the work of people in your department. .. concern about the no-fly list and some of the secure flight issues and i'm not going to go at that again. i did want to touch on something i know was touched on briefly about the accidental disclosure of transportation safety administration airport screening procedures when that confidential document was placed on line. i know that you said to an earlier question that it didn't represent a significant security risk but they did violate the standards of your department, and i was just wondering if -- what steps or taking to make sure these kinds of disclosures don't happen again. obviously they are of concern. >> ye

. >> senator klobuchar? know some of the families are out there from the crash and thank you for being here and being a moral compass for us as we work on this important topic to get the rules done and i appreciate you saying these will get done ms. c59 was shocked to learn at a hearing a few weeks ago the de-icing rules are 12 years old and have not gone into recommendation and finally i talk to the director and secretary lahood and they are finally out for public comment after sitting there in bureaucratic red tape for 12 years and thank you for doing this as quickly as possible. one thing to follow what the senator was talking about is that changing culture and the rules that we have on the fl eight -- faa's policy they are half a century old and doesn't reflect with new technologies or ways of living or new affirmation about fatigue. one of the ways i was focused on is what senator dorgan said half of the flights are regional and one quarter of the passengers are regional but the rules seem to be differe

we welcome senator klobuchar, who will offer questions and has a opening statement. >> thank you.educed lunch kids in terms of the fitness and their mothers packing them carrots and things like that, and then seeing in the inner-city school, the vending machines being used a lot. i think a lot of kids going for may be the less healthy alternative when there were choices. and then some healthy food given as well. minnesota, as you noted, and put a lot of emphasis on this. but even despite that, to see the difference between schools and the nutrition these kids are getting is very stark, and to also see the future obesity problem with some of these kids. i'm worried it is going to get worse as the economy gets worse because oftentimes it is cheaper to go out and buy nutritional food, so i am very concerned about the obesity issue. the other reason i am interested in this is we have a lot of food that is produced in minnesota, a lot of food that is processed in minnesota. i have gotten some information about the need, as you talked about, dr. wilson, for national standards and how th

. >> senator klobuchar. >> thank you very much.nt to acknowledge some of the colgan families are out there from the crash. thank you again for being here and being a moral compass for us as we work on this important topic and tried to get these rules down and die appreciate saying that these will get done. i was shocked to learn at a hearing a few weeks ago that the de-icing rules are 12 years old, that they have an even gone in the recommendations and finally actually i talked to the director of our ride of an secretary lahood and they are finally out for public comment after sitting there in some bureaucratic morass for 12 years so i want to thank you for pushing on these and encourage you to do these as quickly as possible. one of the things to follow up what senator lemeiux was talking about was this change in culture and i think these rules that we have come at the faa policy of pilot fatigue or something like half a century old and doesn't reflect new technologies, new ways of living, new information that we have about 50. on

. >> senator klobuchar will be the last questioner, and then we will finish the hearing. >> very good. i rushed back from the floor and made it in time. i want to thank you, secretary napolitano, for being here. as you know we talked last week or so in the commerce committee and i will say what i said then. i want to thank you for your great help in addressing the flooding in the red river valley for both minnesota and north dakota. and i was impressed by the work of the people in your department. and secondly, and one other thing i didn't mention in commerce at the last oversight hearing and may was about a month before the hemisphere troubled initiative took effect and we had serious backlogs of travelers in minnesota who were suddenly going to need passports or other documents to get to canada which had not been required before and this is going on and we have had a decline in the tourism industry and all over the country and i have learned from talking to people in minnesota that the implementation of the western hemisphere travon should have has been much smoother in our state. t

as 2009 a group of senators including murray, specter murray, specter, senator bennett, senator klobuchar and others wrote to mr. delaware act saying it minister for medicare and medicaid services "we right to express our concerns is regarding the services proposed changes to medicare advantage rates for calendar year 2010. the advanced notices raised two important issues implemented that will result in a highly problematic increase in benefit reductions for medicare advantage enrollees across the country. i again, a short time ago, there was concern on the other side about cuts of medicare advantage program. >> is a senator where there's 181,000 people in an alabama that would get it cut and in arizona it is 1,606,000 people. seniors that will have benefits cut. colorado, 190,000 to have benefits cut. georgia :1 hundred 76,000. illinois:176,000. indiana when it 48 kentucky 151. massachusetts 200,000. michigan 406,000. that is what michigan reads right now. is annette? to have have seniors' benefit cutbacks minnesota 284. missouri 200. 104,000 a bad. state of new york 853,000. ohio 499,00

. >> senator klobuchar will be the last person and then we will finish the hearing. >> very, very goodi rest back from the floor and made it in time. i want to thank you secretary napolitano. as you know we just talked last week and the week or so and i'll say what i said then and i want to thank you for your great help in addressing the flooding in the red river valley for both minnesota and north dakota and was really impressed by the work of people in your department. .. concern about the no-fly list and some of the secure flight issues and i'm not going to go at that again. i did want to touch on something i know was touched on briefly about the accidental disclosure of transportation safety administration airport screening procedures when that confidential document was placed on line. i know that you said to an earlier question that it didn't represent a significant security risk but they did violate the standards of your department, and i was just wondering if -- what steps or taking to make sure these kinds of disclosures don't happen again. obviously they are of concern. >> yes

short a time ago as september 2009, a group of senators including wyden, murray, specter, bennet, klobucharhers wrote to mr. charles frizera, acting administrative for the centers for med cainders medicaid services, "we write to express our concerns regarding the proposed changes to medicare advantage rates for calendar year 2010. the advance notice has raised two important issues that if implemented would result in highly problematic premium increases and benefit reductions for medicare advantage enrollees across the country." so, again, as short a time ago as last april there was concern on the other side about cuts in medicare advantage program. mr. alexander: i wonder if the senator is aware, in alabama there's 181,000 people who are going to get the cut. in california, 1,106,000 people, seniors, are going to have their benefits cut. mr. coburn: colorado, 19 l,000 that are going to have their benefits cut. georgia 176,000, illinois is 176,000, indiana 148,000, kentucky 110,000, louisiana 151,000, massachusetts 200,000, michigan, 406,000. that's exactly what michigan needs right now, isn

earlier this month i introduced along with senators leahy, specter, kohl, schumer and klobuchar an amendment that would protect our increased national investment in the health of americans by improving fraud enforcement. everyone believes in fraud enforcement, and this amendment does that. it's no secret that fraud represents one of the fastest-growing and most costly forms of crime in america today. in no small part our current economic crisis can be linked to financial fraud starting with unchecked mortgage fraud generated by loan originators, through securities fraud that hastened the eventual market crash and maximized its impact on main street and average american investors. in response, this body passed the fraud enforcement recovery act,fera which directed critical tools to antifraud efforts. fear was passed in response to an unprecedented financial crisis, but americans should expect congress to do more than simply react to crises after their most destructive impacts have been felt. we owe it to our constituents to identify and address problems when they arise so that we can prevent

i along with senators leahy, klobuchar, schumer. again this provision benefits not just delawareans but all americans. the national health care antitrust association conservativively estimates that 3% of all health care spending, some $72 billion, is lost to health care fraud in both public and private health care plans. $72 billion lost in health care fraud in both public and private health care plans. other estimates place the figure as high as 10%, over over $220 billion. fraud hits every one of us in every corner of our nation where we can least afford it, our health care premiums, while simultaneously driving down the quality of and our trust in our health care system. this amendment increases funding to fighting fraud in public programs. it improves screening of providers and suppliers and requires implementation of meaningful compliance programs. this section tightens requirements for claim submissions and provides new tools to deter fraud and abuse in the private insurance market. it also strengthens criminal investigations

thanks to the efforts of maria cantwell and my colleague amy klobuchar and others, for the first time ever we will include what's called the value index in the medicare payment structure. doctors and states that provide high-quality care at a reasonable cost will no longer be punished for that. instead they will be rewarded for being effective partners in their patient's care. the bill also calls for all health insurance companies to use a single, uniform standard for claims. just like we do now in minnesota and which will save our state $60 million just this year. there are lots of ideas, and we just don't know which ones yet will work the best. but the point is that all the key elements are here in this bill. one program in the bill that i'm particularly proud of is the diabetes prevention program at c.d.c. i worked on these provisions with my republican colleague, dick lugar, from indiana, who is a hero of mine. the diabetes prevention program is based on what we learned in minnesota and in indiana. prediabetics can avoid becoming diabetic if they get access to community services l

and i rise today to speak about an amendment that i filed, along with senator klobuchar, a cosponsor of this amendment, that seeks to -- to address a group of americans who have been left out of health care system and forgotten about at a very difficult time for -- in their lives. the name of the amendment is the pregnant and parenting teens and women amendment. and it recognizes what i believe to be a -- a -- a fundamental reality in america. i'll describe two scenarios. one that so many of us have had the opportunity to experience as parents, but especially those in this chamber and those who are -- are listening to this debate who are women who become pregnant. for many women that moment when they find out they're pregnant is a moment of joy. it's the miracle of pregnancy. and they feel that job and they share it with their family and their friends. and it's a time of real happiness. and many of niec these women int first scenario don't need help or have adequate support in the framework of -- whether it is government help or nonprofit. there is a second scenario in america, a sec

ago as april 3, 2009, a group of senators, bipartisans including wydem, murray, specter, bennett, klobuchar wrote to mr. charles, acting administrator of the centers for medicare and medicaid services, quote, we write to express our concern cans regarding proposed changes to medicare advantage rates for calendar year 2010. the advance notice has raised two important issues that, if implemented, would result in highly problematic premium increases and benefit reductions for medicare advantage enrollees across the country. so, again, as short a time ago as last april there was concern on the other side about cuts in medicare advantage program. >> i wonder, wonder if the senator is aware in alabama there's 181,000 people that are going to get their medicare advantage cut, in arizona your number you listed, in california 1,606,000 people, seniors are going to have their benefits cut. colorado, 1 # 8,000 -- 1980,000 that are going to have their benefits cut, illinois is 176,000, indiana 148,000. kentucky, 110, massachusetts 200,000, michigan 406,000. that's exactly what michigan needs right now,

vote for that legislation that i and senator mccain, senator grassley, senator stabenow, senator klobuchar and so many others have brought to the floor of the senate? the answer is yeah, we're going to vote on that. the question is in the seven days since i have introduced this, has the pharmaceutical industry been able to pry enough people away from this because they're raising all kinds of issues of safety? of course, the issues really have to do with their revenue. we know that. so how many votes will we get? and by the way, the stand-alone bill -- i should say the side-by-side bill is just a killer bill, so we'll have a second vote and we'll see. a lot of people are going to say you know what? we'll vote for this bill and then we'll vote to nullify it by voting for the lautenberg amendment. let me read the aarp letter which was sent yesterday." on behalf of the aarp's nearly 40 million members, we urge you to support the dorgan-snowe importation amendment to h.r. 3590, the senate health care reform legislation. the amendment provides for safe, legal importation of lower priced prescrip