merkley: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to a period of morning business with snored permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule 2, at 12:00 noon tuesday, november 8, 2011, the senate proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 405 under the previous order. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 465, the nomination be confirmed with no intervening action or debate, that no further motionses be in order to the nomination, that any statements related to the nomination be printed in the record, that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action and the senate then resume legislative session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: i ask unanimous consent that the senate now proceed to the consideration of senate resolution 312

merkley: mr. president, i ask further reading of the amendment be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: mr. president, i introduced this amendment with several original cosponsors, senator mike lee, senator rand paul, tom udall and senator sherrod brown and by like to thank them for joining in this effort to address our military presence in afghanistan. and the fact that our military forces have done such an excellent job of completing the original missions of destroying al qaeda training camps and bringing to justice those responsible for 9/11. but over this past decade, our mission has changed to one of nation building, a mission that is obstructed by vast corruption, by extraordinary traditional cultural resistance to a strong central government, and by very high illiteracy rate. these factors should have us rethinking how to have the most effective use of our military forces, our intelligence assets, in taking on the war on terror. and that we should be engaging in cou

merkley: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be set aside and that i call up en bloc 1239, 1256, 1257, and 1258. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from oregon, mr. merkley, proposes en bloc amendments 1239, 1256, 1257, and 1258. mr. merkley: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that further reading of the amendments be set aside. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: thank you. and i call for the regular order. the presiding officer: the amendment's now pending. mr. merkley: mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call mr. levin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. levin: i would ask further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. levin: mr. president, in a short while i hope that we will have and expect that we will have some amendments th

merkley: the senator is correct. the amendment is designed to encourage to increase the pace of the reduction of u.s. forces and the transfer of responsibility to afghanistan's forces. mr. levin: if there is someone else who wants to speak, i yield. the presiding officer: the question is on the amendment as modified. if there is no further debate, all those in favor say aye. all opposed say nay. the ayes appear to have it and the ayes do have it. the amendment as modified is agreed to. mr. levin: i move to reconsider, lay on the

merkley. >> thank you, mr. chair, and thank you to all of you for bringing your expertise here to the capitol. i'll follow up on the computerized adaptive testing. oregon was an early adopter of this, and folks can't imagine any other way of doing it. if schools out there are still using paper tests, and the results come back months later, that is crazy. if you're trying to have teachers be able to utilize the results in order to understand how their students are progressing. and the cost of the technology has come down so much that i certainly would encourage folks to explore it. i wanted to note a different -- another issue, which is we're replacing the current requirements for adequate yearly progress for college and career ready standards. and the goal of developing statewide accountability systems in order to receive federal funding by 2014 and 2015. states vary in terms of the progress that they have made, and will be making to develop this new accountability system based on college and career ready. and

merkley: thank you. i rise today to address our nation's job crisis and to share some thoughts about why it's important that we proceed to debate on the rebuild america jobs act. it may come as a surprise to some across the nation that at this point this chamber is not debating the rebuild america jobs act but that we're debating whether to debate it. only in the senate could we be engaged in that type of question when across america millions of folks want to see us act, want to see us create jobs. it was only a few weeks ago we had a similar debate, and that debate was over the america jobs act, a broad portfolio of measures to put our economy back on track and create jobs for americans. and to get the closure on whether to debate, we had to get a supermajority under the rules of the senate. and my colleagues across the aisle opposed that, and we could not get to the debate of the bill on how to create jobs. now we have before us a smaller segment of that bill, one that focuses on the construction indus

great politicians who do tell the truth people like bernie sanders jan schakowsky sherrod brown jeff merkley does percentage and god willing elizabeth warren we need to do everything we can to support them that's it for your take my take it like your comments and questions heard on this segment of the big picture listen up we want to know your to send us your comments by visiting the tom hartman facebook page but twittering that tom underscore apartment or in the champ room on the message boards or the blog thom hartmann does it also leave a message on a rant line at two to five three six fifty three zero six agree disagree sound on it's all welcome to remember that your comments may be used on the air. that very first thanksgiving was made possible thanks to the native americans and while it might have been out of an out of the ordinary feast and community gathering for the pilgrims it was just another potlatch for native americans that's because the idea of coming together the idea of community and sharing is a staple of native american culture in fact it's a staple of most older cultures

but they recognize senator merkley for his questions. >> thank you, mr. chairman. it in a statement, but i do have questions about appropriate. i wanted to start to get anyone's opinion on congressman defazio's proposal on high frequency trading, which goes back to kind of thinking a little bit about the flash crash. i believe what he had in his most recent proposal is a three basis points see that discourages, if you will, the multitudinous high-speed trains for having very little impact on great other investors. and he put about that? >> mr. cook. >> thank you a senator. i am not familiar with the details of that, but i think the proposal or versions of it have been raised several times anything fair number of interesting issues that it raises. obviously there are concerns about the extent to which the traffic that is generated by high-frequency traders is that it's so interfering with the effective functioning of the markets and to some extent, some type of fee whether it is a message the, order cancellation fee, various versions this might take. that might be h

merkley: i ask that the quorum call be sended. -- be ended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: i am pleased to rise to support adoption of the consumer price index for social security that would accurately reflect the costs that our senior citizens actually face. i am delighted to join senator brown of ohio, who is presiding in this effort along with senator mikulski of maryland. social security is a promise, a bond between our government and our senior citizens. our senior citizens have worked hard their whole life and paid into social security every step of the way. they expect that social security will be there for them when they retire. over the past few years, i've heard from many oregon seniors who are making ends meet on a fixed income, and they tell me, why is it that we're not getting a cost-of-living adjustment, a cola, because our costs are rising? they've been deeply disturbed to know that with these fixed incomes and these rising costs, that they're being squeezed in the middle. and i explained to them in these

amendment tom you all michael bennett tom harkin it durbin chuck schumer sheldon whitehouse and jeff merkley all saw what happened. in last year's elections as the result of citizens united they saw how the amount of secret outside spending skyrocketed from just sixty sixty eight million dollars in the two thousand and six midterms to over three hundred four million in the two thousand and ten midterms that's a four hundred percent increase in corporate cash influencing elections and buying politicians just ten months after the citizens united decision and as you'd expect when corporations get to hand pick their members of congress republicans win big but with occupy wall street at their back now these senators are saying enough is enough and this constitutional amendment will give power back to congress and to the states to set their own election laws so that they can keep corporations and extreme wealth in check in the political process that means they can start by passing laws like this all wisconsin law that was on the books through most of the nineteenth century and is basically what wa

senator merkley. >> thank you very much, mr. chair, and thank you, mr. elmendorf. i appreciate the work here to analyze strategies for increasing economic growth and unemployment. i was looking through to see if there was any specific analysis of addressing energy-saving retrofits. i don't believe that it is there. i have a memory of a previous cbo product which looked at various strategies for creating jobs. and my name is that energy-saving retrofits was at the top of the list, and if i recall by the analysis of what like this. there isn't a long time lag that you have for major infrastructure, that the construction industry is flat on its back and ready to be put back to work, that the labor cannot be outsourced so the dollars that occur here in the united states, that virtually all the materials that are necessary for energy-saving retrofits are manufactured in the u.s. so there's extraordinarily low leakage. i thought all this was analysis that was behind cbo's analysis of this, this piece of the puzzle. i didn't see that in here. maybe i'm misremembering that

merkley. >> thank you, mr. chair, and thank you to all of you for bringing your expertise here to the capitol. i'll follow up on the computerized adaptive testing. oregon was an early adopter of this, and folks can't imagine any other way of doing it. if schools out there are still using paper tests, and the results come back months later, that is crazy. if you're trying to have teachers be able to utilize the results in order to understand how their students are progressing. and the cost of the technology has come down so much that i certainly would encourage folks to explore it. i wanted to note a different -- another issue, which is we're replacing the current requirements for adequate yearly progress for college and career ready standards. and the goal of developing statewide accountability systems in order to receive federal funding by 2014 and 2015. states vary in terms of the progress that they have made, and will be making to develop this new accountability system based on college and career ready. and

merkley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: mr. president, i rise in support of senator paul's amendment to revoke the war authority. we have heard on this floor that the consequences of revoking authority are vague and uncertain. indeed, my team has been seeking a reply from the department of defense for quite some time now as to whether there were any conditions that we should be alerted to where this would create a problem, and here at the last minute, we appear to have a memo, a memo that has not come to my office, that says there are possible complications. well, let's be clear. the executive branch never wants to hand back authority it has been granted. it always wants to retain the maximum flexibility. with you as my colleague has pointed out, this is an issue of constitutional authority. we had a constitutional discussion about authorizing action in iraq and certainly contrary to my opinion this body supported that action. but now the president is bringing this war to an end. and doesn't it make sense then that we end the a

. >> senator merkley. >> thank you very much, mr. chair. i wanted to turn to mf global, which if i understand, mf global was for dealers was regulated by the cftc i believe is on the future decide that the issue of client accounts is the question that their accounts in a proprietary trading or hedge fund style operation and violation of the sanctity of this individual accounts. it is very confusing to the public, certainly to s., but recognizing to sec to do things wrong on the broker-dealer siders are broker-dealers i deeply impacted if you will by which the future decide -- how is the cftc coordinate this type of conflict firm? >> senator, as you noted, the firm wasn't duly registered as both a broker-dealer and futures commission merchant. but that means is those agencies and the self-regulatory organizations under them have oversight over the firm. in some respects, our oversight about certain activities with focus on securities and the cftc under the future is that dvds. we both have rules of wealth that would apply to the end of fable

i know senator paul and senator merkley are waiting, and i would be prepared to yield the floor at thispoint. if this matter comes up

begich and franken and reed of rhode island most significantly, my senior senator, and sanders and merkleyfor their cosponsorship of this bill. in the past, similar legislation has garnered bipartisan support. it did so as an amendment to dodd-frank, indeed, and i hope my republican colleagues will consider giving this bill a close look and joining with us. this is purely an issue of restoring the balance of power to the states and to the people of those states as voters federalism, something i know many republicans support in other contexts. so i ask all of my colleagues for their consideration and support, and i thank the chair and yield the floor. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. warner: madam president, i ask that the proceedings under the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. warner: madam president, i rise today in opposition to s.j. res. number 6. this is the resolution that has been put forward that woul

i've joined senator durbin, whitehouse, levin, merkley and gillibrand and we proposed to do this with the emergency unemployment compensation extension act of 2011. we still have people coming back from afghanistan. we still have people who are holding on to a job but very well might lose it and need these benefits. and if we do not pass this legislation, then beginning next january there's a real possibility that they could not be able to get these benefits which are so essential. we have to work together. i think it's a very good example of the work that senator enzi and senator alexander and senator durbin and myself and others have done with respect to this legislation on sales tax. but we have to work across the aisles, particularly for our american and -- american veterans, but also for american workers through throughout this country. again today we have a component of the america jobs act before us. this bill is focused on veterans but the jobs act overall should be passed. we have argued for it endlessly. because it will put americans to work. it is fully paid for. and it wil

a second as consolidation of programs and this comes to merkley after the report earlier this year that we shall be able to agree on and this would save at least $100 billion just eliminating unnecessary duplicative of overlapping programs. everyone on the panel should be able to agree on that this ought to be a starting point and i hope that will be included. up next is selling federal assets and i would draw a critical distinction between government revenue that make the government smaller and government revenues that we get bigger. a tax increase is just give the government more money to spend and they take money from people, but to the extent that we are short of the historical average of the revenue right now because the economy hasn't recovered there may be a role for some revenue but the need to be revenue that make the government smaller. selling federal assets is the way to do that including the disposition of the remaining t.a.r.p. assets there is no reason to remain on the balance sheet of the united states treasury. the t.a.r.p. assets alone, privatization, selling those off

. >> senator merkley, i think the -- i think your question is a really important one. and i think there is a risk -- there's many good elements in the bill. i have some reservations, significant ones, about the incentives that i mentioned before and on teacher evaluation and around the press for accountability and transparency. and i think there's a risk without more steps being taken that you won't in this bill drive the crucial transparency needed to look at performance across the whole system. and in the effort to provide flexibility i think your question got at this risk that we may not actually give the public the transparency at how well the states and schools are doing at educating kids at all levels and i think flexibility is good but i think there's some important improvements that need to be in this area or otherwise what you suggested may become a real downfall of this law but i hope it can be addressed in this legislative process. >> senator -- >> senator grier? >> yes, i want to come back real quickly about the issue of comparability. this is really a seri

president, i ask unanimous consent that an intern from senator merkley's office, jeff whitmore, be granted floor privileges for the balance of the day. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i have come to the floor this afternoon to discuss the vow to hire heroes act, which is an amendment to help put our nation's veterans back to work, that we will be voting on tomorrow on the eve of veterans day. the real meaning of veterans day is to remind ourselves to take care of service-connected veterans and their families. that's what this amendment does. now we all realize, of course, that this chamber has had its share of disagreements and discord lately, and it's no secret that we are sharply divided on any number of economic and political issues that are facing average americans right now. but this is one issue that we should never be divided on. i've served on the senate veterans' affairs committee for over 16 years, and i can tell that you veterans have never been a partisan issue. we have all made a promise to those who signed up to

but they recognize senator merkley for his questions. >> thank you, mr. chairman. it in a statement, but i do have questions about appropriate. i wanted to start to get anyone's opinion on congressman defazio's proposal on high frequency trading, which goes back to kind of thinking a little bit about the flash crash. i believe what he had in his most recent proposal is a three basis points see that discourages, if you will, the multitudinous high-speed trains for having very little impact on great other investors. and he put about that? >> mr. cook. >> thank you a senator. i am not familiar with the details of that, but i think the proposal or versions of it have been raised several times anything fair number of interesting issues that it raises. obviously there are concerns about the extent to which the traffic that is generated by high-frequency traders is that it's so interfering with the effective functioning of the markets and to some extent, some type of fee whether it is a message the, order cancellation fee, various versions this might take. that might be h

merkley. >> thank you, mr. chair, and thank you to all of you for bringing your expertise here to the capitol. i'll follow up on the computerized adaptive testing. oregon was an early adopter of this, and folks can't imagine any other way of doing it. if schools out there are still using paper tests, and the results come back months later, that is crazy. if you're trying to have teachers be able to utilize the results in order to understand how their students are progressing. and the cost of the technology has come down so much that i certainly would encourage folks to explore it. i wanted to note a different -- another issue, which is we're replacing the current requirements for adequate yearly progress for college and career ready standards. and the goal of developing statewide accountability systems in order to receive federal funding by 2014 and 2015. states vary in terms of the progress that they have made, and will be making to develop this new accountability system based on college and career ready. and