i mentioned the affordable care act, lily led better, the first bill sign -- lily ledbetter, the first bill signed by president obama, to reverse discrimination in the workplace. don't ask, don't tell, the last bill passed by a democratic majority, ending discrimination. for women in the workplace and men and women in the military. earned income -- one thing i want to mention and this is pay-go. because again this is something i saw firsthand. george miller put together the initiative for pay as you go. so that we were not increasing the deficit as we made investments for our future. it was 1982. we were at a mid-term convention of the democrats in philadelphia. george miller had the resolution to pass pay-go. very fiscally sound. and responsible. it passed. the resolution passed. it was so revolutionary that they never had a mid-term convention again because it was really there not to make speeches but to make change. but in any event he made that change. it didn't become effective, really, until several years later when president clinton became president of the united states. and we

he fought paid discrimination with the lilly ledbetter pay act. he has worked to keep college accessible for all and has conserved the california landscape through his efforts to preserve san francisco bay. the centralss valley project improvement act of 1992 which increased water allocations for san francisco bay in the sacramento-san joaquin -- and the sacramento-san joaquin basin. he has protected endangered species and seven runs. on runs. he was intent on extending health care to all and thanks to his leadership, nearly 11 million people insured under the care act. it is not often that members achieve such lofty goals for this massive work has a twitter law for the history books -- but his work has led to a law for the history books. i hope that we can all learn from their examples. novak. yield back. >> i know yield two minutes. -- i now yield two minutes. you for giving me time and, mr. speaker, it is with such great pride mixed with a heavy heart that are pending are pending loss is together this evening to honor giants of the house of rep

would look me in the eye no more than they would look you in the eye and say you -- thanks to the ledbetter, it's against the law for them to do it. >> i don't agree with it. when the government gets involved in this, here's what happens. when you're forcing people to do things that aren't good for their business, remember, 1931, the davis baker act, that was invented solely to keep americans from going in and having federal contracts, because they wanted to keep those for the whites. black businesses were shut out. black businesses were able to compete and save the taxpayer money and give the government a better deal because they forced a prevailing wage. when you force a minimum wage, you're going to kill jobs and you're going to eliminate someone's ability to create those jobs. >> the solution to this, to hearing some of these, democrats say then you got to lift the minimum wage, then the war on women will cease to be a war on women, but what's the level at which you cease it? >> we shouldn't even have a minimum wage. at this point the market should determine what the wage is. i can't im

he authored the last increase n the federal minimum wage, he passed the lilly ledbetter fair pay act so that we could address pay discrimination. imagine what that means to every woman, every family in this country. because of this legislation. he's led efforts to reform our nation's education system, as a school nurse this hits home with me. made colonel more affordable, to protect -- college more affordable, to protect our environment and our coastal communities from increased oil drilling. and that's an issue that you empowered me to focus on when i came here as a new member of congress. it must be noted that thanks to each of these members, to the work that you did on the affordable care act, so incredibly important each of you were to this major landmark passage. families now can have the peace of mind knowing that they're not going to go bankrupt, just because they get sick. and while we're going to deeply miss you here in this place next year, as we gather to vote tomorrow, if you look around this chamber during that vote you can see each of the people you have mentored during

to gathers together in ledbetter buying initiatives there are some of fundamental constraints there.end with that competition is that we have but there is the number of initiatives taken in. in into made that is the only thing that dod looks that. >> anybody else? >> there are a vendor of transitions in excess of the live in the sector as data share income more job security, the general point is how to have of identifiers if you move from one system to another your records move with you and they know who you are. fin if we can to think of a national health system than maybe we can make some progress and it may be with a system that moves people in and out of their different status. >> concern was expressed about the higher cost sharing in the restricting of medical benefit with the of relatively low paid members of the military but health benefits are a big part of the of compensation of the sergeant not so much of a colonel. so if you are raising a cost of health care are you disadvantaging fellow the state? period there is a lot of ways you could have the income related premium it

he authored the last increase n the federal minimum wage, he passed the lilly ledbetter fair pay act so that we could address pay discrimination. imagine what that means to every woman, every family in this country. because of this legislation. he's led efforts to reform our nation's education system, as a school nurse this hits home with me. made colonel more affordable, to protect -- college more affordable, to protect our environment and our coastal communities from increased oil drilling. and that's an issue that you empowered me to focus on when i came here as a new member of congress. it must be noted that thanks to each of these members, to the work that you did on the affordable care act, so incredibly important each of you were to this major landmark passage. families now can have the peace of mind knowing that they're not going to go bankrupt, just because they get sick. and while we're going to deeply miss you here in this place next year, as we gather to vote tomorrow, if you look around this chamber during that vote you can see each of the people you have mentored during

-- the republicans have been very clear that they don't think especially in the wake of the lily ledbetter any more legislation is necessary to ensure that women get equal pay or can enforce their rights to equal pay. >> i want to talk about minimum wage for a second. minimum wage is certainly a women's issue. two-thirds of workers who make the minimum wage or less are women. 14 states in d.c. raised their minimum wage in 2014, the states in yellow, by ballot measure, and those in green through the state legislature. any chance we will see a wage raise at the federal level? >> well, you have to think last time we did raise the federal minimum wage was under president bush. so there is a chance republicans have at least in some part, supported minimum wage increases before and you can look at that math and see there are republican-leaning states and certainly states that republicans would like to keep in the presidential election that are already passing it on their own. southern states are -- >> do you think the minimum wage debate is framed in the public discourse as a women's rights issu

the very first piece of legislation she cosponsored was the lilly ledbetter act. having worked as a corporate executive, she is aware of the difficulties working women faced. this ladies and gentlemen was personal to kay and she issue threw it through till completion. the daughter of a veteran, kay has spent her time in the senate creating sound passage for members of the armed services. she has done it not only as a united states senator but on that important committee, armed services. as a former executive with north carolina national bank, she knows all the challenges facing businesses in her state and how women have a little different view of how difficult it is to work your way through the corporate world. she's fought tirelessly to create a better climate for small business, to create jobs and grow. in any given sense at any given time kay hagan has advocated her position and done it well and refused to give up until meaningful solutions were discovered. madam president, while i'm sure senator hagan will take some well-deserved time off to think about her fu