mr. barrasso. the senator from missouri, mr. blunt. the senator from mississippi mr. economicer. the senator from tennessee, mr. corker. the senator from illinois, mr. durbin. the senator from washington, miss murray. the senator from maryland, mr. cardin. and the senator from hawaii -- the senator from hawaii, ms. hirono. the speaker: members of the escort committee will leave through the lobby doors. >> mr. speaker the acting dean of the diplomatic corps. >> mr. speaker, the president's cabinet. >> mr. speaker the prime minister of japan. the speaker: members of congress i have the high privilege and the distinct honor of presenting to you his excellency shinzo abe prime minister of japan. prime minister abe: mr. speaker, mr. vice president distinguished members of the senate and the house, distinct guests, ladies and gentlemen, back in june, 1957 my grandfather standing right here as prime minister of japan began his address by saying and i quote it is because of our strong belief in democratic principles and ideas that japan associates herself with a free nation of the world.

mr. barrasso: thank you mr. president.mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: thank you mr. president. i have ten unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have been -- they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders and i ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: thank you mr. president. mr. president, i come to the floor today because i noticed that the minority leader, the senator from nevada, had some nice things to say about me on monday in his remarks. he said that i was -- quote -- " relentless in my condemnation of obamacare." those are his words. well i appreciate the minority leader's kind remarks because he's right. as a doctor, i am relentless in my condemnation of the president's health care law a law that has done incredible harm to so many pe

mr. barrasso: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you mr. president. mr. president, tomorrow is april 15. april 15 is a date that causes a great deal of stress and anxiety for hardworking american taxpayers. for millions of american families this year is going to be worse than ever before. the obama health care law obamacare, is making tax day harder for men's. american taxpayers who have force--who were forced into the health care system, they're having to fill out even more forms this year than in the past, so many forms that the internal revenue service can then enforce all the president's health care mandates. it is a complicated and a burdensome process. now, president obama promised that buying health insurance he said through obamacare was going to be as easy as buying a television on amazon. well why didn't the president ever say that it was going to be so difficult to satisfy the i.r.s.? why didn't the president say that hardworking american taxpayers would have to fill out pages and pages of forms just to fin

mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, last thursday marked the 100th day of the new republican-led senate. while it's still very early there is still much to be done, but we can report that there has been bipartisan progress in a number of important areas. so i'm optimistic. i'm optimistic that the momentum that we have seen over the last several months is going to translate into further successes on behalf of americans. specifically mr. president to take out the "usa today" from last thursday, the first 100 days of republican congress, the headline "lawmakers try to prove it's possible to be productive." so people are noticing the fact that we are keeping our campaign promises because during the last campaign season, we told people all across the country that if you just gave us the opportunity to govern, that we'd do it in a bipartisan way. in november the american people did send an unmistakable message to washington. voters across the country said they were tired of gridlock and tired of a lack of action. t

mr. barrasso: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer:. mr. arrasso: thank you. i come to speak about the iran nuclear review act. i think it is an important debate very consequential. a nuclear iran is a global threat to everyone everywhere. the world deserves our best effort at stopping iran's illicit nuclear program. this doesn't mean we need to yield to iran on important points just to invade promises that they will give up their dreams of a nuclear weapon. i realize that. president obama says that he understands it would be better to have no deal than to have a bad deal, and i agree with the president. this legislation is about making sure that any agreement the administration reaches with iran is truly a good deal. president obama made it clear that he didn't want this bill. he fought tooth and nail to make sure this legislation would not succeed. he even threatened to veto it. the president wanted members of his administration to do all the negotiating in private and he wanted to decide for himself what's best. mr. president, that's not

mr. chairman that i would like to call up the barrasso amendment to the manager's amendment. this restores the language from the underlying base built and the terrorism certification. a simple straightforward it reestablishes the requirement the president certify iran is not currently supported are carried out an act of terrorism against the united states or united states person anywhere in the world. this was in the original piece of legislation. it is a bill that had significant bipartisan support bipartisan cosponsorship. iran has been designated by the united states as a state sponsor of terrorism since 1984. think it's critical for the president to make the certification to congress and the american people. we are serious about our national security and i think it's important the committee clearly state that we will not tolerate terrorism against our nation. >> thank you. if i could just respond first of all i want to thank the senator for the way he has conducted himself and certainly raising this issue. i would like for the audience in the world to know this was a requ

mr. secretary, thank you for your work on the iran negotiations. thank you, madam chair. >> thank you, senator king. secretary, i understand in response to questions from both senator gardner and senator barrasso where they probed a little bit on the issue of oil export. you said for purposes of this qer, you didn't go into that. and i understand -- i understand why. we're talking about infrastructure. but i also understand that this is one of those connects or nexus where if you -- if you have policy decisions that are made with infrastructure today as it is in place you're probably not going to be prepared for tomorrow and recognizing when we're talking about the issue of oil exports and what that might do for increased production domestically, bringing on new sources of supply which will then require additional infrastructure, that there is a connection there. i understand why you would defer on a question like this but i do think that as we are talking about an energy infrastructure and policies for the country going forward, we need to be looking at the united states it is our partners to the south and north, and it's that north american security and integration. and you spoke a little bi

mr. barrasso: thank you mr. president. i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: thank you mr. president. last week i spoke on the floor about a new report by the bipartisan policy center. this report talked about the great progress that we've made so far in this congress as far as getting things done in a bipartisan way. well, i believe that's good news. republicans in the senate are committed to continuing our progress and to holding more votes on areas of bipartisan agreement. so i want to speak today mr. president, about something that senators on both sides of the aisle agree that we can do to protect america's navigable waters. rivers, lakes and other waterways are among america's most treasured resources. in my home state of wyoming we have some of the most beautiful rivers in the world the snake river,if wind river, dozens of others. the people of wyoming are devoted to keeping these waterways safe and pristine for our children and grandchildre

mr. barrasso: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent that the senate be in a period of morning business with senators prime ministeredprime-- permitted tospeak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. reed: mr. president i rise today along with my colleague, senator whitehouse, to congratulate the province college men's ice hockey team on winning the 2015 ncaa division i national championship. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. the senator is recognized. mr. reed: thank you, mr. president. let me once again indicate that i stand with great pleasure and pride along with senator whitehouse to congratulate the province college men's hockey team on winning the 2015 ncaa division i national championship. i am pleased to work with my colleague, senator whitehouse, in passing a legislation last week to honor this great accomplishment. this is the first national championship in the history of p.c.'s men's hock