and some of them are mine and i know two others that are by amy klobuchar. one of mine is amendment 1340. it simply reiterates in this bill that everything done with children and families will be done in the best interest of the child. best interest of the child is done in every state, in every court when you're making decisions about families, it's always in the best interest of the child. it is modern child welfare practice. it will just clarify this bill. i don't know of anyone opposing it. and you know what? if someone is opposing it, then take it off the list. just take it off the list. i'm not even opposed to that. i don't think anyone is opposing it. but if they do, they just have to call the democratic cloakroom and say, "i don't think we should be making decisions in the best interest of the child," i'll take it off the list. but i'm not going to lose this amendment because the senate can't function. there's another amendment that i have with senator coats, and we've worked very hard on this amendment. i had a hearing in my committee as chair of the

12 61, klobuchar coats landrieu blunt 1956. landrieu-cochran 1383, leahy 1454, leahy 1455 morty 1451, murray-crapo 1368, nelson-wicker 1618, reid 1223, reid 1608, schatz-kirk 1416, shaheen-ayotte 12372, stabenow 1405, toomey 1236, udall of new mexico 1241, udall of new mexico 1242. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. cornyn: reserving the right to object, i want to compliment the distinguished chairman of the judiciary committee for the open process that he conducted in committee to process amendments on both sides of the aisle and the open and transparent way that was done. that stands in stark contrast to what's happened here on the floor where we've only had ten amendments that have had roll call votes compared to 46 roll call votes the last time we debated comprehensive immigration reform in 2007. and i would just point oute outr my distinguished colleague that of the 32 amendments that are being offered now by unanimous consent, to be voted u

stabenow: senator klobuchar was next i believe. i would yield five minutes to senator klobuchar. and if my ranking member, if he is interested or we will then turn to senator nelson. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: madam president, i rise in support of this very important bill and i want to thank senator stabenow for her leadership as well as the senator from mississippi. it was a true bipartisan effort and as i heard her list all the names of all the wonderful staff people that worked on this bill i also want to mention my staff member, adam duran. this wouldn't have happened without senator stabenow with her ever-optimistic view of never giving up on this bill. i thank you, senator. it has been 354 days since the senate passed its last farm bill. i've been counting it down, madam president. and this is long overdue. this got down in record speed because we had gone through all of these issues, 70-some amendments last time and this time we're able to get the farm bill through the agriculture committee in record time in three hours and now it's o

senator klobuchar, i want to get these members in before we have a vote. >> thank you very much an thank you to all of you. mr. parker was at the hearing senator lee and i had a we sent a letter yesterday together to the department of justice highlighting the concerns that have been raised during our hearings and some of them have been mentioned here, the results of this merger and other mergers that the nation's top four airlines control nearly 90% of the market. recent concern, few days and weeks of each other, a legacy carriers raised their ticket fees from $150 to $200, elimination of competition on 17 city and 12 airport and seven routes where american a u.s. air waves are the only carriers providing service and concentration of combined companies with 70% of slots that have been discussed by many of my colleagues at reagan airport so those were a few concerns we mentioned. i want to mention minneapolis st. paul is a major hub for delta. you said we were a non hub airline airport, we welcome you there because travel and leisure voted as the most cheerful airports in the country and

klobuchar: mr.esident? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: thank you, mr. president. i ask that the quorum be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, we're going to have a number of members coming to the floor, but as you know, we are debating this historic -- historic -- comprehensive immigration reform, something as a member of the judiciary committee, i've worked long and hard on and actually worked on it back in 2007 when i first got to the senate. and i can't tell you the difference it is doing this five years later than it was back in 2007. this time we have a coalition that is incredibly strong, that has withstood a lot of different questions and issues about this bill, has been able to accommodate concerns raised within the gang of eight and then on the judiciary committee level and certainly we're now, after last night's vote, adding other requests and other things that members have. but i want to emphasize just why thi

senator amy klobuchar, the vice chair of the joint economic committee. i am doing well. >> the whole time during break, they were trying to butcher your name. >> it's a slo vennian name. can i have one word? klobuchar as they say in the iron ranks of minnesota, chloe butcher. >> excellent. >> i would note that is where mark begich's relatives are from. our dads grew up 20 minutes away from each other. >> amy, tell us, in terms of decreasing the visa wait times, what is it now, what does it do to the economy? >> well, it varies by company, 16% loss in the international tourism mark since 9-11. every point we gain back is 76,000 jobs in this country. that's why it's so important. one of the things we realized five years ago, if you are in shanghai and want to come to america and spend $5,000 another the malls of america or bloomington, minnesota. >> or travel to alaska. >> you want to do that, it would take you 95 days for a tourist destination. three days to go to london. we have been working on speeding up the time. we gotten some improvements. brazil do

there is a great amendment by senator klobuchar and coats that requires certification of citizenship and other federal documents to reflect the name and date of birth determinations made by a state court in the situation of intercountry adoption. some of our parents are getting really hassled -- hassled -- american parents hassled by american courts because they have done god's will, adopt a children from overseas, they've followed all the rules, all the laws at tremendous expense to themselves trying to help a child that is orphaned or unparented only to come back to the united states and because of some technical difficulties with our law, their birth certificates are not honored. mr. president, this isn't right. now, i realize that the judiciary committee cannot spend their time talking about this. in the scheme of things, it's minor. but let me tell you, as an adoptive mother to an adoptive american parents who have spend spentd thousands of dollars and -- spent thousands of dollars and days and months trying to do what their pastors and ministers ask them to do -- to take in the

there is another provision in this bill that klobuchar-landrieu-coats-blunt- b arrasso-enzi. this is as broad a coalition as you can -- not gather, but it could gather broad-based support. but klobuchar is from minnesota, landrieu is from louisiana, coats is from indiana, barrasso is wyoming, and we're republicans and democrats. this amendment has been cleared, and i appreciate it on both sides, requires the certificates of citizenship and other documents to reflect the name and date of determination made by state court to help ensure that name and birth dates for adopted children are reflected in federal records. because a couple hundred -- you know, we adopt about 100,000 children in america every year. i think these parents should be given our best effort. these are parents who are adopting children domestically, keeping them off the streets, out of mental institutions, pouring their hearts and soul into helping raise children that others have either thrown away or given up, and yet we make it difficult. so the few of us that work this issue a lot know how things need to b

let's take a listen to senator amy klobuchar yesterday. >> i think that's wrong.ething is wrong when the senate fails to confirm the head of an agency for seven years. something is wrong when we have atf agents, over 2,000 of them on the front lines of major investigations like the boston marathon bombing while victims ladies membered in the hospital the agents were on the front line, figuring out who did it and what happened? and yet the senate will still not confirm a permanent leader. >> michael: will the nra still control this issue as they have with the atf in other ways? and how can we combat their more insidious effects on our government? >> yeah they are certainly battle this out on every front. what other area of law enforcement does the nra and its allyies really want to be out front saying we want the troops in the field leaderless? no other place in the world in any respect where americans are putting their lives on the line, do conservatives do this sort of thing, but atf, because it affects guns, the nra believe this meshes with the interests -- i ha

i know senator clover char -- klobuchar feels the same way. after taking the bar exam, you did not join a law firm but joined the marines. i just wanted to start out by thanking you for that. i also went to take this opportunity to knowledge the many brave atf agents who responded courageously and professionally to the bombings up the boston marathon and the recent texas plant explosion. mr. jones, your nomination to be atf's permanent director arose after the shooting of sandy hook, but other recent events remind us that the atf's role extends beyond gun issues. mr. delerey, thank you for meeting with me. i enjoyed our discussion a few weeks ago. congratulations on your nomination as well. you have done some tremendous work on issues like marriage equality and holding credit rating agencies accountable for their role in the financial collapse. thanks for being here to answer the committee's questions. i will do right to my questions now. mr. jones, since you were named atf acting director in august 2011, you somehow managed to run the bureau

it's interesting, the copy of the goodlatte bill and i have a copy of the senator klobuchar's bill and the to take a different approach. it highlights the panel. the goodlatte bill says well you know we are just going to repeal the most recent ruling and have a rulemaking and let's try to put this to bed. everybody seems to be generally in support of that. jerry would say perhaps not but it seems to work but going back to contract rights i would commend you to look at senator klobuchar's bill which is cosponsored with senator lee and senator blumenthal where it says it directs to get the fcc involved the fcc not wait weight 180 day show direct dividers data services. [inaudible] to unlock the devices access to such services so in other words we are talking about using contract is a right and take the klobuchar bill that it essentially it asserts the whole use of contract and say by the way sign a contract that any form of enforcement is gonzo again there are different approaches to this. >> in summary you want to make sure the fcc isn't put in charge and also want to make sure -- respe

senator klobuchar is next. i do not see her. senator frank and is not here. senator sessions?>> those or kind comments, director. i would echo you know my admiration for you as a professional is exceedingly high. you came to the office with the kind of skills and experiences that others have noted that gave you an opportunity to be very, very effective in this important position. so i really salute you for that and your integrity is undoubted and your experience and of a love of your country. so i want to join in my comments in that regard. there are so many things that are happening now. and i think the fbi needs to rise to the occasion. the fbi is such a premier investigative agency. i had the honor to prosecute cases brought to me by almost 15 years and i met with them personally for hours and weekends and nights and know how meticulously they work to do everything exactly right. when on your people have doubts come a great doubts sometimes about the integrity of the average cases and agents that i know, i know that is just not right. they try to do the right thing everyday

12 amendments championed by senators landrieu and klobuchar to ease the process for international adoptions. an amendment by senator hagan to reauthorize the bullet-proof vest program, incidentally, a program begun as a bipartisan program. an amendment by senator nelson to provide additional resources for maritime security. an amendment that requires d.h.s. to submit a strategy to prevent unauthorized traveling to mexico. these are amendments, if read a roll call votes, they would probably get 90, 95 votes; they would probably get all 100 of us. let's vote on them. let's adopt them. let's show the american people we actually care about having immigration reform. you know, the senator from louisiana and others are right. we ought to take up those amendments. we share a common ground. we so often get bogged down by divisive amendments, why not join together and pass those that we agreed on, republicans and democrats? if we do that, we might actually fix our immigration system. the one thing everybody agrees on, the system does not work today. we're trying to fix it. at least bring up and vote

. >> thank you, senator klobuchar. i want to make sure we get the members in before we have the vote. thank you. >> thank you very much, madam chairman. >> we had a meeting and wanted to make clear we sent a letter, actually yesterday, senator lee and i did together, to the department of justice, highlighting some of the concerns again that have been raised during our hearing, and some of them have been mentioned here, before the the result of this merger and other mergers, the nation's top four airlines would control nearly 90% of the market. recent concern, within a few days of each other, the four legacy carriers changed their ticket change fees from $150 to $200. elimination of head-to-head competition on seven routes where american and u.s. airways are the only two carriers providing service, and then the concentration of the combined companies with the 70% of the slots that have been discussed by many of my colleagues at reagan airport. so, those are a few of the concerns we mentioned. i did want to first mention

klobuchar: madam president, i note the absence of a quorum. presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: ms. hirono: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. ms. hirono: i ask unanimous consent that we vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. hirono: madam president, i believe that we must fix the immigration bill to make it fairer for women. the bill proposes a new merit-based point system for allocating green cards for future immigrants. simply put, the point system makes it harder for women than for men to come to this country. the theory behind the merit system is that we should give immigration preferences to people who hold advanced degrees or work in high-skilled jobs. this idea ignores the discrimination women endure in other countries. too many women overseas do not have the same educational or career advancement opportunities available to men in those countries. in practice, the bill's new point system takes that inequitable treatment abroad and saoep

i know senator clover char -- klobuchar feels the same way. after taking the bar exam, you did not join a law firm but joined the marines. i just wanted to start out by thanking you for that. thiso went to take opportunity to knowledge the many brave atf agents who responded courageously and professionally to the bombings up the boston marathon and the .ecent texas plant explosion mr. jones, your nomination to be atf's permanent director arose after the shooting of sandy hook, but other recent events 's roleus that the atf extends beyond gun issues. delerey, thank you for meeting with me. a fewyed our discussion weeks ago. congratulations on your nomination as well. you have done some tremendous work on issues like marriage equality and holding credit rating agencies accountable for their role in the financial collapse. thanks for being here to answer the committee's questions. i will do right to my questions now. mr. jones, since you were named atf acting director in august 2011, you somehow managed to run the bureau while also serving as u.s

first they faced the minnesota wild -- and i heard a lot from senator klobuchar and franken about that contest. we prevailed. then they went on to face the detroit red wings. they had to win three games in a row and score a goal in an overtime thriller to beat the red wings. then faced last year's stanley cup champs, the los angeles kings, and they finally earned the right to play the boston bruins in the finals. it was a hard-fought contest by two excellent, great teams. they kept us up late at night. down 2-1 with over -- just over a minute to play, the blackhawks scored two goals to win their second stanley cup in the last four seasons. i'll go on, mr. president, to ask that the remainder of my statement be placed in the record. but i will tell you that i have witnessed representing the city of chicago some extraordinary fan loyalty, but what i have seen for the chicago blackhawks over the last eight weeks has been amazing. you can't walk down michigan avenue, state street or any neighborhood without running into blackhawks gear. people are so proud of that team and now as they para

senators mccaskill and senator klobuchar requires a comprehensive review of training and qualification and experience of individuals responsible for the sexual assault prevention and response programs. it also includes a provision that would amend the military whistleblower statute to require inspectors general to investigate allegations. finally, we adopted six amendments related to the issue of sexual assault. this requires additional panel on sexual thought. the blumenthal amendment requires independent panel of judicial proceedings under this to address victim compensation. it extends crime victims rights in lieu of this, i want to thank my colleagues for their absolute determination to stamp out the spirit of sexual assault in the military. it will certainly make a difference. >> this will truly increase accountability and objectivity and trust in the military justice system by having trained legal military professionals handle the serious crimes from the beginning. this is not a radical idea. it is a commonsense proposal that is carefully crafted within the chain of command. incl

amendment, and i'm very happy that i have the cosponsorship of senator coats, senator blunt and senator klobuchar. this amendment does not go to the heart of the immigration bill, but it does touch the hearts of many parents and many children who have been caught up in a very unfortunate situation. a couple of years ago senator mick kels from oklahoma -- senator nickles from oklahoma who i had the great pleasure of working with across the aisle on many adoption bills, he and i passed a bill very important to the adoption community, with many others, that basically said when a child is adopted overseas -- and we do mostly domestic adoptions in america, but we have anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 adoptions internationally. that when someone adopts a child overseas, instead of them, which is very expensive, very time-consuming and more bureaucratic than it needs to be, our bill several years ago said once that process is over, once the adoption is finalized, that children will become automatic citizens. it was a great step forward because now at least we have 10,000 to 20,000 kids that come in, all v

air force active duty members who receive military awards; klobuchar-coats, adoption amendment; landrieu 1338, talking about everify; landrieu-murkowski 1382, public-private partnerships expanding land ports of entry; landrieu-cochran 1383, requiring reports to a program; landrieu 1341, requiring d.h.s. to attempt to reduce detention daily bed rate; leahy-hatch -- i mentioned that one only because it is cosponsored by the senior democrat and the senior republican; leahy 1544, technical amendments, 1455, e.v.-5 verification, crapo 1368, prohibiting the shablging of pregnant women, extraordinary circumstances at d.h.s. detention facilities. gosh, if there's anything we assume would pass unanimously -- a senator: would the senator yield? lay if i could just finish the list. mr. leahy: if i could just finish the lace. providing adisicial resources for maritime security, shats shats--kirk 1416, visa processing; shaheen-ayotte, visa program; stabenow-collins, administrator changes, udall 1241, expanding the border enforcement security task force; udall 1242, $5 million available for strengthen

senator klobuchar is next. i do not see her. senator franken, he is not here. senator sessions? .. i want to join in my comments in that regard. there are so many things that are happening now, i think the fbi needs to rise to the occasion. the fbi is such a premiere investigative agency. i have the honor to prosecute cases brought to me by fbi agents for almost fifteen years. i met with them personally for hours and weekends and nights and know how meticulously they work to do everything exactly right. when i hear people have doubts on -- great doubts sometimes about being the intick -- integrity of the average cases and the agents i know, i know it's not right. they try to do the right thing every day. if they are -- they can make mistakes, and congress sometimes creates circumstances that puts them in difficult positions, and life is tough for agents out there. but fundamentally day after day, i worked with by agents, they are personal friends of mine and remain so for decades. i just want to share those thoughts maybe you would like to comment about the fidelity of your agents?

senator klobuchar has introduced a companion piece of legislation in the senate. madam speaker, too many victims have already suffered. these assaults are happening every day. there is no reason to have the ndaa to pass when we have something today. congress must approve thoughtful reforms combating sexual assault in the military. i'm hopeful this measure passes, that the senate gives it a quick uptake on the bill and we can send it to the president for his signature. i'm asking my colleagues to act today and pass this bill, and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from indiana yields back. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill h.r. 1864. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended -- mrs. walorski: madam speaker, i request the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. all those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a

, it's one amendment, the citizenship for lawful adoptees amendment supported by myself, senator klobuchar, senator coats, and we hope there will be many more cosponsors. it does three simple but important things. first of all, a couple of years ago i helped lead the fight with many of my colleagues still serving here to pass the intercountry adoption act, which granted -- or child citizenship act of 2002. that was a very significant breakthrough in the adoption community and as you all know, i'm the chair of the adoption caucus and we have democrats and republicans and just support the idea that every child in the world needs a family. we try to minimize and reduce barriers to children getting the family that they need, either staying with the one they were born with, trying to help support that family or if they are abandoned or neglected or grossly abused, finding another family. governments do a lot of things well, raising children isn't one of them. parents raise children, and a responsible, loving adult is necessary for a child's development, physical, emotional, and spiritual develo