merkley: thank you very much, mr. president. i'm -- i am thrilled that we are here at this moment debating benefits for our veterans. our veterans have stood up for america, fighting for us overseas. when they come home, weentsdz to be -- we need to be standing up for them. over time, we've come to recognize that there are a number of shortfalls in the way we address our benefits for veterans that need to be improved, and that's what this bill is all about. and so yesterday we had a motion to close debate on whether to debate this bill, and that was successful. so here we are at this moment. and let's recognize that america mass been at war for more -- has been outalitybeen at war for mo2 years. more than 50,000 americans have been wounded in combat. 2.5 million americans have at some point left their homes and families to serve our country in iraq and in afghanistan. and many of these men and women have served more than one deployment. 400,000 have served more than three deployments. they have gone back to the theater of war re

beginning of leadership with a populous voice like elizabeth warren like sherrod brown like jeff merkley like tammy baldwin and others who are prepared to name names who are prepared to talk about the rules that got rigged and how they got reagan who read them and so there's a national platform for them. and people can use them and work with them to start building greater education across the country and we desperately need like the populists did which was teachers who went across the country to talk to farmers about how they were getting screwed by the banks we've got to go through that process one of the things one of the things that the populists did in a big wave. back during the populist err i mean in the late nineteenth century early twentieth century was they amended the constitution as of states and they in and they allowed citizens and the whole ballot. nation of thing was a huge wave swept across this country in the eighty's to the one nine hundred twenty s. and mostly western states picked it up because they were you know many of them were just. more you know more malleable th

important i'm going to ask members to keep this down to where we are and we pass over to senator merkley. the department of transportation is very nervous about this with highway trust fund and it also results in a direct impact of jobs within the state and we anticipate that we have a challenge and would lose about 5000 jobs if we don't succeed in 2015. and i am very aware that america spends only 2% of its gdp on infrastructure. in this includes going through a bullet train in that time. the aging infrastructure that we have is comparable and we have to do more and let's get it done in the infrastructure will fuel our future economy. >> thank you for your support and comment. >> thank you, madam chair. and thank you ranking member better and this is breaking out all over and this continues today with the reauthorization and we need to do better because the nation deserves better as senator merkley said. we need pass the reauthorization last longer than two years an earlier this committee helps this with matt 21 and the certainty of a long-term reauthorization and that being said we sho

we need to do better because the nation deserves better as senator merkley said. we need to pass a reauthorization that last longer than two years. earlier this congress is committee held -- held a hearing on the limitation of the provision of map-21. most of these provisions have yet to be enacted. the state department of transportation needs the certainty of a long-term reauthorization to plan and maintain spending. that said we still proceed with caution. we need to continue to let the states be the laboratories for the best practices. more than 30 states are considering or have considered increasing revenues for transportation infrastructure. over a dozen of these states have committed and passed these increases into law. we should allow and encourage these experiments to continue and let the states be the proving ground for some of the more radical or innovative proposals that have been brought forward. what may work in one state may not work for all states. we need to examine the root causes of our current situation. over the last two decades the buying powe

woman named omart and she's got a shot and you've got a woman in oregon named webby running against merkley. in new hampshire you have robert smith, bob smith the old senator, or scott brown the massachusetts senator. >> smith can't win. brown could win. smith can't win. there is so much complaining going on about the shrinking networks of doctors and hospitals and a lot of heat -- you probably saw this in the newspapers, is any of that stuff going to get changed? the great example with senator tom coburn whose own oncologist was not included. is that going to change? >> it's not going to change and here is why. in a quasi market-based system where you have a choice among different plans, the premiums are going to be lower for those who have a lower network of doctors. the problem with obamacare is not that the narrow of the networks for doctors are narrower. it's that you're paying a higher premium and having a narrower choice and a higher deductible. one thing about the politics, here's the thing, the democrats are going around saying it's a good thing that the labor force is shrinking. t

we will turn to senator merkley. >> thank you, madam chair. this is a very important project that we pursue renewal of map-21. i know oregon's department of transportation is very nervous about the impending shortfall in the highway trust fund. if our states have delayed projects, that result result inh higher costs, and it also results in a direct impact on jobs within the state. we anticipate that we would have a challenge where we would lose about 5000 jobs in oregon if we don't succeed in this effort during 2015. so i am very aware that america is spending only 2% of its gdp on infrastructure. europe is spending 5%, china is spending 10%. the experience of going to beijing 10 years apart and saw beijing go from bicycles to bullet train in that time period. our 2% can't even repair the aging infrastructure we have from world war ii. we have to do more. let's get it done. it's terrific to have the chair and ranking member working together to help take this project forward. is extra important to our economy and to the infrastructure that will

rhode island, gillibrand, whitehouse, schatz, boxer, casey, carper, warren, murray, begich, brown, merkley, king, schumer, nelson, coons. mr. reid: i have a motion to commit s. 1845 with instructions. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, moves to commit the bill to the committee on finance with instructions to report back being amendment number 2716. mr. reid: on this, mr. president, i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. mr. reid: i have an amendment to the instructions at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid, proposes an amendment number 2717 to the instructions of the motion to commit. mr. reid: i ask for the yeas and nays, mr. president. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. reid: i have a second-degree amendment at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. reid proposes amendment nu

members to keep their remarks to about four minutes for opening remarks and we will turn to senator merkley. >> thank you. this is a very important project that we pursue the renewal of map-21. i know the oregon department of transportation is very nervous about becoming sure fund in the highway trust fund. if our states have to delay projects, that results in much higher costs. it also results in a direct impact on jobs in the state. we anticipate we would have -- we would lose about 5000 jobs if we do not succeed in this effort during 2015. aware that america is spending only 2% of its gdp on infrastructure. europe is spinning 5% and china is spending 10%. the experience of going to beijing 10 years apart saw beijing go from bicycles to a bullet train. we cannot even repair the aging infrastructure we have from world war ii. we have to get it done. it is terrific after the chair and ranking member working together to take this project forward. it is extremely important to our economy and the infrastructure that will fuel our future economy. >> thank you for your support and comments. sena

senators murray, blumenthal, durbin, merkley, walsh, shaheen. and casey. i suspect i have left out some. i want to thank my staff at the veterans' committee: steve robertson, dahlia mennend r*e z, elizabeth austin, carlos fuentes, jacob bean, shannon laffra and raphael anderson, for their help on this effort. i want to thank the 28 cosponsors of this important legislation. i won't read their names. they know who they are, and i thank them very, very much. mr. president, as i have indicated earlier, this legislation is not bernie sanders' legislation. this is legislation that by and large comes from the hearts and souls of the veterans of this country. as chairman of the committee, i thought it was my obligation to listen to what the veterans of america, the veterans of our country were saying about their problems and their needs and how we might go forward. and that's what i and others on the committee did. we listened. and that is the reason why this legislation is being supported by virtually every veterans organization in the united states of america re

, senator blumenthal, senator boxer, senator casey, senator gillibrand, senator heinrich, senator merkley, senator murray, senator reed, senator shaheen, senator whitehouse, senator rockefeller, senator tester, and senator can' cantwell. i thank all of them for their strong support. mr. president, let me take a few minutes to touch on -- just touch on -- some of the areas that this bill -- this comprehensive bill covers. and as i return to the floor in the coming days, i will go into greater length about each of these provisions, because each of these provisions, unto themselves, is enormously important in terms of the needs of of our veterans. as i mentioned earlier, and consistent with what's on the bill right now, the pryor bill, the bipartisan budget act of 20 -- the bill -- our comprehensive veterans bill will restore the cuts made in the bipartisan budget act of 2013 to military retirees. so in our bill, we address that issue. this comprehensive veterans legislation deals with another issue -- not necessarily a sexy issue -- buissue, but one that a large number of veterans all over