i am co-sponsoring this amendment offered by senators tom udall and michael bennett. the time has come for us to do something to save this democracy and president clinton process that supports it. secondly, let me say at the outset that there is hardly a politician elected official alive who has not changed his or her position on an issue. that happens. i can recall when abraham lincoln was criticized for changing his position on an issue and he said, i'd rather be right some of the time than wrong all the time. so we're all at least can be charged with having done that in the past and maybe be guilty of the charge. but it is breathtaking the change that has taken place with the republican party in the united states senate on this issue. in 1987, the republican senate leader who just testified, senator mcconnell, introduced a constitutional amendment, a constitutional amendment very similar to the one before us today. and this is what he said on the floor of the senate in introducing it, about his amendment. "this would give congress the opportunity to eliminate the m

. >> you're going to have to convince democrats like harry reid, michael bennett who runs the dsec, to invest in your candidacy. they played your candidacy when they recruited you as the insurance policy if chris mcdaniel was the nominee. how do you convince them to invest in you against senator cochran? >> chuck, mississippi has more democratic elected officials than almost any other state that you can name probably in the south. i have a long history of winning. i won or led the ticket four elections in 2008, won the -- i won a full term in 2008, i won five times in 2008 in what could arguably be called the most conservative district in the state of mississippi. so mississippi is not only a red state. a lot of democrats, a lot of people, a lot of independents, some republicans absolutely feel like they're not even represented any more. again, i'm a uniter, not a divider. >> and how do you differentiate yourself from national democrats? do you have to differentiate yourself from president obama? are you concerned that that would be a negative for you in trying to win over those key sw

south carolina so the four republicans on our side of the table chuck schumer bob menendez and michael bennettf colorado. we went at it for months and we wrote the bill. we brought the bill to the floor and be covered virtually every aspect of our broken immigration system. start to finish. not easy but we covered it all. the bill passed here that 68 votes. we had 14 republicans joined democrats passing the bill. it was supported by the chamber of commerce. it was supported by the labor unions. the faith community. grover norquist one of the most conservative republicans in our country supported it publicly and said it was a good idea and we passed it. we sent to the house of representatives. one year ago. what has happened to comprehensive immigration reform since we sent it to one year ago in the house of representatives? nothing. nothing. they refused to call the bill for consideration. and so when members come to the floor and talk about how broken our immigration system is i agree and many of us tried to fifix it and we did it the wayta bipartisan fashion give-and-take, compromise. we are

senator kasey of pennsylvania, jon tester, michael bennett, joe donnelly of indiana, and mazy horono of hawaii. that anniversary tomorrow, we'll have live coverage from the president, and french president we expect 4:30 a.m. eastern. the 70th anniversary of d-day, over on c-span. and, of course, online at c-span.org. we're waiting for the senators to arrive for their news conference on college costs. we'll also let you know that later on this afternoon we'll bring you live coverage on a senate hearing looking at the first responder wildfire training. that will be coming up at 2:30 eastern. >>> there's $1.2 trillion in outstanding student loan debt in the united states. senate leaders momentarily will be talking about a proposal to legislation to allow borrowers to refinance their old loans. it should get under way shortly. live coverage here on c-span3 as senators finish up their legislative work on the floor of the senate. a vote coming up in an hour and 45 minutes or so, and that would be on the nomination of burwell to be the head of health and human services. the house has been o