klobuchar: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i want to thank senator coons for his work, and as he has stated, russian actions are very harmful in the effort to bring peace in the middle east. russia reportedly plans to sell advanced aircraft and missile systems, as senator coons has noted to iran, and may begin making these shipments in the next few days. these weapons could be used to destabilize the region and threaten the security of our allies, especially israel. russia also continues to block the u.n. security council from taking action in response to iran's recent illegal missile tests. these actions can only embolden iran and encourage iran to disregard its commitments. russia, as a jcpoa country, a world power, a member of the u.n. security council, needs to be convinced that it is in its best interests and in the interests of the international community that iran sticks to its commitments under the jcpoa. i thank you, senator co

senator capito and after that senator klobuchar. >> thank you, dr.ayden for not just your service but a visit to all of our offices for a chance for us to get to know you proceeding this hearing. i appreciate that. i think in that conversation, you and i talked that i'm the subcommittee chair of the legislative branch on the appropriations committee and so my purview is with the library of congress. if everything goes according to plan, i think we're going to get to know each other very well. >> i hope so. >> i want to ask, first of all, you mentioned the new chief information officer which i understand is working well but there's also a new division called the national/international outreach. you and i talked about this briefly in the office. i know it's early, but how much time you've had to really look at this. you said your library has availed yourself many times of the services of the library of congress. i didn't know if you had any initial thoughts on that particular part. >> thank you. and i smiled because i had another wonderful session with

. >>> coming up in our show, senator amy klobuchar is going to join me.ld she be part of the first all-female presidential ticket in american history. some buzz about that today. why do so many businesses rely on the us postal service? because when they ship with us, their business becomes our business. that's why we make more e-commerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country. here, there, everywhere. united states postal service priority: you if you have allergy congestion muddling through your morning is nothing new. introducing rhinocort® allergy spray from the makers of zyrtec®. powerful relief from nasal allergy symptoms, all day and all night. try new rhinocort® allergy spray. all day and all night. mary buys a little lamb. one of millions of orders on this company's servers. accessible by thousands of suppliers and employees globally. but with cyber threats on the rise, mary's data could be under attack. with the help of the at&t network, a network that senses and mitigates cyber threats, their critical data is safer than ever. giving

amy klobuchar wrote heartbroken prince has died.the sun day or night. ♪ >>> 42 minutes past the hour. time for an early start on your money. dow futures bearing moving here. oil is up. european stock markets are down. new this morning, uber surviving a threat to the business model. uber reached a settlement to pay out $100 million to drivers in california and massachusetts. from now on, they will be designated as contract workers in the states. they sued to become employees. uber will create drivers associations and talks to management and follow transparency guidelines communicating with workers. discipline action and drivers ratings and let drivers post signs saying tipping is not included, but appreciated. >>> the dangers of being a disrupti disruption. >>> is donald trump about to get a makeover to his image? friendlier? calmer? more presidential? what his top campaign advisers are promising the republican party. coming up. >>> so has it all been an act? a primary persona? look for donald trump to adopt a more presidential demea

klobuchar: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i rise today as the cochair of the rare disease congressional caucus in recognition of patients with duchenne, muscular dystrophy and the loved ones who care for them. duchenne is a devastating rare disease that primarily affects boys and young men. there is no cure. it is 100% fatal. there are no approved disease-modifying treatments at this time. but we want to give them hope. in 1999 there were no human clinical trials for duchenne. today there are 22 observational trial underway. life expectancy rates have increased about ten years in just the past decade. and the f.d.a. has more tools in its toolbox than ever to accelerate approval of safe and effective duchenne therapies. but we would like more therapies to be approved in the future. duchenne muscular dystrophy is the most commo

thomas perez, amy klobuchar. not mentioned -- well, amy klobuchar we have heard before. she has a lot of experience. >> like i said, a lot of trial balloons being floated. some names are just people interested in seeing their names popped out. the official vetting process is just getting underway. they're festivitying -- we're hearing that sometimes they're trying to get a sense of, need to have different types of candidates, depends on the swags i find myself in down the road. so i need to have different types of appeal. >> corey booker is not on the list. for a minute, for a hot minute, everybody was like, hillary might pick him. we don't have a clue. >> the calculus is too early. the campaigns are still too raw for us to figure out where the agains are that need to be filled, that a vice-presidential running mate can help. until we see a little bit further down the road how the electoral votes are stacking up, right now the game on the republican side who is brings me the delegate, not necessarily who brings me the votes. >> i turned the page over to see if if might h

coons: i'd like to thank senators klobuchar and blumenthal for joining me in this. i yield the floor. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: no, we are not. mr. mcconnell: i ask that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. 2012. mr. president, i think i'll start gefn. -- again. i ask unanimous consent that at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the democratic leader, the senate proceed to the consideration of s. 2012, and that it be in order to call up the following amendments en bloc: and that the amendments be called up and reported by number. 3276, cantwell striking certain provisions, 3302, klobuchar, modifying a provision, as modified. 3335, flake. 3050, flake. 3237, hatch. 3308, murkowski, 3286, heller. 3075, vitter. 3168, portman. 3229, shaheen, 3155, heinrich, 3270, manchin, 3313, cantwell, 3214, cantwell. 3266, vitter. 3310, sullivan. 3317, heinrich. 3265, vitter. 3012, kane. kaine, 3004, gillibrand, cassidy. 3233, warner. 3239, thune. 3221, udall-portman, 3203, coons, 32

klobuchar: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i'm very pleased to be here with both senators from washington, one of the few states who have two senators that are women, and i.t. great to be here with both of them. i'd also like to thank senator barbara mikulski for leading the effort for the paycheck fairness act. she is the longest-learning woman in congressional -- longest-serving woman in congressional history. she has opened many doors for all of us. when she first wrote her book about women in the senate, it was called "nine and counting." ing with today we are counting even higher as there are 29 women in the senate. bash bra mikulski was the first woman to chair the senate appropriations committee. because of her groundbreaking work in this congress, ten committees have either a chair or ranking member who is a woman. today president obama formally dedicated a new national monument to honor women's suffrage and equal rights. i am a cosponsor of the bill. the beaumont national monument is named after alice paul

. >> amy klobuchar, your book, "the senator next door" is a personal book, isn't it in >> it is. i wanted to show someone with a normal background who went from being a car hop at the a and w where they made her wear a t-shirt saying take home a jug of fun could end up as the u.s. senator. the second reason is i have good stories of getting things done in washington and walking across the aisle and the reason for the name is i wanted to make the point we are supposed to go to washington to represent our neighbors. you don't always like all of your neighbors but you find a way to get along with them. that is part of the story of the bock as well. >> how do you stay in touch? is it possible to get out of the senate bubble? >> i think so. i visit all 87 counties every year. i have been to some counties ten times. i visit businesses, classrooms, go to cafes, and you really get a sense of that. minnesota has one of the highest voter turnout rates. people show up and believe even if they are in a different party they believe you are supposed to represent them and get things done and th

and i want to praise senator klobuchar who is my coauthor of this amendment. and she was very, very effective in her comments, both in the committee and at the presser yesterday. and sullenberger, the hero of the hudson said this in this other article. "this rule was written the way it was not for scientific reasons but for economic ones by those who are more concerned about an additional burden that they considered an additional cost. it's time to right this wrong. it's time to fix this rule." those of us who have been around a long time remember the ford pinto. that car exploded when there was a crash. i think a lot of us remember it. and when discovery was done by the attorneys for the victims, they found out the cold and calculating way the corps viewed these -- the corporation viewed these accidents and losses of life. oh, they said, we can stand x number of accidents a year. no problem because we have insurance and it won't affect us. but, gee, it will cost us x number of dollars to fix the problem. what could be more callous? what could be more cold? it

julio castro, former governor deval patrick of massachusetts and senators amy klobuchar, bill nelson and bill booker. clinton was mum when asked about this topic on the campaign trail yesterday. >> has your campaign started to consider who to pick for vp? >> i'm just working hard to win on tuesday. >> at the very least it seems to signal that clinton is ready to move past the primaries, while her opponent, bernie sanders, insists that the fight is far from over. joining me now is democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders, joining me from the great state of rhode island. senator, thanks so much for joining us. >> great to be with you, jake. >> senator, according to the "new york times," hillary clinton started compiling a list of 15 to 20 potential vp picks that she wants to start vetting in late spring. broadly, regardless of which of the two of you ultimately wins the democratic nomination, should the other one be first on the vp list? >> look i'm focusing right now on dealing with why the middle class of this country continues to disappear. why would the only country on eart

other names, julian castro, elizabeth warren, amy klobuchar, cory booker, and then there was bill nelson, which i may have made, and it seemed to have been thrown in there, you're the flor riddian -- >> for florida. >> hillary clinton loves the idea that bush and obama have had running mates who basically were not going to pursue the presidency while being vice president. >> i think ross perot said when he was running for president, in his corporate life, he didn't hire anyone who did wan't want job. that's the antithesis of that. but don't real out secretary castro either. he's an extremely caharismatic person. and tim kaine speaks perfect spanish, reaches out to the community, the hispanic community through tellemundo regularly. these are people who may be hidden, have hidden weapons. >> i'm hoping it's brown because i can do a shaerrod brown. deval patrick was intriguing to me. >> the identity politics reek -- >> you don't think we'll see it on your side? >> the debate on the republican side isn't who they would pick. it's who would do it. we're in a totally different place, being hon

klobuchar: madam president, i rise to discuss this public health emergency. i'm honored to be here with senator murray and mikulski and heitkamp and hirono as we look at this serious crisis facing our nation, and that is the zika virus. the world health organization has declared that zika is spreading explosively and will affect nearly all countries in north and south america. the virus has already infected nearly 400 americans who have traveled abroad from 40 states, including my home state of minnesota. over 500 people in puerto rico have the disease. nearly all of them contracted the virus locally. these numbers will only continue to grow as the warmer months bring more mosquitoes that transmit this disease. in fact, researchers calculate that 60% of the people in our country live in an area that will likely be affected. zika is a rapidly evolving mosquito-borne virus. most infected patients develop mild flu like symptoms that last for a week. however, the virus has devastated consequences for growing families. researchers have confirmed what many feared w

earlier in response, along with our committee members, senator nelson's ayot, cantwell, johnson and klobuchar introduced the airport security enforcement and oversight act to help counter some of the aviation insider threats by improving the vetting, credentialing and nmgss of airport workers. do you think it's important to update and expand the criminal background checks and random inspections of airport workers that have access to the secure areas of an airport? >> mr. chairman, thanks for that question. as you know that's been a big concern over the time that i've been here, and as i came in, it was on the heels of the incident in atlanta and some other concerns. and as you noted in your opening statement we have hey some of the same concerns with respect to the attacks overseas. so i'm very pleased and happy that congress has given us the support that they have, so i think you're right to focus on that. the additional access -- this committee in particular was very supportive of our access to additional tide categories that made a huge difference in terms of current vetting. i'd like to s

mentioned earlier in response along with our committee members senator nelson, cantwell, johnson, and klobuchar have introduced the act to help counter some of the aviation insider threats by improving the vetting, credentialing, and inspections of airport workers. do you think it's important to update and expand the criminal background checks and random inspections of airport workers that have access to secure areas of an airport? >> mr. chairman, thanks for that question. as you know, that's been a big concern over the time that i've been here. and as i came in. it was on the heels of the incident in atlanta and some other concerns. and as you noted in your opening statement, we've had some of those same concerns with respect to the attacks overseas. so i'm very pleased and happy that congress has given us the support that they have. i think you're right to focus on that. the additional access -- this committee in particular was very supportive of our access to additional categories. that's made a huge difference in terms of recurrent vetting. i'd like to see us fully implement the f.b.i. pro

klobuchar: mr. president, i rise today to speak in support of the bill that's on the floor, the federal aviation administration reauthorization act. i thank senator thune and senator mels for their leadership. i serve on the commerce committee. i'm proud of this bill, and our state has a long history of aviation. it was a childhood home of charles lindbergh. we are home to the minneapolis-st. paul international airport, the 13th busiest airport in the u.s. we're home to ciris design corporation and duluth that makes planes and is a very successful company as well as many people whose jobs and wages and life depend on the aviation industry, not to mention the 148th fighter wing, a national guard base, as well as one in the twin cities and the one in duluth. i'm here to focus on one issue, and i see my colleague from arizona is here so i'm going to focus one issue, and that is aviation security. 9/11 was our wake-up call in this country that our transportation system is a target and the attacks in bru

. >> senator portman and then senator klobuchar. >> i don't disagree with the comments made here. we not only have the drug monitoring programs, which were incentivized. and how the states will respond to this legislation, it does not mandate the states to do this, it just provides incentives. every state will be a little different. some states have done cutting edge work and should be the laboratories of democracy. but we are hoping with this prescription monitoring, across state lines. we may have a great program, in southern ohio, west virginia or kentucky. you don't know if someone has a prescription filled in ohio without having infrastructure. that is something the federal government can exclusively do. we have legislation on that. second, the jug takeback -- the drug takeback program. taking those drugs off the shelves. the final things is, having talked to hundreds of people who are recovering, who have been addicts because of prescription drugs, i understand that very well, including the athlete i talked about earlier. there are a lot of talked to that went straight to he

so a couple of weeks ago i signed a letter that was written by senators wicker and senator klobuchar, a bipartisan letter. it called on the f.d.a. to take full advantage of this accelerated approval authority. so we also asked the f.d.a. to ensure that the perspective of patients is fully considered in this review process when it comes down to the regulations. more than 20 u.s. senators signed this letter because we know how important this issue is to patients as well as to their families. last friday "the wall street journal" ran an he had toerld called the -- ran an editorial called the f.d.a. versus austin leclaire. he is 17, has due multiple sclerosis. so does his younger brother max. this runs in family and sometimes when the diagnosis of a son in the family that there is a younger son who has not yet been diagnosed but likely will have the disease, well, back in 2011 max was able to get an experimental drug to treat his disease. austin was not eligible to get the same drug. austin is the older brother. so today max is 14 and he's still able to walk. he can still play sports, sti

and senators amy klobuchar, bill nelson, and cory booker.what bernie sanders thinks about that talk. >> if she is the nominee, i would hope she puts together the strongest progressive agenda, and if she has a candidate for vice president who is prepared to carry that mantel, prepared to engage in that fight. i think that would be a very good thing for her campaign. >> so let's talk about some of the possibilities with alexandra smith, president of the college republican national committee. and capri cafarro, democratic state senator in ohio and former ohio senate minority leader. welcome to both of you. >> thank you. >> capri, you're on the democratic side. who would you like to see as hillary clinton's running mate? >> well, you know, i think i'm a little bit biassed for some of the folks that are on the list. certainly u.s. senator sherrod brown is someone that i think could assuage the bernie sanders people who are looking for someone to balance out a more progressive ticket. he obviously also brings to the table, theoretically, the elect

klobuchar: madam president, i rise to discuss this public health emergency. i'm honored to be here with senator murray and mikulski and heitkamp and hirono as we look at this serious crisis facing our nation, and that is the zika virus. the world health organization has declared that zika is spreading explosively and will affect nearly all countries in north and south america. the virus has already infected nearly 400 americans who have traveled abroad from 40 states, including my home state of minnesota. over 500 people in puerto rico have the disease. nearly all of them contracted the virus locally. these numbers will only continue to grow as the warmer months bring more mosquitoes that transmit this disease. in fact, researchers calculate that 60% of the people in our country live in an area that will likely be affected. zika is a rapidly evolving mosquito-borne virus. most infected patients develop mild flu like symptoms that last for a week. however, the virus has devastated consequences for growing families. researchers have confirmed what many feared w

klobuchar: mr. president, i rise today to speak in support of the defend trades secrets act, which is before us today. i want to thank senators hatch and coons for their important work on this bill, and chairman grassley and rank member leahy for their leadership as well. mr. president, stolen trade secrets cost american companies and, thus, their works billions of dollars each year and threaten our ability to innovate and compete globally. this bill will help protect vital intellectual property, and i'm pleased to be a cosponsor. trade secrets are the lifeblood of so many businesses in america. stealing ideas can wipe out years of research by employees and development and cost millions of dollars in losses because of competitors, those that steal the secrets, reap the benefits of innovation without putting in any of the work. although measuring the total cost of trade secret theft is difficult, one study using multiple approaches estimates the yearly cost at 1% to 3% of u.s. gross domestic product.

cantwell amendment number 3276, klobuchar amendment number 3302 as modified, flake amendment number 3055, flake amendment number 3050, hatch amendment number 3237, murkowski amendment number 3308, heller amendment number 3286 as modified, vitter amendment number 3075, portman amendment number 3168, shaheen amendment number 3292 as modified, heinrich amendment number 3155, manchin amendment number 3270, cantwell amendment number 3313 as modified, cantwell amendment number 3214, vitter amendment number 3266, sullivan amendment number 3310, heinrich amendment number 3317, vitter amendment number 3265 as modified, kaine amendment number 3012, alexander amendment number 3290, gillibrand amendment 3004, warner amendment number 3233 as modified, thune amendment number 3239, udall amendment number 3231, coons amendment number 3203, portman amendment number 3309 as modified, flake amendment number 3229, and inhofe amendment number 3251. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the amendments by number. the clerk: the senator from alaska ms. murkowski proposes en bloc amendments number 3276, 3

klobuchar: mr. president, i rise today in support of judge garland's -- the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i ask to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i rise today to talk about the opening on the supreme court, and today i'm going to focus my remarks on how important fillin the current vacancy on the supreme court is for our system of governance. when our founding fathers drafted the constitution, they envisioned a system of governance upheld by three branches of government. "the federalist papers," mr. president, outlined this balance of power in detail. in "federalist paper" number 51, james madison speaks about the importance of checks and balances among three branches of government. as madison states, "it is evident that the members of each department should be as little dependent as possible on those of the others." i don't think we always refer to ourselves as members of a departme

klobuchar: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i come to the senate floor today to speak of the loss of one of minnesota's own, and that's prince. like all minnesotans, we were shocked today. we were saddened. i grew up with prince's music starting with "little red corvette" when it was the 1970's. we won't forget "purple rain" in ph*fpb. we were so proud of that movie and everyone would point to every spot they knew. he was a super star composer, amazing performer and a music innovator with a fierce belief in the independence of his art. he lived his art. he believed his words were his own, his name was his own and he wasn't going to let anyone own him. there was absolutely nobody like him, and there never will be. prince sold more than 100 million records worldwide. he released 39 studio albums. he had five number-one billboard hits and 40 in the top 100. he won seven grammies, an oscar and a gol

,000 of the8,000 of them said wt the boxer-klobuchar amendment. i can't get a vote. that's why i voted "no" with three other colleagues, this was our reason. how do we do a bill like this and not address the number-one safety issue facing us? i don't really get it. now, if you don't believe me -- and fair enough, because i'm not a pilot, i admit it -- i just trust pilots. what's your choice? you walk on a plane. the pilot's in charge of the aircraft. you know that pilot wants to land safely. you know that pilot wants to go home to his or her family. you know that pilot has your best interests at heart. and sometimes i'm in a rush and i get in a plane and the pilot says, you know what? we're not going to take off right now because i noticed there's something wrong in one of the monitors here. it could be nothing but i put safety first. everyone on that plane says oh, no, we're going to be late. they get out their cell phones, they call their loved ones. but we know the pilots know what they're talking about. we trust them. i trust them so much i wrote with senator --

to thank the amendment's cosponsors, senator manchin, senator chiewrm, nelson -- schumer, nelson, klobuchar, baldwin, durbin, bennet and blumenthal. and i would urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting the passage of this amendment. and i would yield the floor. note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: mr. president, i would ask consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. casey: thank you, mr. president. i would also ask consent -- i guess we're on the bill -- i would ask consent to speak as i- i'll speak on the bill and ask consent to do that. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator is recognized. mr. casey: thanks very much. i'm pleased to be joined by my colleague from pennsylvania, senator toomey, to talk about an issue we began to discuss here on the floor yesterday but we've been working many, many months on this issue. it's a rather simple issue but it is a matter that has some re

president, i'm trying to get a vote on an amendment that senator klobuchar and i have introduced and to explain it, i'm going to show you this. these are two airplanes. they're exactly the same size. they're flying across the same skies. they're flying over the same homes. but there is a difference, a difference that i'm trying to fix here. this is a passenger plane, and due to an f.a.a. regulation that senator snowe and i were able to get in place through a vote here in this chamber several years ago, the pilots in the passenger plane can only fly up to nine hours a day. after that, they have to rest because fatigue -- pilot fatigue is a very dangerous situation facing not only our pilots but their crews and everyone that's in their vicinity. now, what happened when senator snowe and i wrote our legislation, we assumed that the regulation that would be forthcoming from the f.a.a. would cover both passenger planes and cargo planes. because, again, these planes share the same skies, go over the same airspace, go over the same homes. it is a pretty simple, straightforward point. and fa

i am pleased that senators blumenthal and klobuchar have cosponsored my amendment. i offered this amendment in the commerce committee and it received a vote of 12-12. it's time to break this tie on the senate floor. further, my amendment enjoys broad support from several groups, including the national consumers league, the consumer federation of america and travelers united. mr. chairman, i intend to offer my cybersecurity amendments as well, markey 3468, 3469 and 3470. in december, i sent letters to 12 domestic airlines and two airplane manufacturers requesting information on the cybersecurity protections on their aircrafts and computer systems. what i found was startling. currently, airlines are not required to report attempted or successful cyber attacks to the government. let me say that again. airlines are not required to report attempted or successful cyber attacks on that airline to the federal government. according to the national air carrier association which represents a -- aledge ypsilanti, spirit and sun country, some of the country's smaller airlines, s